Bluey looks forward to continued Italian licensing success
Maurizio Distefano Licensing, Italian agent for the BBC Studios’ property Bluey, the much-loved Emmy® and BAFTA Award-winning animated series that was 2024’s No. 1 series on streaming[1], has announced a busy start to 2025 for the popular animated hit as the Bluey licensing programme continues to grow and production gets under way on the first-ever Bluey feature film for cinemas.
Recent and imminent launches from Italian partners include a range of colourful kids’ bicycles from Dino Bikes that launched in December 2024, while the coming year will see a range of Bluey apparel from Benetton arriving at retail in the autumn/winter period and coin-operated kids’ rides from Dedem. The continuing partnership with confectionery and chocolate giant Dolfin for seasonal treats will bring Bluey Easter eggs to retail in both 2025 and 2026.
And that’s not all. Ongoing licensing deals range from beach toys (Adriatic), puzzles and educational games (Lisciani) and arts and crafts (PonPon) to costume characters for themed events at Leolandia Theme Park and in shopping malls, and playgrounds (Soluna) and balloons (Grabo). These are just part of a campaign that now also includes home textiles, stamps, sticker albums, dress-up and much, much more – with further announcements expected throughout 2025. These best in class Italian partners add to the stellar list of global partners including Moose Toys, the LEGO Group, Zara, H&M and Crocs.
In Italy, Bluey launched on Rai YoYo in December 2021 and on the Italian YouTube channel in January 2022. The series is also available on DeAJunior since May 2024 and on Disney+. In 2024, the Italian YouTube channel garnered 118 million views, with a 140% increase compared to 2023.
