BLAST OFF! NELVANA AND DISCOVERY GREENLIGHT SEASON 3 OF REDKNOT'S AGENT BINKY: PETS OF THE UNIVERSE

Season 2 of the Hit Animated Preschool Series to Launch in Canada on Treehouse this April, with New Episodes Premiering on Discovery Kids in Latin America this Month

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TORONTO, Feb. 3, 2022 /CNW/ - redknot, a joint venture between Nelvana and Discovery, has greenlit a third season of its popular 3D-animated series Agent Binky: Pets Of The Universe (52 x 11 min), with episodes set to begin delivering this fall. The announcement comes ahead of the Season 2 premiere on Corus Entertainment's Treehouse and streaming service STACKTV on April 11 at 9:30 a.m. ET, and the return of new episodes on Discovery Kids in Latin America this February.

"As Agent Binky continues to build a strong fan base around the world, we're so excited to gear up for another action-packed season of P.U.R.S.T. adventures featuring everyone's favourite pet agents," said Pat Burns, Executive Manager, redknot. "The new heroes and expanded universe introduced in Season 2 are the perfect launch pad for strong and compelling character-driven storytelling and hilarious adventures as the P.U.R.S.T. agents face off against the W.U.R.S.T. villains".

"Binky and his friends engage on missions with an abundance of resourcefulness, sense of duty and most of all, love for the humans who care for them," said Adriano Schmid, Senior Director of Production, Discovery Kids Latin America. "We at Discovery Kids are delighted that audiences have connected with these fun spaced-themed adventures taking place not too far away."

"Our team has had a blast distributing Agent Binky, and we are elated to ramp up production on Season 3 with redknot and Discovery," said Mellany Masterson, Head of Nelvana Enterprises. "We're eager to bring fresh stories to our growing global audiences and explore new ways of expanding the P.U.R.S.T. universe beyond the screen."

Season 3 kicks off with a 22-minute special episode that will immerse fans in exciting new edge-of-their-seat adventures as the agents find themselves in the woods.

Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe's first season continues to garner strong ratings, and is currently airing on Treehouse, STACKTV and Netflix in Canada, Discovery Kids in LATAM, TF1/TFOU in France, Tiny Pop in the U.K., Cartoon Network in EMEA, Stan in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand, SRC in French Canada, Hop TV in Israel, Mediacorp  in Singapore, True Corp in Thailand, Mediamax in Kenya, MBC3 in Middle East, TV8 in Lithuania and is distributed by Senyu in China where it streams on Tencent, iQiyi, MangoTV and Youku, among others.

The inaugural season attracted industry recognition for its humour and impressive technology, garnering a Kidscreen Award Nomination for Best New Preschool Series in 2020. The series' all-Canadian cast also received much acclaim, including Paul Braunstein's Canadian Screen Award Nomination for Best Performance in Animation in 2020 for his portrayal of Gordon, and Julie Lemieux's ACTRA Toronto Award nomination in 2020 for Outstanding Performance, Female Voice for her role as Amelia in "Happy PURSTgiving".  

The hit animated series is based on the bestselling Binky Adventure graphic novels, written and illustrated by award-winning creator Ashley Spires, published by Kids Can Press, and distributed internationally in English, (Hachette Book Group), French (Editions Scholastic), Spanish and Catalan (Editorial Juventud S.A), Turkish (Meav Gayrimenkul Yatirim A.S.) and Chinese (Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing Ltd.). Kids Can Press is also currently developing a TV tie-in publishing line to complement the TV series set to launch in Spring 2024.

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About redknot 
redknot Inc. is a new production company crafted to develop, produce and distribute unique children's content with positive messaging and developmental values. Co-created as a joint venture between Discovery Communications LLC and Nelvana Limited, redknot's brand name was derived from the shorebird that travels between South America and Canada. The company's content is distributed globally by Nelvana, with the exception of Latin America which is distributed by Discovery Kids.

About Nelvana
Entertaining kids for over 50 years, Nelvana is a world-leading international producer and distributor of children's animated and live-action content. Nelvana produces a stable of award-winning and globally renowned brands that focus on comedies, preschool and action series, and ancillary consumer products programs. Nelvana's content airs on Corus Entertainment's kids channels in Canada and in over 180 countries around the world. The Nelvana library has over 4,800 episodes of programming and has received over 70 major international program awards including Emmys® and Canadian Screen Awards. Visit the Nelvana website at nelvana.com.

Follow Nelvana Enterprises on Twitter @NelvanaEnt

About Kids Can Press
Kids Can Press, part of the Corus Entertainment family, is the largest Canadian-owned children's publisher and the 2017 recipient of the distinguished Bologna Prize for the Best Children's Publisher, North America. The publisher's catalog includes an award-winning list of over 700 picture books, nonfiction and fiction titles for children and young adults that are translated and sold around the world. Kids Can Press has published books for children for more than 45 years and for over 20 years has seen a number of its properties developed for TV and film, including the Franklin the Turtle, Scaredy Squirrel, and Binky Adventure series and the best-selling picture book The Most Magnificent Thing. Visit Kids Can Press at kidscanpress.com.

About Corus Entertainment Inc. 
Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX: CJR.B) is a leading media and content company that develops and delivers high quality brands and content across platforms for audiences around the world.  Engaging audiences since 1999, the company's portfolio of multimedia offerings encompass 33 specialty television services, 39 radio stations, 15 conventional television stations, a suite of digital and streaming assets, animation software, technology and media services. Corus is an internationally-renowned content creator and distributor through Nelvana, a world class animation studio expert in all formats and Corus Studios, a globally recognized producer of hit scripted and unscripted content. The company also owns innovative full-service social digital agency so.da, lifestyle entertainment company Kin Canada, leading 2D animation software supplier Toon Boom and children's book publishing house, Kids Can Press. Corus' roster of premium brands includes Global Television, W Network, HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, The HISTORY® Channel, Showcase, Adult Swim, National Geographic, Disney Channel Canada, YTV, Global News, Globalnews.ca, Q107, Country 105, and CFOX, along with broadly distributed Canadian streaming platforms STACKTV, Nick+, the Global TV App and Curiouscast. For more information visit www.corusent.com.  

About Discovery Kids
Discovery Kids is the leading pay TV network for preschoolers in Latin America. The channel celebrates the joy of being a real kid, welcoming all kids and celebrating their differences and uniqueness, while encouraging them to have fun exploring their world.

About Discovery, Inc.
Discovery, Inc. (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is a global leader in real life entertainment, serving a passionate audience of superfans around the world with content that inspires, informs and entertains. Discovery delivers over 8,000 hours of original programming each year and has category leadership across deeply loved content genres around the world. Available in over 220 countries and territories and nearly 50 languages, Discovery is a platform innovator, reaching viewers on all screens, including TV Everywhere products such as the GO portfolio of apps; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as discovery+, Food Network Kitchen and MotorTrend OnDemand; digital-first and social content from Group Nine Media; a landmark natural history and factual content partnership with the BBC; and a strategic alliance with PGA TOUR to create the international home of golf. Discovery's portfolio of premium brands includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, as well as the multi-platform JV with Chip and Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Network, in the U.S., Discovery Kids in Latin America, and Eurosport, the leading provider of 3 locally relevant, premium sports and Home of the Olympic Games across Europe. For more information, please visit corporate.discovery.com and follow @DiscoveryIncTV across social platforms.

SOURCE Corus Entertainment Inc.

For media inquiries, please contact: Kelsey MacLeod, Associate Publicist, Corus Entertainment [email protected]; Stacey Grimshaw, Senior Publicity Manager, Corus Entertainment, [email protected]