Worldwide Biggies raises $9m round

These guys have been out for about a year and have just decided to raise a round.

From NewTeeVee:

"Albie Hecht, the former president of Nickelodeon, has raised $9 million and secured distribution deals for Worldwide Biggies, his young adult- and family-focused digital studio. Worldwide Biggies is not exclusively devoted to online productions, though web distribution is a part of all of its projects.

“We birth things online but make sure they have multi-platform DNA so they can be transported elsewhere,” said Hecht in an interview Monday. That means constraining itself a smaller budget — a.k.a. lots of green screens — and having the agility to quickly incorporate viewer feedback. “We can constantly be version 3 the day after version 2,” he said.

NBC Universal, Hearst Corp., Greycroft, Platform Equity, and PrismVentureWorks invested in the company, which already has a hit under its belt with The Naked Brothers Band TV series (accompanied by webisodes and podcasts) for Nickelodeon.

NBC plans to partner with and potentially invest in additional digital entertainment studios, with Worldwide Biggies being the first and additional deals in the works, said George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal, in an interview Monday."