Moonbug Entertainment is partnering with Sanrio on a major ‘CoComelon‘-‘Hello Kitty‘ collaboration launching next year, Kevin Mayer announced Wednesday at the APOS “Future of Storytelling” session.
“We are doing a big ‘CoComelon’ collaboration with Sanrio’s ‘Hello Kitty,’ starting next year,” revealed Mayer, founder and co-CEO of Candle Media, Moonbug’s parent company. “I think this will be a very, very joyous moment for kids and teens around the world, who both love ‘CoComelon’ and love ‘Hello Kitty.’”
The multi-year deal will encompass co-branded content and consumer products initiatives. A new crossover series will bring together “Hello Kitty,” “Cinnamoroll” and other Sanrio favorites with “CoComelon’s “JJ” and friends, with a 2026 debut planned. Moonbug will handle worldwide distribution for the series.
The announcement came as Mayer shared another striking statistic: Moonbug’s music streams across all platforms last year surpassed Taylor Swift‘s total. “Last year across Moonbug, we had more music listens, more music streams across all platforms, than Taylor Swift did,” he said. “So kids are listening, and their parents are listening to our music.”
The impressive figures underscore the reach of Moonbug’s crown jewel, “CoComelon,” which has grown from 60 million YouTube subscribers when Candle acquired it five years ago to 200 million today. In January alone, “CoComelon” and Moonbug’s other properties generated 10 billion views.
Speaking with moderator Vivek Couto, executive director and co-founder, Media Partners Asia, which organizes APOS, Mayer detailed how “CoComelon’s recent migration from Netflix to Disney+ reflects his multi-platform strategy rather than broader industry shifts. The property, originally developed by a South Korean couple in Los Angeles, started as YouTube content before expanding to traditional streaming.
“We always thought social media storytelling should be a central part of storytelling, and YouTube is the most fertile area to get professionally produced IP in the social sphere,” Mayer said.
Since launching on Netflix in 2021, “CoComelon” has been the platform’s number one show globally in aggregate. The original Netflix deployment simply repackaged YouTube seasons into hour-long episodes. Now, the franchise has expanded into games, consumer products licensing, and that chart-topping music business.
Mayer, who spent 25 years at Disney before co-founding Candle Media with backing from Blackstone, sees the move to Disney+ as a natural fit. “Disney is a natural home for kids and family product,” he said. “We want to take our properties and strategically deploy them across all the different streaming platforms.”
The executive addressed Hollywood’s anxiety over short-form content and shifting viewing habits, particularly among younger demographics. While older audiences spend about 75% of their media time watching traditional film and TV, Gen Z flips that equation, with only 25-30% consumed on traditional platforms and the rest on social media, short-form programming and games.
“There has been a very substantial shift in preferences, especially in younger audiences,” Mayer noted. “It’s a monotonic decrease in terms of usage of traditional media across demographics.”
But Mayer isn’t writing off long-form content. Beyond the “Hello Kitty” collaboration, Moonbug is developing a “CoComelon” movie with Universal set for 2027, which he calls “the apex of the ‘CoComelon’ story.”
On AI’s role in storytelling, Mayer positioned it as another tool in the creative toolkit, comparing it to CGI or video game engines. “It doesn’t replace human creativity. It’s a tool to help tell better stories,” he said. “I think audiences will see better storytelling, better graphics, and done more efficiently because of AI.”
Looking ahead, Mayer said, “We don’t create just shows. We’ve created big, long-lasting franchises that have a multi-platform capability that can serve audiences across many touch points.”
