Audible has partnered with television channel Nickelodeon to launch an official companion podcast to its 90s horror anthology series Are You Afraid of The Dark?, the company has announced.
The six-episode podcast series, titled Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Official Podcast, targets an older generation of kids and their families, with 15-20 minute episodes featuring a series of different scary stories.
“We always thought the Are You Afraid of the Dark? universe would be perfectly suited to the audio medium, and dreamed of how an AYAOTD audio thriller could fuel the fire of kids’ imaginations in the presence of ghost stories,” said Nickelodeon Podcasts senior creative director Lynn Kestin-Sessler. “When Nickelodeon gave us the chance, we jumped at it, striking a classic Nick balance between kid-appropriate horror, thrills and entertainment.”
Audible has created the podcast, with Nickelodeon and Paramount Audio acting as co-producers. Streaming service Paramount+ houses the majority of Nickelodeon's library, including the original Are You Afraid of The Dark? live-action show and the three-season miniseries revival that Nickelodeon aired in 2019. The podcast is launching 28 September, exclusively for subscribers on the Audible platform.
Nickelodeon has created a number of official companion podcasts for its hit franchises, including Avatar: Braving The Elements and SpongeBob BingePants, which were created in partnership with iHeartRadio, as well as others like Listen Out Loud with The Loud House. Podcast network PodCo has also recently launched a number of non-official rewatch podcasts featuring stars from nostalgic Nickelodeon and Disney shows like Ned's Declassified Podcast Survival Guide! with Devon Werkheiser, Lindsey Shaw, and Daniel Curtis Lee.
Other children’s networks and media companies to invest in the podcast space include Disney, which recently announced that it was launching a sequel to Frozen 2 as a podcast. The 12-episode series, titled Frozen: Forces of Nature, takes place after the final scenes of the second film and will reportedly feature both existing and new characters.
Audible is also continuing to invest more into the children’s podcast space by signing partnerships with companies like Hasbro to launch an official Peppa Pig podcast and kid’s global entertainment company Moonbug to launch a series of original family-listening podcasts including Little Baby Bum: Time to Dream and Lellobee City Farm: Grandma Mei's Fantastic Folktales.
