Martha Speaks

PBS Kids launches season two of the animated series Martha Speaks with five new episodes premiering Monday-Friday, September 14-18 at 7:30a and 3:30p (check local listings). The first new episode finds Martha's adored and tattered napping chair winds up on the set of Antiques Roadshow, but will appraiser Noel Barrett recognize its true value? Ten additional new episodes will air on PBS Kids after January 2010, including a two-part Presidents Day episode, Martha in the White House, airing on Presidents Day, Monday, February 15. Additionally, January will also see Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will release of new books based the Martha Speaks TV series.

Squared Entertainment

A Squared Entertainment, a new kid's media company co-founded by former DIC Entertainment topper Andy Heyward and marketing veteran Amy Moynihan, has partnered with AOL on a slate of new edutainment animated webisodes (3-5 minutes each) including celebrities featuring Warren Buffett, Gisele Bundchen, Martha Stewart and Carl Sagan. The webisodes will premiere on AOL, which will also help distribute them. The webisodes include Secret Millionaire's Club, featuring billionaire Buffett, and GiGi & the Green Team, featuring Bundchen, are scheduled to debut on AOL this fall with Little Martha, featuring Stewart, and Kosmos, inspired by the late Sagan and created by Cosmos co-author Ann Druyan, set to launch in spring 2010. AOL has also teamed with MGX Lab to create interactive worlds for each property with games and activities.

kid programming rules

Here in the US the new US Federal Communications Commission Chairman (FCC), Julius Genachowski, announced at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing that he has opened a new inquiry into kid programming rules, and how "the FCC can best protect children in a digital age," while also taking into account current concerns and new opportunities in today's world. The effort, triggered at least in part by the ever-growing platforms where kids can access content, will also review the current FCC rules guiding kid's programming, and may require broadcasters to air more kid-appropriate educational and informational programming than the three hours they are currently compelled to offer, while also looking to include rules for cable, satellite, mobile video content and the web as well as video games. The current rules, under the Children's Television Act, were mostly established in the 1990s (there has been some modification since then) and also contain rules concerning limits on advertising, including the amount of ads, during kid-aimed programming. The Senate hearing also included discussion of the ability of parents/caregivers to identify and locate kid-targeted educational programming.

TV-Loonland and Demi

TV-Loonland inks deals for several of its properties with broadcasters in Asia, where the shows will launch this fall. Nickelodeon Asia acquires all format rights to Pat & Stan (39x7, 1x30 special, 350 shorts). Additionally Pat & Stan was recently picked up by Cartoon Network Korea, with EBS taking the terrestrial TV rights in South Korea, while discussions for the DVD rights in the region continue. Disney Japan picks up TV rights for Leon (52x3), with Cartoon Networks Japan adding Raymond (78x7) to its programming lineup. Additional deals closed this summer include ATV Hong Kong acquiring The Little Princess Seasonal Specials for fall and winter, and Well Go USA taking the Pay TV rights for Rainbow Fish in Taiwan.

Demi Lovato's (Sonny With a Chance, Princess Protection Program, Camp Rock) new album, Here We Go Again, premieres tomorrow on Radio Disney's Planet Premiere, hosted by Ernie D, at 7p. Also, the new album can also be streamed and heard online at RadioDisney.com from tomorrow through Friday, July 24. The Radio Disney premiere of the Hollywood Records album will include an interview with Lovato as well as playing songs.

Nickelodeon - Kai-lan's Great Trip to China

Nickelodeon premieres the new hour-long special, Kai-lan's Great Trip to China, on Friday, August 14 at 10a, and will be simulcast on Nickelodeon Mobile. Based on its animated preschool series Ni Hao, Kai-lan, the special follows Kai-lan and her pals to China where they visit her great aunt and attend the naming ceremony of a baby panda. Actress Ming-Na (ER, Joy Luck Club) lends her voice to Kai-lan's great aunt. The special will air on Noggin on Sunday, August 16 at 7p. Additionally, Nickelodeon will support the debut with content from Kai-lan's Great Trip to China across multiple platforms. From August 3 clips from the special and other new-to-VOD episodes of the series will be available on Nickelodeon On Demand; beginning August 10, Nick Jr. Video will stream a two-minute peek and clips from the special, as well as episodes from the series; and the two-minute peek will also be available via various wireless carriers from August 10.

PBS Kids Go!

Sesame Workshop's The Electric Company, targeted to K6-9, will strip Monday-Friday on PBS Kids Go! block on PBS beginning September 7, 2009. The Electric Company website, pbskidsgo.org/electriccompany, has had nearly four million site visits and over 11 million video clips played since its launch in mid- January 2009. Also this fall, The Electric Company will partner with local PBS stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and after-school organizations to bring a "Shock" to 20 cities nationwide with The Electric Company 2009 Circuit Tour. From August 8, The Electric Company's star beat boxer, Shock, will host a 90-minute event in each city beginning with a 25-minute multimedia, interactive show that will also include literacy-centric hands-on activities for kids. The Electric Company is part of PBS Kids Raising Readers, a national literacy initiative focused on using public media to improve the reading skills for K2-8, with an emphasis on children from low-income families.

Wizards vs. Vampires, Super Why

Wizards of Waverly Place Wizards vs. Vampires, a new four-episode programming event, debuts this month on Disney Channel beginning with the first episode on Friday, July 24, 8- 8:45p. The remaining three half-hour episodes will bow on successive three Friday evenings at 8p. The story arc revolves around the Russo family and what happens when a family of vampires opens a new competing sandwich shop.

Super Why and PBS Kids invites preschoolers to read this summer with Super Why Wonderrific Weeks on PBS Kids this August. Throughout the month four new episodes of Super Why will debut, each showcasing a different superhero from the series and that character's specific literacy skill. Each character and their respective literacy skills will be underlined all week long, Alpha Pig (August 3-8), Princess Presto (August 10-14), Wonder Red (August 17-21), and Super Why (August 24-29). Created and produced by Out of the Blue Enterprises, Super Why! is funded in part by a Ready To Learn grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the US Department of Education, in partnership with PBS.

All in the Family

The Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato return to camp later this summer when Disney Channel begins production on Camp Rock 2 The Final Jam, the sequel to the network's original movie Camp Rock (June 20, 2008). Set to premiere on Disney Channel in 2010, this time around the kids return to camp to find that some of their camp mates and counselors have defected to the new state-of-the-art music/performance camp across the lake and a rivalry with a musical showdown ensues. Of course there is also a love twist, this time Joe Jonas falls for the daughter of the owner of the rival camp. Camp Rock 2 The Final Jam will also feature new cast members Matthew "Mdot" Finley (an R&B musician) and Chloe Bridges (a classical pianist), as well as returning cast mates Meaghan Martin, Alyson Stoner and Anna Maria Perez de Tagle among others. Camp Rock 2 will be directed by Paul Hoen (Jump In!, The Cheetah Girls One World) with choreography by Rosero McCoy (Step Up) and a script by Dan Berendsen (Hannah Montana The Movie, Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie , The Cheetah Girls One World) and the writing team Karin Gist (One Tree Hill, Jump In!) and Regina Hicks (Girlfriends, Jump In!). The first Camp Rock movie was directed by Matthew Diamond and penned by Julie Brown, Paul Brown along with Gist and Hicks.

The kids are online, Cookie Jar and Zula Patrol -

Where are your kids? If they are 2-11 years old, more than likely they are online. US K2-11 are spending +63% more time online over the last five years, according to a new Nielsen report, from about 7 hours in May 2004 to 11+ hours online in may 2009. In May 2009, K2-11 comprised 16 million, or 9.5% of the online universe (a fairly split evenly between boys and girls). This is an increase over 2004, with the number of K2-11 online growing +18%. K2-11 are also outpacing the increase for the overall population, which was up by +36% over the last five years. Boys are spending 7% more time online than girls, but girls are taking in more content, viewing 9% more web pages than boys in May 2009. Meanwhile, in May 2009, boys led in viewing and time spent, consuming 61% of video streams among kids and comprising 57% of the time spent viewing videos.

Cookie Jar Entertainment is named as the exclusive North American licensing agent and program distributor for Mexican wrestling's Lucha Libre USA and the Lucha Libre AAA league. Cookie Jar plans to introduce a consumer products line (e.g. action figures, apparel, books, back-to-school and novelty/collectibles) initially targeting the Hispanic population and growing to include wrestling fans of all ages beginning in 2010. Cookie Jar will also launch the first English-language Lucha Libre AAA TV series in the US as part of its new primetime label, The Jar, in January 2010.


The kid's science animated series, The Zula Patrol, and Ohio's Center of Science and Industry (COSI) enter into a multi-year partnership to develop programs and resources for museums, schools, and other kid-and-family-centric destinations across the US. The partnership will focus on several initiatives including: The creation of curricula for Zula-themed workshops, birthday parties and overnight events for museums, camps, school etc; Development and distribution of Zula Science Stations portable interactive exhibits; and a marketing campaign to build awareness and subscriptions for ZulaWorld.com, the campaign will include a fundraising component for kid's museums and science/technology centers in the US.

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! and Sesame Workshop, Hasbro, Ruff Ruffman, CBBC

The animated series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! enters into cross-promotional food programs with a range of partners including Minute Rice, Darling Clementines, On-Cor Frozen Foods, Joy Cone Company, and Jolly Time Pop Corn. Several of these promotions, set for this summer and fall, will feature Wubbzy on their product labels, mail-in rebates redeemable for Wubbzy DVDs and a product purchase. Produced by Bolder Media, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! can be seen weekdays on Nick Jr. and Noggin as well as on www.nickjr.com .

Sesame Workshop unveiled plans to expand its Healthy Habits initiative with the help of a new gram from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the National Association for Family Child Care's (NAFCC) annual conference. Healthy Habits for Life aims to inform family childcare providers, parents and caregivers about ways to fold healthy nutrition and physical activity into daycare settings for preschoolers. Sesame Workshop plans includes conducting a study, in both English and Spanish, for a typically underserved community to assess the effectiveness and impact of the initiative's messages and strategies. Thirteen thousand bilingual Sesame Street Healthy Habits for Life: Child Care Resource Kits will be distributed through the NAFCC in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee.


Brian Goldner, President and CEO, Hasbro will deliver a keynote speech at Mipcom on Tuesday, October 6, 2009. In his speech, Becoming a Branded Play Company, Goldner talk about how Hasbro has developed into the company it is now and will also discuss his vision for the new joint effort with Discovery Communications that will see the creation of a new kid/family-targeted TV channel, as well as Hasbro's ongoing involvement in feature films and video games. Digital gaming is a leading theme of Mipcom's conference program this fall, which focuses on rethinking traditional media in the battle for the digital living room.

The fourth season of the kid targeted science-centric series Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman launches on PBS Kids Go! with an all animated special on Friday, September 11, 2009 (check local listings). The new season of 20 new episodes of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman will follow. Season four focuses on three science themes, green science/sustainability, sports and sound/light/heat and is supported with online content at www.pbskidsgo.org/fetch . Funded in large part by the national Science Foundation, Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman is produced by WGBH Boston.

CBBC unveiled two new commissions for kid-targeted series from BBC North, a sitcom and a factual series to be produced in Manchester, yesterday at the UK's annual Showcomotion Children's conference.
First up is Jinx (13x13), a sitcom based on the Lulu Baker book series by Fiona Dunbar about a modern-day teen Cinderella, her magical cookbook and the guardian of the book, Cookie, a mischievous imp. Set to begin production this month, Jinx is being produced by Kindle Entertainment.
The second project is the factual series This Kid Could Change the World (9x30). The show will feature kids from across the country and put their potentially world altering ideas to the test. Through a series of tasks two expert innovators and a mysterious benefactor 'The Big Cheese' will determine which ideas have the potential to succeed or fail in the real world. The series finale will include a live studio audience of kids that will decide which idea moves forward. The series is set to air in 2010 and will be produced by Shine North.
Additionally, new seasons of the CBBC's popular shows Prank Patrol and Beat the Boss will be produced in Manchester. Produced by Baker Media, the third season of Prank Patrol is comprised of 10x28 episodes, which will deliver later this year. Season five of Beat the Boss includes 5x28 episodes produced by Moray London.