Blippi is an American educational

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel aimed at

toddler A toddler is a child approximately 1 to 3 years old, though definitions vary. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from "toddle", which means to walk unsteadily, as children at thi ...

s and young children. The show features a cheerful, energetic character named Blippi, who takes viewers on adventures to places like factories, play parks, and zoos. As he tours these locations, Blippi relays his experiences directly to his

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

, posing questions and explaining unfamiliar concepts. Blippi was acquired by

Moonbug Entertainment Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. is a British children's media company and multi-channel network headquartered in London, with an office in Los Angeles. Founded in 2018 and owned by Candle Media, Moonbug creates and distributes children’s video a ...

in 2020, and became a subsidiary of Candle Media on November 1, 2021.

History

The show was created and the character originally played by

Stevin John Stevin John (born Stephen John Grossman, May 27, 1988), better known by his alias Blippi, is an American children's entertainer on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. The Blippi character that John portrays has a chi ...

, who posted the first episode of the show on

on February 18, 2014, which featured tractors. Aiming to keep Blippi going, John joined the

multi-channel network A multi-channel network (MCN) is an organization that works with video platforms to offer assistance to channel owners in areas such as "product, programming, funding, cross-promotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetizati ...

in 2020, which became a subsidiary of

Candle Media Candle Media is an American Media company based in Los Angeles. The company is financial supported by the investment firm Blackstone Inc. and was co-founded by former Disney executives Kevin A. Mayer and Thomas O. Staggs. Candle Media owns the c ...

on November 1, 2021. The show is dubbed in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, French, Portuguese,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Swedish, Danish, Welsh and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

. Until May 2021, the Blippi character was only portrayed by

. On May 8, Clayton Grimm, who played Blippi in live performances, performed as Blippi for the first time on the channel and hosted as an alternative Blippi with John. On October 9, 2021,

Moonbug Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. is a British children's media company and multi-channel network headquartered in London, with an office in Los Angeles. Founded in 2018 and owned by Candle Media, Moonbug creates and distributes children’s video a ...

announced the addition of a new character named Meekah (played by Kaitlin Becker and Cashae Monya). The spin-off series ''Blippi's Treehouse'' started airing on December 1, 2021, on Amazon Kids+, with two more characters, Scratch and Patch (both are puppets). On November 16, 2024, Ben Mayer started performing as Blippi on the new series ''Blippi's Vroom Vroom Vehicle Show''.

Distribution

On October 13, 2022,

partnered with

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

to bring Blippi and other

programs to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The show expanded to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

in March 2021 when

partnered with POPS Worldwide to bring children's content to the POPS Kids app. Netflix acquired the streaming license to Blippi in January 2022.

Licensing and merchandise

In 2019 Blippi signed a master toy deal with Jazwares LLC to sell a variety of

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

such as toy vehicles, plush and other toys based on the Blippi show, beginning in spring 2020. In early 2020,

Jazwares Jazwares, LLC is an American company headquartered in Plantation, Florida that designs and manufactures toys and other consumer products. As of 2022, the company is owned by investment holding company Berkshire Hathaway. The company is best known ...

created "My Buddy Blippi," a plush toy that can recreate 15 of the character's sounds and phrases. In January 2021, Blippi launched an additional toy line. In addition to toys, books and more, Blippi merchandise also includes clothing.

''Blippi the Musical''

''Blippi the Musical'' is a live show produced by Round Room Live in partnership with

Entertainment, and was scheduled to tour North America in summer 2021. In previous tours of Blippi, there had been some outcry as a result of the performances not being performed by Stevin John but by another actor. Originally scheduled in 2020, live performances were postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

''Blippi Wonders''

''Blippi Wonders'' is an animated children's web series based on

's ''Blippi''. The series is about Blippi, along with either TABBS (an orange cat) or D bo (a blue dog) on a blue car called the Blippi Mobile. The Blippi Mobile can change into many elements, such as adding wings, and can shrink down. The series is produced by London-based

, Italy-based Rainbow CGI and based on a

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

production services provided by IoM Media Ventures.

Reception

Nathan J. Robinson of '' Current Affairs'' criticized Blippi's programming, calling it "dead and sterile" and lacking intellectual curiosity that children can understand.

References

External links

* {{Moonbug Entertainment 2010s American children's television series 2020s American children's television series 2014 American television series debuts 2010s preschool education television series 2020s preschool education television series American preschool education television series Moonbug Entertainment YouTube channels launched in 2014 YouTube original programming Cartoonito original programming American English-language television shows Netflix original programming