Thursday, 28 April 2016                                                                                                     Moscow
Given the tremendous success of the project observed in Italy in 2015, Masha and the Bear tends to increase its strong position in the country during the current year. According to the company’s officials, a number of new episodes of Masha and the Bear cartoon as well as the release of the spin-off project from the core show – Masha’s Tales – are already scheduled to air on Rai Yo-Yo in 2016.
Vladimir Gorbulya, Head of Licensing at Masha and the Bear Ltd. has recently announced: “Our team has started a production of the third season of Masha and the Bear show and intensively working on the 26 new episodes to finish by the middle of 2018”. Moreover, the first 4 episodes of the 3rd season have been already released on the MashaMedvedTVYouTube channel in Russian, showing the significant boost in views due to the improved quality of the cartoon animation, even more catching plots and deeper characters integration into storytelling.
Comparing to 2015 in Italy where 39 episodes of the cartoon were running on Rai Yo-Yo and the remarkable success of Warner Bros. with the alternative content “Masha and the Bear – Amici per sempre” that the company named as its best performed event ever in the country was observed, in January 2016 the 13 new Masha and the Bear episodes were released on the channel to complete the second season. Furthermore, in May Rai Yo-Yo will launch the first spin-off project from Masha and the Bear show – Masha’s Tales – that includes 26 folk stories which Masha interprets in her own hilarious manner, mixing up both storylines and characters, but always coming up with original advice. In addition, the production of the second spin-off project – Masha’s Spooky Stories – is now in process.
To sum up, in 2016 the content with Masha will represent 78 episodes on Rai Yo-Yo and, therefore, be doubled in comparison with 2015. Hence, the media support of the Masha and the Bear franchise will generate high consumers’ demand on and expectations to have the branded products with Masha and the Bear by Christmas season 2016 paving the ground for a very successful 2017, as well.
 
 
For further information please contact:
Maurizio Distefano
The official representative / agent of Masha and the Bear Ltd. in Italy
maurizio@mdistefanolicensing.com
Daria Katiba & Valentina Esayan
katiba@animaccord.com / esayan@animaccord.com