Peppa laughs all the way to the piggy bank

Peppa Pig has brought home the bacon for her producers after smashing through the $US1 billion sales mark last year.

For CHILL: Peppa Pig stills. Supplied by Rocket Comms.

Peppa Pig has brought home the bacon for her producers after smashing through the $US1 billion ($A1.26bn) sales mark last year.

The remarkable rise of Peppa has proved where there’s muck, there’s brass as the porcine character has gone from strength-to-strength while others, such as the Angry Birds, have faded.

The British cartoon character has been licensed by 600 companies worldwide — including in Australia, where it’s a hit on ABC TV — and has been translated into 40 languages. It’s also the subject of two theme parks.

More than six million pairs of Peppa Pig shoes have been sold, while backpacks, pyjamas and branded Play-Doh have also helped to boost sales. Peppa Pig DVDs have bucked the declining trend in the video market and three million apps have been downloaded.

The character only hit the screens a decade ago and Darren Throop, chief executive of Entertainment One, the company that has turned the show into a global smash, said: “We had no idea it would be as successful as it has been.”

The show is produced by Astley Baker Davies, the animation studio behind Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.

The team, who did not want to work with the BBC after being frustrated by the broadcaster on a previous show, found backing from Nick Jr and UK broadcaster Channel 5’s Milkshake to launch the show in 2004.

Mr Throop expects that Peppa’s purse will double to $US2 billion a year in less than five years, with more theme parks set to pop up around the world.

Almost all of Peppa’s money is made in merchandising, with only 5 per cent of the $US1 billion made from licensing the show for broadcast. Entertainment One, which also distributes films such as The Hunger Games, owns half of the rights to Peppa Pig but controls the worldwide exploitation of the brand.

Pre-school children cannot get enough of the show but industry insiders have argued that the real key to its success is that it does not irritate parents in the way that Barney the Dinosaur and SpongeBob SquarePants have done in the past. TalkTalk, the media company, said last year that Peppa Pig was one of the most popular shows on its television channels as parents would happily leave it running in the background.

Mr Throop said that the show’s family-orientated, “clean wholesome fun” had added to its appeal.

In Australia, Peppa Pig has “several years” to run on ABC TV, the ABC said last year.

Next stop for Peppa is the Chinese market after the company signed a deal with the state broadcaster to show the cartoon in the country. Chinese people consume more pork than anyone else in the world but the launch of Peppa will test whether there is also an appetite for pig-based entertainment.

The Times