Bob builds US success

Bob the Builder: The next big children's TV export?

Bob the Builder, the animated British children's TV character, has succeeded where many British stars fail - and conquered the States.

Bob's series became the highest-rating new show on its Nick Jr cable television channel, attracting five million viewers a day.

Its success has been won in only two months - and it is now second most popular pre-school show on cable television, attracting 43% of the available audience since it launched in January.

It also helped drive up the half-year profits of its production company, HIT Entertainment, although shares in the company fell to a year's low on Monday.

HIT will be hoping that their main star's Stateside success will last - and that he will become Britain's biggest children's televisual export since the Teletubbies.

A money-spinning merchandise range is about to be launched after reports of American children seeking to obtain spin-offs from holidaying British fans.

Demand

Two Bob The Builder videos will be released in America in May, with a host of merchandise, toys and tie-ins to follow later in the year.

The merchandising campaign is vital to the production company, which earns 70% of its revenue from spin-offs. The remaining 30% comes from deals with television channels.

"There's a lot of pent-up demand for Bob," said Rob Lawes, a HIT director. "And it seems to be following the same sort of trend it had in the UK."

Bob's popularity reached new heights in Britain when he took the coveted Christmas number one spot in the singles chart at the end of last year.

He has helped lift the production company's six-month pre-tax profits by 50% to £3m ($4.4m). A fall in shares by 50p to 330p was put down to a weak market and recent fund-raising.

HIT has also acquired Lyrick Studios and their popular Barney the Dinosaur character.