For Immediate Release
4 June 2018
TORONTO, CANADA: Toronto-based digital-first creator Skyship Entertainment™ has achieved an impressive milestone, gaining ten million subscribers on its flagship YouTube channel, Super Simple Songs®. It’s the first Canadian children’s content channel to hit the 10 million subscriber mark, and one of just a few preschool-focused channels worldwide to have built such a massive audience.
The channel was originally created by teachers looking to share the songs they had created for their students at a small English school in Tokyo, Japan. “We wanted to create songs and videos that were simple enough for young children learning English, but fun enough for older, native-English speaking children as well,” says co-founder Devon Thagard. “That focus on making our videos appealing and accessible to children, parents, and teachers everywhere helped us find an international audience on YouTube.”
As the audience grew, so did the production demands, leading to the founding of a new creative studio, Skyship Entertainment, in Toronto, Canada. Skyship’s team of over forty artists creates in a variety of styles, including 2D and 3D animation, puppetry, stop-motion, and live action. The Super Simple Songs® channel brings a mix of classic nursery rhymes and original kids’ songs to a worldwide audience. The channel reaches over 36 million unique viewers per month and is poised to pass 10 billion lifetime views in the coming weeks.
“YouTube has been instrumental in allowing us to become a truly independent Canadian production facility” says co-owner Morghan Fortier. “What’s most exciting is that we are able to develop our own productions and properties, and we have complete control of how we produce and distribute them.”
As for what’s next for Skyship: “Online video is always evolving, but the one thing that hasn’t changed for us over the years is our audience,” says co-founder Troy McDonald. “They have been incredibly loyal and supportive, and when you have that it makes it much easier to navigate the way forward. So we’ll continue to listen to them and make the content that they want to watch, while experimenting with new formats. With every milestone like this one, we reflect on how far we’ve come, but the reality is, we’re just getting started.”
Skyship Entertainment™ is the creator of the beloved children’s brand, Super Simple™. Their award-winning Super Simple Songs® combines delightful animation and puppetry with original and classic kids’ songs to help make learning simple and fun. With over 10 billion views and 10 million subscribers on YouTube, their songs and videos are favorites with parents, teachers, and kids around the globe.
Contact: Amy Kitchen, Communications Manager, amy.k@skyship.tv
Photo Credit: Skyship Entertainment Company