Benesse Corporation, the Japanese education services company, and the name behind the enormously successful preschool character and leading educational property Shimajiro, has announced the imminent launch of a major new SVOD service specializing in children’s programs. The new service, called Meecha!, will be launched in Japan at the end of March.
Meecha! will bring together both programme content from Benesse Corporation, which has been providing early childhood education services for more than 30 years, and also carefully selected programs from a number of major preschool content providers from around the world.
The launch line-up includes CBeebies favourites like Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures, Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures and Yakka Dee; popular ABC Australia shows like Bobbie the Bear, Create and How to Do Stuff Good: and, from Serious Lunch Limited, Tik Tak, a show focused on stimulating perceptual development among toddlers and preschoolers produced by VRT/Ketnet in Belgium that also transmits on CBeebies.
The new service — playfully named similarly to the way small children say “Mi cha o” (“I want to watch this”) — will also stream content featuring Benesse Corporation’s popular preschool character Shimajiro, including a brand-new 3D Shimajiro animated series.
Meecha! will launch as part of Benesse Corporation’s early childhood education service Kodomo Challenge that reaches 800,000 members. It can also be accessed publicly as a subscription service for 660 yen ($6) per month.
“This major new service, addressing the on-demand content that even the youngest audiences have grown to expect, is tailored to deliver great educational programming from around the world,” said Daisuke Tebayashi, Director of Global Business Division, Benesse Corporation. “We believe this service will be popular with Japanese children and, thanks to its educational focus, parents too!”
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