Online retailer Amazon and toy company Mattel's HIT Entertainment have partnered together to bring HIT Entertainment's popular children's cartoon Fireman Sam exclusively to the online retailer.
Amazon will show episodes of Fireman Sam via streaming and will also have them available for download in Amazon Instant Video, Prime Instant Video, and FreeTime Unlimited. Amazon will also show related merchandise, including toys, ebooks, games, apparel, footwear, lunch boxes and more.
"Fast-growing Internet services like Netflix Inc. (NFLX), online movie purchases and DVD rentals from Redbox kiosks lifted U.S. home-video spending in the third quarter, countering the continued drop in DVD sales.
Total sales rose 0.2 percent to $3.94 billion, the industry-backed Digital Entertainment Group said today in an e- mailed statement. Revenue from subscription streaming more than doubled while online purchases of movies and TV shows rose almost 38 percent, the group said."
Branded entertainment has been around a long time, but recently it's been shifting from novelty to more substantial, quality fare.
They don't mention Spike Jonze's film for Absolut, but it's pretty dope as well.