Press Release – March 16, 2006
VOCEL AND RANDOM HOUSE TEAM UP TO OFFER 50-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING CHILDREN’S BOOK FRANCHISE ON MOBILE PHONES
Interactive “Thomas & Friends™” Downloadable Story is Captivating Entertainment That Also Helps Kids Learn to Read
Available Through Sprint Right Now
With nearly 55 million books in print in North America alone, “Thomas & Friends” is one of the biggest-selling and most enduringly popular children’s book franchises in the world today. Last year, Random House Children’s Books shipped more than 7 million ”Thomas & Friends” books in response to consumer and bookseller demand.
The Thomas & Friends stories available via mobile phone are just as compelling as the books. Set on the Island of Sodor, children enter a world of imagination and adventure that will lead to lessons that last a lifetime. As the storyteller reads the exciting adventure, each spoken word is highlighted to encourage reading and positively reinforce the learning process for children. Sprint customers are able to easily subscribe and customize this new application at the touch of a button. Users can easily choose whether to turn the corresponding soundtrack on or off. Pricing for downloading Thomas & Friends is $3.99.
“Working with Random House and HIT Entertainment to offer a beloved story from Thomas & Friends, is another example of how we are utilizing high-end interactive applications to transform the mobile phone into an enjoyable learning tool, even for children,” said Carl Washburn, VOCEL’s CEO and founder. “We’re very excited about this new option for parents to conveniently entertain and educate kids while the family is on a trip, out shopping, waiting in a doctor’s office or at the airport providing even more value and utility for a device that just about everyone has at their fingertips while out and about.”
"The Thomas & Friends mobile phone application brings together our book content, our interest in education, and our innovative spirit to offer exciting new products in a rapidly advancing world where highly mobile devices offer rich digital media experiences, said Richard Sarnoff, President of Corporate Development for Random House Inc. The Thomas & Friends series has always been a big hit with kids and now that they are becoming more technology-savvy at earlier ages we’re delighted to help children learn to read and to give parents an educational alternative in entertaining their children any time and any where the need arises through this content-rich, interactive platform.”
VOCEL’s patent-pending, interactive messaging technology has brought a new evolution in mobile phone capability. Thanks to VOCEL, the way people receive information from and interact with their mobile phones is changing forever. The company is already developing premium applications for a core group of recognized brand names, including The Princeton Review, Living Language, Prima Games, Oxford University Press, Harlequin Enterprises and The Pill Book to name a few.
About Thomas & Friends™
Created by a father for his son, Thomas & Friends invites children to enter a world of imagination through the tracks of a train and the words of a story. Today, families in more than 100 countries enjoy fun and adventure with their engine friends while experiencing timeless life lessons including discovery, friendship and cooperation. Thomas & Friends is making tracks to great destinations weekly on PBS KIDS® and PBS KIDS Sprout. For more information about the world of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, please visit www.thomasandfriends.com.
About HIT Entertainment
HIT Entertainment, owned by private equity investment group Apax Partners, is one of the world's leading independent children's entertainment producers and rights-owners. HIT's portfolio includes internationally renowned children's properties, such as Bob the Builder™, Barney™, Thomas & Friends™ and Angelina Ballerina™. Launched in 1989, HIT’s lines of business span television and video production (including studios in the US and the UK), publishing, consumer products licensing and live events. With a catalog of more than 1,000 hours of young children's programming, HIT sells its shows to over 200 territories globally and has operations in the UK, US, Japan and Canada. In 2005, the Company joined Comcast Corporation, PBS and Sesame Workshop to launch PBS KIDS Sprout, a 24-hour digital cable channel and VOD service for preschoolers. For more information, visit www.hitentertainment.com.
About Random House Children’s Books
Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books to novels and narrative nonfiction, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books offer publishing programs that bring together world-famous franchise characters, multimillion-copy series, and top-flight award-winning authors and illustrators. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company.
About VOCEL
VOCEL is a groundbreaking publisher of premium-branded applications for mobile phones and other wireless devices that bring exciting new capabilities into user’s lives. VOCEL's patent-pending push technology sends enhanced, full-color interactive messages to mobile phones for both consumer and enterprise applications. Whether you are preparing for a college entrance exam, learning a new language, interested in serialized book content or keeping track of your health, your mobile phone can now be your best asset. Ever forget to study? Just let your phone send you practice questions throughout the day!
VOCEL's premium-branded content partners include The Princeton Review, Living Language, Random House Children’s Books, Harlequin Fiction Romance, The Pill Book, Verizon, Prima Games, and the United States Postal Service. VOCEL technology integrates voice, data, and messaging to improve the quality of your life!
For additional information, please visit VOCEL at www.VOCEL.com.
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