Bella Sara™ to be Unveiled to Licensees at the New York Licensing Show in June 2007 Granada Ventures Booth  #4335

LOS ANGELES (May 3, 2007) — Granada Ventures, the merchandise, licensing and publishing division of the United Kingdom’s largest commercial broadcaster, ITV, has signed an agreement with Hidden City Games to license Bella Sara™ consumer products worldwide, excluding Scandinavia. Granada Ventures will be responsible for all product categories except collectable cards, for which Hidden City Games retains sole rights. The announcement was made today by Katie Foster, global licensing director at Granada Ventures, and Paula Miller, the newly appointed vice president of licensing for Granada Ventures in the United States.

Bella Sara is a fantasy horse-themed property for girls ages 5 – 12 and consists of trading cards with an integrated virtual-world website (www.bellasara.com). Bella Sara was awarded the prestigious iParenting Media “2007 Excellent Product” award as well as Dr. Toy’s “Best Products — Spring 2007” award. 

Bella Sara was launched in Scandinavia, where more than six million card packs have been sold to date. Granada Ventures will develop a Bella Sara brand-based product line across key categories, with an initial focus on toys, publishing and video games for a first quarter 2008 launch. A home entertainment line of animated DVDs and other consumer product categories, including apparel, accessories, domestics, home décor, back-to-school and more, are scheduled for a third quarter 2008 launch. Bella Sara products will be distributed across major, mid-tier and specialty retailers.

“Granada Ventures is delighted to have signed an agreement with Hidden City Games to develop the branding and licensing program for Bella Sara on a worldwide basis (outside of Scandinavia),” commented Foster. “We are confident that this magical property has enormous potential for the girl audience.”

“We are thrilled to introduce an enriching, girl-based property with tremendous built-in brand equity to potential licensees in the United States,” added Miller. “We will develop a comprehensive program that extends the Bella Sara experience beyond online and collectable card games.”

Bella Sara trading cards were created by conceptcard, a Danish company founded by Gitte Odder Brændgaard, Poul Villadsen and Peter Andersen, to promote a healthy self-image to girls ages five and up through whimsical illustrations of horses and positive, inspirational sayings. The cards can be used to activate virtual horses in the online world of Bella Sara. This child-friendly website has games, puzzles, wallpapers and environments enabling card collectors to explore stables, a castle, a forest, a jumping ring and more. Some horses on the cards exhibit additional elements of fantasy, with the ability to swim or fly.

Bella Sara was brought to the United States by Hidden City Games CEO Peter Adkison, who also introduced Pokémon trading cards to the United States in 1999. Hidden City Games debuted Bella Sara throughout North America in March 2007 via major retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Blockbuster and many regional chains, as well as independent hobby game stores and equestrian stores.

“Bella Sara is the next Pokémon, but for girls,” said Adkison. “We’re currently promoting Bella Sara in 80 percent of all U.S. households via Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, plus regional Girls’ Day events that included appearances by Ashley Tisdale of ‘High School Musical’ and Devon Werkheiser of ‘Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide,’ along with a national public relations campaign leveraging key print and electronic news media outlets.”

Joining the Granada Ventures team at the New York Licensing Show is the newly appointed Miller, whose mandate is to build closer relationships with licensees and retailers in the U.S. market and launch existing Granada Ventures brands, including Pocoyo and Thunderbirds, into the region. Additionally, Miller is to look for new properties that can be represented by the company, both in the United States and internationally. A 15-year industry veteran, Miller’s career includes tenure at Golden Books Entertainment, BKN and Suzy’s Zoo Studios, where the property became the fastest infant brand at retail, generating over $400 million in retail sales during 2002 – 2003 and ranking 41st of the top 100. Miller reports to Foster in the United Kingdom and Katarina Moran, executive vice president of digital media in Los Angeles.

ABOUT GRANADA VENTURES
Granada Ventures is the highly profitable and fast-growing consumer products division within ITV Plc. The company currently licenses almost 1,000 products and 3,000 DVD titles across 200 household-name television, film and sports brands. This includes licensing the rights to must-have brands of the future such as Pocoyo and Numberjacks as well as hugely successful established brands such as I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and Classic Thunderbirds. With comedy entertainment brands such as Little Britain and Catherine Tate, a strong sporting offer that includes the Arsenal and Liverpool football clubs as well as the highly successful World Poker Tour, Granada Ventures has a strong and varied portfolio.

ABOUT HIDDEN CITY GAMES
Hidden City Games, LLC is a privately held company headquartered in Seattle, Washington and is the exclusive licensor of Bella Sara for worldwide distribution outside of Scandinavia. The company is headed by an experienced executive team, including founder and CEO Peter D. Adkison, who formerly founded Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Jesper Myrfors, chief creative officer and original art director for Magic: The Gathering; and Paul Peterson, HCG’s vice president of research and development, who was previously on the R&D team for Magic: The Gathering. Under Adkison’s leadership, Wizards of the Coast created an entirely new genre of games with the release of Magic: The Gathering, which was the world’s first trading card game, published in 13 languages and loved by millions of players around the world. Additionally, Adkison introduced Pokémon trading cards to North America and reinvigorated the hugely popular Dungeons & Dragons brand after acquiring it from TSR. Adkison grew Wizards into a multimillion-dollar company before selling it to Hasbro in 1999 for nearly $500 million.

ABOUT CONCEPTCARD
Conceptcard is the company that originally created Bella Sara. Conceptcard was founded in Svendborg, Denmark, in September 2005, the same month it published the first version of Bella Sara, which was then called Bella. Bella was sold first in Denmark and later in Norway and Sweden. Since its debut, more six million cards have been sold throughout Scandinavia. Conceptcard was founded by directors Gitte Odder Brændgaard, Poul Villadsen and Peter Andersen. Brændgaard was inspired to create Bella when she worked as a social worker, caring for mentally disabled young people. In keeping with Brændgaard’s positive values and love of children, Bella Sara features inspirational, meaningful messages and imagination-building game play designed to uplift girls.  Bella is the name of Brændgaard's daughter Sara’s real-world horse.

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FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT:
 

Carol Holdsworth
Mesa360 Marketing & Communications
805.252.1848
carol@mesa-360.com


Alice Burden
Granada Ventures Publicity Manager
+44 (0)207 633 2802
alice.burden@itv.com