Chorion PLC 05 January 2006 Noddy motors into Germany Landmark achievement as Chorion's children's brand now sold to every major broadcast market worldwide LONDON. Thursday, 5 January 2006 - Chorion, the leading owner of classic literary-based brands and content, is pleased to announce a landmark deal to bring its Noddy pre-school brand to Germany, as well as the extension of contracts with terrestrial broadcasters in France, Scandinavia, Norway and Greece. The agreement with Nickelodeon Germany to acquire the 100-episode computer animated series "Make Way for Noddy", as well as additional programming for broadcast from Spring 2006, represents a significant achievement for Chorion's global brand plans for the character. Germany, Europe's biggest economy and the world's third largest advertising market, is the last of the five major international territories targeted by Chorion for exposure to the Noddy brand. Noddy programming launched in 2005 in the United States and Japan, and ranks among the top-rated pre-school brands in its home markets of the UK and France. Nickelodeon Germany broadcasts to 86 per cent of German households, giving Noddy access to an additional 32 million homes in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. Noddy's creator, children's writer Enid Blyton, already has name recognition in Germany, where several of her series of books for older children, including St Clare's (Hanni und Nanni) and Famous Five (Funf Freunde), remain firm sellers. In a related development, Chorion announced plans to roll out the award-winning Noddy consumer website www.noddy.com to Germany in 2006. The multilingual site, which aims to encourage pre-school learning through fun and interactive games, recently received the award for Website of the Year from the British Interactive Media Association. The competition is regarded as the most prestigious new media contest in Europe. Chorion beat off competition from BBC Worldwide's Radio Times magazine, Channel Four, Abbey and Allied Domecq to win the accolade. Regarding the other European programming deals announced today, Chorion is pleased with the take-up of "Say it With Noddy", the 100 x 2-minute language learning TV series in which the character discovers new words in foreign languages to describe the world around him. "Say It With Noddy" currently airs on PBS in the United States and is set to debut in Europe in 2006, beginning with UK broadcaster Five on January 16th. This new series is complementary to the successful home learning programme, Learn English with Noddy, that is already sold in China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and many other countries. Commenting on today's announcement, Chorion's Chief Executive Nicholas James said: "Selling Noddy into Germany has been a key objective of the company - it consolidates Noddy's presence in Europe and means Noddy will be on air in all five of the largest pre-school markets of the USA, Japan, UK, France and Germany. This development, and the strong take up for the new "Say It With Noddy" language learning TV programmes, represent major steps in our plans to make Noddy a perennial pre-school brand worldwide. " - ends - For further information, contact: Andrew Sholl or Katie Thompson Portland, for Chorion 020 7404 5344 07736 364 656 About Chorion Chorion (LSE: COR) is a leading owner and manager of classic literary-based brands. Its foremost properties include Enid Blyton's Noddy and Famous Five, Roger Hargreaves' Mr. Men and Little Miss series, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret. It has also recently added to the fold certain rights to contemporary children's authors Ian Falconer (Olivia), Eric Carle, Rosemary Wells (Max & Ruby, Timothy Goes to School) and Babette Cole (Dr. Dog, Princess Smartypants). Visit chorion.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange