'Incredibly affirming' - Irish animation company signs huge deal with Disney

An Irish animation company has just signed a deal with Disney for it's pre-school animation BeddyByes.

JAM Media based in Dublin said the deal was "incredibly affirming" as the popular show, which promotes healthy sleeping habits for young children, will be streaming alongside the hugely popular Bluey and Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends.

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Speaking about the new deal at their headquarters in Dublin, co-creator and producer of BeddyByes, John Rice, said:

"We hope that the deal will mean that the shows are brought into millions of households worldwide". Mr Rice said the idea for the popular show, that is already shown on RTÉJr and UK channel Cbeebies, "came about a few years ago, because I was trying to get my three-year-old son JJ to sleep!" 

Mr Rice along with his co producer Alan Shannon were both parents of young children at the same time, and realised they were having similar challenges trying to get their kids to bed so they "thought that it could be a good idea to work on this for a show."

"Even though we had been making kids show for years, we hadn't focussed on the younger age," he added. "We wanted to create something that would be a programme that would help settle children going to bed, so we brought in science and psychology to help us get it right."

JAM Media, who also have an office in Northern Ireland, employs almost 180 people across three productions and around 110 people worked on BeddyByes.

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Speaking about working with Disney, Mr Rice said,

"The impact is incredibly positive for us, as the show will now be available to 250 million homes worldwide between Disney subscribers and the BBC too.

"Being positioned on the tile next to Pixar means we are at the races. We are hoping that we will be able to build a substantial audience for our first series and get a second one commissioned."

Speaking on receiving the recognition for their show, Mr Rice added that it is "incredible affirming as most of our team are artists, and knowing that so many people will potentially see the show now is wonderful for all of us."