Live Company expands Nickelodeon and zoo-based partnerships

Live Company Group has reached an agreement for the expansion of the territories in which it can produce and exhibit themed tours associated with the Nickelodeon brand, including Nick Jr, as well as an update on its ‘BRICKLIVE Zoo’ programme on Friday.

The AIM-traded firm had announced that it had secured a partnership with Nickelodeon UK to produce themed tours associated with Nickelodeon's properties, including PAW Patrol, Top Wing and Shimmer and Shine throughout the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man on 12 June.

On Friday, it said that following successful tours in the UK, its wholly-owned subsidiary Brick Live International has entered into an addendum to the UK agreement with Nickelodeon UK and Viacom International Media Networks.

Under the terms of the agreement, the parties will expand the territories in which the group can produce and exhibit themed tours associated with the Nickelodeon brand, including Nick Jr, to cover all countries globally, excluding the United States.

The parties also agreed that Nickelodeon UK's rights, obligations and liabilities under the UK agreement would be novated to Viacom International.

Live Company said it would continue to have the rights, through to the end of 2024, to produce and create themed tours associated with certain Nickelodeon and Nick Jr properties, including PAW Patrol, SpongeBob SquarePants and Top Wing among others, in return for a royalty fee based on the revenues of the themed tours.

The group said it would work with existing and new partners to facilitate the rollout of the Nickelodeon-themed ‘BRICKLIVE’ tours internationally.

Viacom International - the parent company of Nickelodeon UK - is a division of Viacom.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our intellectual property programme globally, and we are very excited to be working with Viacom International Media Networks to deliver themed tours of some of their most popular kids television shows,” said Bricklive International deputy chairman Andy Smith.

“Our relationship with the Nickelodeon UK team has gone from strength to strength, and I'm very grateful for their input to enable the group to secure rights to the Nickelodeon brand across additional international markets.

“The initial feedback from our customers of the PAW Patrol BRICKLIVE Tour in Blackburn Town Centre this summer has been overwhelmingly positive, so to take that success and expand on a global platform, is transformational for the group and the BRICKLIVE brand.”

Additionally, Live Company announced that, building on the success of its ‘BRICKLIVE Brickosaurs’ tour at Marwell Zoo earlier in 2019, its wholly-owned subsidiary Bricklive International has entered into a new two-year contract with Marwell Wildlife UK to provide themed tours that would be exhibited between April and September 2020 and 2021 at Marwell Zoo.

The group said it was working with Marwell Zoo to develop the concepts for those future tours.

It said it had also signed contracts for themed tours in 2020 with Knowsley Safari UK and Royal Burgers' Zoo in the Netherlands.

It said the agreement with Viacom International and the continued addition of tours and events for 2020 and beyond provided the company with increased forward visibility, and gave the board further confidence in the current market expectations for 2020, which remained unchanged.

“I'm delighted to report the continued progress that BRICKLIVE has made since our Super Series events, with a strong pipeline of events already scheduled for 2020,” said Live Company Group chairman David Ciclitira.

“I'm very excited with the long term global contract with Viacom for Nickelodeon themed tours and this, along with our BRICKLIVE Exhibitions and the BRICKLIVE Zoo programme, will be the cornerstone of the group going forward.

“We now have a network of global partners, which is a key strength of the BRICKLIVE brand, and we expect this to grow further in 2020 and beyond, illustrating the growth and appeal of the group over the last 24 months.”

At 0924 GMT, shares in Live Company Group were down 6.12% at 39.9p.