Netflix Acquires Kids’ Educational Programming Brand StoryBots

Netflix has acquired the intellectual property (IP) behind its Emmy-winning children’s series Ask the StoryBots. It previously co-produced the series with StoryBots creator and owner JibJab Bros. Studios, but with this new deal, it now owns rights to everything concerning the educational StoryBots characters.

Those characters were originally developed by siblings Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab Bros. Studios. JibJab debuted the characters back in 2012 with a website and a dedicated YouTube channel, where they have 611,000 subscribers and still upload short kid-oriented clips and songs about things like the wonders of the solar system, emotions, and dinosaurs.

In 2016, after finding an audience for StoryBots on YouTube, JibJab Bros. signed a deal with Netflix to produce a StoryBots series. Netflix has since offered up two animated seasons of Ask the StoryBots. The series has won five Emmys and brought in high-profile guest stars like Whoopi Goldberg, Wanda Sykes, Snoop Dogg, and Edward Norton.

Netflix’s deal to acquire the StoryBots IP will see the streamer significantly expand

the StoryBots universe, with an eye toward global distribution. (Financial details of the deal have not been made public; a person familiar with the matter told CNBC the price of the acquisition was “immaterial” to Netflix.) Ask the StoryBots is already available in 22 languages across 190 countries, but Netflix and the Spiridellis brothers want the characters to reach even farther.

In addition to creating more international StoryBots material, the brothers will work with Netflix to develop further titles outside of Ask the StoryBots, including branch-off series and short-form specials. To help produce the new material, Netflix is bringing in more creative teams, subject matter experts, and educational consultants.

“Together with Netflix, our goal is to make StoryBots the leading educational entertainment brand for connected kids and families globally,” the Spiridellis brothers said in a statement. “We want kids from Argentina to Zambia growing up laughing and learning with StoryBots that feel native to their culture. We see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring something epically good into the world.”

This is only Netflix’s second acquisition to date. The first was comic book company Millarworld in 2017.