The owner of Peppa Pig has cheered rising revenues as the children's cartoon character delivered strong merchandise sales in the United States.
Entertainment One (eOne) said group reported revenue saw strong growth for the year ending in March, as it raked in 200 million US dollars worth (£161 million) of Peppa Pig product sales.
It said US retailers had bolstered their product ranges after 65 Peppa Pig retail licences were rolled out across America just before Christmas.
Underlying earnings also grew strongly, as its television arm doubled revenues after launching a string of new series, including ICE, Ransom, Mary Kills People and Cardinal.
It said a strong slate of movie releases - including The Girl On The Train, Jackie and La La Land - had carried the rebound in box office takings through to the second half of the year.
Chief executive Darren Throop said: "The group has had a good year, with strong performance in both television and family and major progress on the reshaping of the film business.
"Management anticipates that the group will deliver a full-year performance in line with expectations as it continues to deliver against its stated strategy of increasing the quality and value of its library of content."
Shares in the FTSE 250 firm were up more than 3% in morning trading.
ITV abandoned its £1 billion pursuit of Entertainment One in August last year after the firm snubbed its initial offer.
Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said: "As we're seeing with ITV (a potential buyer of eOne), there is a lot of value in content and broadcasters want to own more and more of it as they come under pressure from on-demand services like Amazon Prime and Netflix - eOne won't always find the next Peppa but it has to keep the short cycle constantly turning over, which requires continual investment.
"That and striking very profitable merchandising agreements."
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