ITV Signs Up Children’s Programmes Sponsors

ITV has secured sponsorship deals for two of the Network’s children’s programmes – Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Mopatop’s Shop. Dorling Kindersley, publisher of children’s books, will be associated with Mopatop’s Shop, CITV’s biggest pre-school commission to date.

The new series of Mopatop’s Shop runs from Monday to Friday and is the first daily children’s programme to be sponsored on ITV. The programme is a co-production between Carlton Television and the Jim Henson Company and is touted to be as successful for ITV as the Teletubbies has been for the BBC.

As well as the television sponsorship, Dorling Kindersley holds the exclusive book licence for the series, which begins broadcast on Monday 6 September. The deal was negotiated by Andy Thompson at Carlton on behalf of ITV and James Middlehurst, chief executive at Dorling Kindersley.

ITV has also struck a deal with Barbie for sponsorship of the pre-teen programme, Sabrina The Teenage Witch. The sponsorship was negotiated by Martin Lowde, commercial controller at Granada Media on behalf of the ITV Sponsorship Group. Sabrina is one of CITV’s top-rated programmes, with audiences of 1.2 million kids aged 4 to 15.

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