Children's TV favourite Tweenies is to be broadcast in the US following a deal with an American cable channel.

The award-winning BBC programme for pre-school youngsters has been licensed to a station owned by the children's network Nickelodeon.

From April it will be shown twice a day on an educational channel reaching a potential audience of more than 30 million homes.

Tweenies, which chronicles the adventures of Bella, Milo, Fizz and Jake, has already been sold to nearly 50 countries and translated into 30 languages.

Tweenies will be shown in New York and around the US

It has become a huge money-spinner for BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC.

Outside the UK, Tweenies has been aired in Germany, Korea, France, Japan, Thailand, Ukraine, Slovakia and Australia.

The US deal with cable channel Noggin was brokered by the BBC Sales Company in New York for an undisclosed amount.

Noggin has initially bought 50 episodes and says it is "thrilled" to be screening the show.

Characters will be revoiced using US actors, leading to some alterations from the British vocabulary.

Creative play

Climbing frames will become jungle gyms; football becomes soccer; "cor" or "cool" become "wow"; and "baddies" become "bad guys".

Tweenies is aimed at three to five-year-olds and encourages children to learn through entertainment and creative play.

Ian Lauchlan, chief executive of Tell-Tale Productions, the creators and producers of the show, likened it to a children's version of a popular US sitcom.

He said: "Tweenies is a Friends for pre-schoolers - it tackles the daily issues that face its young audience."