The days of commissioning a six-book deal on instinct alone are as numbered as the days of the guaranteed broadcast slot.

The animation studio that built a global brand on YouTube has lessons for book publishers willing to look beyond the traditional commissioning model.

The Booba Blueprint

Kedoo Entertainment’s animated series Booba – a dialogue-free, slapstick comedy following a curious furry creature – was not green-lit by a broadcaster or streamer. It was uploaded to YouTube. From those modest origins, it has accumulated over 22 billion views, secured deals with Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney+, and ITVX, and spawned a licensing programme managed by IMG that has moved tens of thousands of plush toys via Amazon.

Now in its sixth season, Booba is a case study in what the children’s content industry is increasingly calling “digital-first” – and its implications extend well beyond animation.

The Funding Model Has Shifted

Speaking to WorldScreen, Kedoo COO and co-founder Oli Bernard identified the most significant industry shift of recent years: funding is moving away from large upfront commissioning deals and traditional content licensing.

Instead, studios are monetising through owned digital channels, building recurring revenue streams that fund future production rather than depending on a single broadcast sale.

Kedoo’s own approach – testing 4-6 pilot episodes on YouTube, analysing performance data, and scaling what works – is a direct response to broadcasters becoming ever more selective and risk-averse.

For book publishers, this should sound familiar. The pressure to rely on proven IP, the retreat from speculative commissioning, and the search for alternative revenue streams mirror challenges already reshaping trade and children’s publishing.

The View From The Beach

Digital-first IP that has already demonstrated global audience engagement represents a significantly de-risked publishing opportunity.

A character like Booba – with 19 million YouTube subscribers, cross-cultural appeal built on the absence of dialogue, and an established emotional brand identity around empathy and curiosity – arrives on a publisher’s desk pre-validated.

The audience already exists; the publisher’s job becomes extending the relationship into books rather than building it from scratch.

Beyond licensing, publishers might also learn from Kedoo’s production philosophy: pilot, measure, iterate. The days of commissioning a six-book deal on instinct alone are as numbered as the days of the guaranteed broadcast slot.

The Global South Opportunity

Booba’s dialogue-free format has given it traction across more than 45 countries – precisely because it sidesteps language barriers. For publishers serving markets in Africa, South Asia, or Latin America, this points towards a new category of globally viable children’s IP that does not require costly localisation before it can find readers.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.