PBS’s Reading Rainbow was one of the first places I remember that brought books to TV when I was a child. And over time the technology used to share stories with children has advanced to a point where they can be given a digital book that reads itself to them. But the TV is still a major place to get information and education.
Vooks, the world’s first streaming platform bringing storybooks to life through animation, today announced a strategic partnership with Future Today to stream select titles on HappyKids. Vooks is now available in the HappyKids library of more than 55,000 family-friendly movies, TV shows and educational videos available across popular streaming platforms and devices, including Roku, Apple TV, AndroidTV, Amazon Fire TV, Comcast Xfinity, and most recently, as linear channels on both Roku TV and Vizio.
Future Today is one of the largest publishers of trusted family-focused content on streaming platforms. The HappyKids network features the HappyKids channel along with a portfolio of over 150 branded channels, which the company manages through its cloud-based platform for studios, distribution companies and influencers. Through the partnership, Vooks titles, including “Allegro,” “Courageous People Who Changed the World” and “Cinderella,” will be available on the company’s flagship kids and family-themed channel, HappyKids.
“The pandemic has increased children’s screen time by 500%, driving the demand for new content. Over the past few months, the Vooks team has worked tirelessly to expand our library with new animated titles and make quality content accessible to children worldwide,” said Ron Garfield, Chief Operations Officer of Vooks. “Future Today is the leading destination for family-friendly content, making it the ideal partner to share our growing collection and fulfill our mission to promote literacy, imagination and fun through entertainment.”
With the pandemic removing children from schools, 40% of children between ages three to five do not receive the social-emotional and cognitive stimulation at home that the classroom experience provides. Designed to make the most efficient use of the children’s intellectual resources, Vooks has a feature that highlights words as they are read, guiding children to comprehend and retain the narrated words. This feature also improves children’s print knowledge and phonological awareness.
