‘Angry Birds’ Soars with IMG

IMG has been appointed by Rovio Entertainment as the exclusive worldwide consumer products licensing agent for the “Angry Birds” franchise. 

The partnership with IMG gives Rovio a global partner to help develop a consumer products program aligned with the franchise across all of its content and platforms. “Angry Birds” the game launched on mobile devices in 2009. Mobile games in the series have been downloaded more than 4.5 billion times to date. Since its launch, “Angry Birds” has also spawned a brand that continues to draw tens of millions of active users to its games and animated content. 

"The evolution of Angry Birds from mobile game to worldwide global pop culture fixture is perhaps one of the most impressive achievements in recent times in new original animated character creation,” says Bruno Maglione, licensing president, IMG. “Working closely with Rovio, we are enthusiastic about the potential to take this franchise to new levels of success as it embarks on its next decade."

Characters from the series has been developed into a multi-platform entertainment franchise with two blockbuster movie releases, animated series, location-based entertainment and consumer products. Earlier this year, the franchise also came to Netflix with a new series set to debut in 2021.

"Over the years Rovio has worked with a number of agents around the world, supporting us greatly in making ‘Angry Birds’ available to fans everywhere in various physical forms,” says Kati Levoranta, chief executive officer, Rovio Entertainment Corp. “While we continue to focus on developing and publishing memorable gaming experiences and content, in IMG we have found a partner with whom we aim to deliver a more strategic and globally consistent licensing program that's aligned with our core business. We're excited to begin this new chapter of the ‘Angry Birds’ brand together with IMG."