Nick Adds Babunga Online Properties

Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group, which already operates Nickjr.com, has acquired Babunga.com network of parenting sites and integrated them within the content company’s newly established ParentsConnect Network.

The Babunga deal, terms of which were not disclosed, brings babynamesworld.com, 3dpregnancy.com and wikiparenting.com, among others. Those sites will be coupled with Nick’s ParentsConnect, comprising parentpreviews.com; baby-gaga.com; greatschools.net; and smartmomma.com; among others, to form the new ParentsConnect Network, which offers marketers a targeted approach to reach a wide range of parents.

Relative to the Babunga properties: Babynamesworld.com is one of the most popular pregnancy Web sites, reaching 1.1 million unique visitors (comScore, December 2007), and features 27,000 baby names; 3dpregnancy.com, which allows expecting moms to track their pregnancies with weekly information on the pregnancy experience; and Wikiparenting.com, which reaches those who are either expecting or already have kids, and want information on subjects from getting pregnant to raising kids.

“We are already a leader online with parents and families because of Nickjr.com, the number-one preschool-parenting Web site,” said Steve Youngwood, executive vice president, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group, in a statement.

“Now with the acquisition of Babunga’s family of sites and its integration into Nick’s ParentsConnect, we are also now leaders with expecting parents,” Youngwood continued. “As our brand continues to expand to provide more family experiences, the new site will allow us to reach more parents online than ever before.”

Added executive vice president, MTV Networks Digital Media Nada Stirratt: “The ParentsConnect Network brings even greater scale to our partners and their marketing messages. The etwork will allow our advertisers to reach a wider parenting population through a selection of high-quality, targeted sites.”