Riki Group & Youku Kids Ink Co-Pro for Three Seasons of Tina & Tony
Riki Group has teamed up with Youku Kids (a division of global digital commerce company Alibaba Group) to jointly produce three seasons of preschool series Tina & Tony.
Lu Ye, Youki Kids producer comments: “We are very pleased to have achieved a long-term cooperative relationship with the Riki Group and hope that through the joint efforts of both parties, Tina & Tony can become a global brand”.
Alibaba will make long-term investment and operations for Tina & Tony. After ensuring the broadcast effect and making Tina & Tony known to more people in China, business cooperation in the industry will also be fully launched.
Youku is tapping into the growing demand for video streaming services in China and this partnership demonstrates the company’s commitment to bring varied and high-quality content to the growing numbers of Chinese families who are seeking fun and interesting entertainment.
“As a hit on the Youku channel, Tina and Tony has earned its reputation not in one day, and the popularity of our events among children and parents shows their dedication and trust to this project and brand. Youku Kids always strives to provide only high-quality content for Chinese families, the Tina & Tony brand from its inception to development, has consistently embodies the values and social responsibility of Youku Kids,” – says Lu Ye.
The first season of the animated TV series Tina and Tony premiered November 2018 in China on Alibaba’s video-streaming platform, YouKu. After the huge success of the project, a new season was produced jointly to be delivered to Chinese audiences in July 2021. Tina and Tony performed excellently again surpassing all other animated projects on the platform in terms of popularity index. Number of total views to date is more than 2,5 billion.
For the upcoming seasons of Tina and Tony producers have defined the most relevant topics for the target audience. “Our characters promote positive and safe behavior. Learning through play and healthy relationships with adults are two topics of preschoolers interest that we’ve chosen for the next season. RIKI plans to deliver 52 five-minute, 3D/2D animated episodes by July 2023. We are delighted that our series has received such strong recognition from the Chinese audience and happy to see the development of cooperation with Alibaba Group to bring Tina and Tony to China”, – Mark Zavadskiy, CEO of RIKI Group.
