The multi-billion dollar blue dog.

Business and Marketing in the World

Introduction

    There has been a recent show that has taken over the living room of families around the globe. This show is called Bluey and follows a dog and his family and currently airs on Disney Plus. 

From Australian local to Global Smash Hit.

    The show was founded by an Australian father named Joe Brumm who had previous experience as a 2D animator and worked on multiple British children's shows. Once he struck out on his own, he released a 1 minute pilot and posted it to social media. As soon as it was posted, the pilot instantly picked up steam and he was approached by a small Australian company called Ludo Studios to produce a whole episode. Once the episode aired the success was obvious. There was then multiple major companies who started vying for control of things like merchandise rights and airing rights. 

    Brumm ended up taking roughly 6 million dollars from the Australian Broadcast Corporation in exchange for merchandising rights and an unknown amount from Disney who ended up winning the bid to put Bluey on Disney Plus. However, it is important to note that Joe Brumm, after all of the contracted went through, still maintained creative control and full control over the Bluey Brand.  

The Numbers

    After their 6 million dollar purchase for the merchandising rights of Bluey, their latest revenue report tells us that over 800 million dollars of their total revenue, comes from only Bluey merchandise. They have never recorded above 2 billion dollars in revenue and this year they reached 2.7 billion dollars.  Disney has started depending on Bluey even more! Roughly a third of all minutes watched on their platform Disney Plus, was from Bluey. This animated children's show had more minutes watched this past year, in total, than shows like Gray's Anatomy, Suits, and Criminal Minds. Overall, there is a ton of money on the line. 

    Additionally, it is important to note that Joe Brumm just finished the third season of Bluey and seemingly wrote an ending to the show with the last episode of the season. Furthermore, he has supposedly been very outspoken about how he might end the show and how he feels that the series is complete. So with the knowledge that Brumm may end the show, these companies are scrambling to figure out what to do considering that billions of dollars in merchandise, views, and Disney Plus subscriptions are on the line.

Ludo Studios

    Disney has a couple of options to keep the Bluey franchise alive. First off, they can hope that Joe Brumm decides to keep making Bluey episodes and the money train can keep rolling unhindered. However, if he decided to cash out and retire, Disney may make a bid to simply buy out all of the rights to the show like they did with Star Wars and George Lucas. The other option they have is to buy out the small Australian company Ludo Studios who technically has all of the production rights from way at the start. However, if they go around Brumm and only buy out Ludo Studios, there is a legitimate worry that Brumm could trash the show and the bad press from going around the creator would make the buy not worth it. 

Conclusion

    Overall, it will remain to be seen what happens with the animated canine family. However, one thing is for sure, there is an unbelievable amount of money riding on the continuation of this show.