Golden Books and Sony Wonder Announce Alliance on Children's Products

Posted on December 16, 1997

Golden Books Family Entertainment and Sony Wonder, the children's and family division of Sony Music, announced the formation of a long-term strategic alliance to produce, sell, and distribute children's home video and audio products, including "book & tape." Sony Wonder, along with Golden Books, will distribute to all classes of retail, including video and audio accounts, supermarkets, discount and mass market, bookstores, schools and libraries, and through television shopping.

As part of the alliance, Golden and Sony Wonder will co-brand selected new and pre-existing properties. New production to be developed as direct-to-video releases includes such classic Golden Books properties as The Poky Little Puppy and Pat the Bunny, both among the top ten best-selling children's books of all time. Additional properties from Golden's rich literary portfolio will also be produced for video and all of the new productions will be accompanied by related book and merchandising efforts. Other new direct-to-video titles will also be acquired, developed and produced by the companies in a non-exclusive arrangement. Furthermore, audio titles will be acquired and developed jointly by the two companies.

Golden Books' video library includes the industry's most popular holiday titles, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman as well as perennial favorites Madeline and Precious Moments. Sony Wonder's titles include the Sesame Street video and audio line; the Kidsongs television show, video and audio franchise; the Enchanted Tales line of original animated classics; The Beginner's Bible video and audio line; and the new, original-for-video line, Doors of Wonder, which launched earlier this year with the highly successful video adaptation of the best-selling children's book, The Rainbow Fish.