The Whole World of Widgets and ME!

Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop

2010-11-11T17:45:00.000-08:00

Every day there are new apps for mobile devices (iPhone/iPad/iTouch, smartphones, etc.), with more and more of them aimed at kids of all ages, including the very youngest.

But are they educational, and are kids actually learning from them. According to Learning: Is there an app for that?, a new national survey of parents and observation of K3-7 learning and interacting with mobile media, released yesterday by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop ( http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/Reports.html ), in collaboration with PBS Kids Raising Readers and Hotspex, most parents let their young kids use their mobile devices even though they don't think their kids are learning anything beneficial.

The study also found that kids can and are learning things (including literacy skills) through age appropriate educational apps, and also offers some guidance for developers to produce better educational apps and make parents aware of their benefits.

The report refers to the 'pass-back effect' - which is when a parent hands a mobile device to a kid to occupy them, say in car, restaurant or grocery cart, and the kid plays with it until the parent takes it back.

A 2009 content analysis conducted by The Cooney Center showed that 60% of the 25 top-selling paid applications in the education section of the iTunes App Store target toddlers and preschoolers. In addition, a Kaiser Family Foundation study noted that kids spend an average of about one hour per day using mobile devices. Some findings from Learning: Is there an app for that? include:

The mobile media pass-back effect - Two-thirds of K4-7 have used an iPhone or iPod touch and 85% have used one owned by a parent. Kids most often use the devices when they are passed-back by a parent while in a car.

Evidence that kids can learn from apps - Mobile apps based on PBS Kids programs Martha Speaks and Super Why! were independently evaluated with 90 K3-7 who played with them for 2 weeks. Kids made gains in vocabulary comprehension, letter-identification and rhyming after use of the apps. Vocabulary improved as much as 31% for kids who played with the Martha Speaks Dog Party App.

Young kids are surprisingly adept at using smart mobile devices - Nearly all of the kids observed in the studies could master operations, even after initial difficulty.

Create apps that sustain interest - Children use apps for short periods of time and interest quickly diminishes. Developers should design activities that incorporate specific educational goals and incentives to hold their interest.

Use mobile devices as supplemental tools - App content can be developed around curriculum goals in literacy, math and science as well as life skills to supplement and extend school-based learning.

Inform parents - App developers' claims of educational impact are largely unsubstantiated and should be based on specific evidence. Parents need more information on how mobile devices can and should be used as learning tools.

Study: Social Media Makes Kids Sick, Bad

2010-11-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

Erik Sass, Nov 10, 2010 05:35 PM

Scarcely a week goes by without the news media circulating a questionable, but highly reportable, study purporting to document the ills caused by social media. This week is no exception: the latest entry comes from Case Western Reserve's School of Medicine, with a study warning that excessive use of social media -- specifically, "hypertexting" (sending more than 120 messages per school day) and "hypernetworking" (spending more than three hours per day on sites like Facebook) -- is linked to dangerous health problems and antisocial behavior in teens.

Among the Case Western findings, teens who hypertext are twice as likely to have tried alcohol; 3.5 times more likely to have had sex; 40% more likely to have tried cigarettes; 41% more likely to have used illicit drugs; 43% more likely to be binge drinkers; 55% more likely to have been in a physical fight; and 90% more likely to report four or more sexual partners.

Hypernetworkers were 60% more likely to have four or more sexual partners; 62% more likely to have tried cigarettes; 69% more likely to be binge drinkers; 69% more likely to have had sex; 79% more likely to have tried alcohol; 84% more likely to have used illicit drugs; and 94% more likely to have been in a physical fight.

According to lead researcher Scott Frank, "The startling results of this study suggest that when left unchecked texting and other widely popular methods of staying connected can have dangerous health effects on teenagers.

This should be a wake-up call for parents to not only help their children stay safe by not texting and driving, but by discouraging excessive use of the cell phone or social websites in general."

This would seem to suggest a causal link between texting and social networking and these negative outcomes -- and Frank speculated in an interview with CNN (but not the study itself) that all the texting and social media use enables "high-tech peer pressure." But he also concedes that the study "does not demonstrate cause and effect," which seems to contradict that statement.

In fact, he adds: "We are not saying texting causes these behaviors." So what are we saying? Well, it's kind of ambiguous: "We can recognize that these kinds of connections ... may be facilitating or enabling these kinds of behaviors, but we certainly can't think of (the online connections) as causing them."

"Facilitating" versus "causing" -- perhaps a minor distinction, at first glance. But once you accept that texting and social networks aren't actually causing these behaviors, they become just two more members of a group of correlated behaviors which may describe -- but can't explain -- a certain kind of personality, more prone to engage in risky and self-destructive activity.

Once again, I would argue that excessive social media use and texting are just symptoms of social ills that already existed for some time. It's well known that adolescents, struggling with unstable identities and mood swings, are more likely to engage in self-destructive behavior.

I believe behaviors like "hypertexting" and "hypernetworking" are closely related to the sense of incompleteness and insecurity which bedevils many teens (not to mention a good number of adults): like alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sex, they serve to occupy a restless, wandering, attention-seeking personality, which believes itself totally unable to find peace and tranquility on its own terms.

I should also point out that the Case Western study is simply a snapshot of teen behaviors at one moment in time. It doesn't examine changes in these behaviors over time, making it even harder to draw any conclusions about correlation versus causation.

On the other hand, many indices for negative behaviors among teens have remained flat over the last decade -- coinciding with the social media boom.

The proportion of teens ages 15-19 having sex before marriage has remained stable at 42% from 2002-2010, according to National Survey of Family Growth conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile the proportion of eighth graders who believe smoking marijuana regularly is harmful remained flat at around 70% from 2002-2009, according to a national study by the University of Michigan.

PBSKids.org

2010-11-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

PBSKids.org ( www.pbskids.org ) becomes the top kid-targeted website for free videos streamed based on number of videos viewed, per comScore Video Metrix (September 2010).

For the month of September 2010, kids spent an average of 47 minutes viewing free educational videos, reaching close to 88 million video streams for the month, which is twice the monthly average for free educational videos from other kid-centric sites.

Go Figure

2010-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Picture Box Distribution, a Canadian-based distributor of kid's programming, picks up the sales rights to Go Figure (52x1), a new preschool 2D animated short-form series that is currently in development. Produced by Colombia-based 4direcciones, Go Figure is based on a Latin American board book series, which helps preschoolers work on their concentration and analytic skills. Under the deal Picture Box takes all media rights for the property outside of Latin America, and will be seeking to ink TV deals, as well as digital media partners.

CBeebies, Darrall Macqueen, JimJam

2010-10-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

CBeebies commissions indie UK-based producer Darrall Macqueen to produce the new mixed live-action/2D photo animation, preschool series Magic Baby (26x11).

Magic Baby follows the enchanting adventures of Baby Jake, the youngest of 10 kids that live in a windmill. Jake's 6-year-old brother, Isaac, narrates the series and interprets Baby Jake's giggles and gurgles and takes viewers into an imaginary world with Jake and his animal friends.

Baby Jake is a Darrall Macqueen production in association with Ireland's JAM Media, which will be produced by Maddy Darrall and executive produced by Billy Macqueen of Darrall Macqueen and Sarah Colclough for CBeebies. JAM Media's Alan Shannon will serve as animation director.

Chello Zone's international preschool channel, JimJam, expands with new deals in the Netherlands and Portugal. JimJam has just launched on KPN (Netherlands) as part of the broadcasters new digital kid-targeted package.

KPN also picks up JimJam's non-commercial VOD service. In Portugal JimJam launches this week on Vodafone's IPTV service as part of its basic package.

JimJam is already carried in the Netherlands on CAIW Media, UPC Nederland, Canal Digitaal, CAI Harderwijk, Delta Kabelcomfort and Ziggo. The preschool channel is also carried by Glashart Media. In Portugal, JimJam is currently available via Cabovisao, Optimus Clix and Portugal Telecom (Meo).

Wildbrain Entertainment

2010-10-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

The US Department of Education awards WTTW, Chicago's public TV station, in partnership with Wildbrain Entertainment and The Michael Cohen Group, a $32.5 million grant as part of its five-year Ready to Learn initiative, to develop the multimedia property UMIGO (you make it go).

Ready to Learn supports development of preschool/early elementary school aimed educational programming and media. WTTW and Wildbrain Entertainment (Yo Gabba Gabba!) are teaming up to develop UMIGO, which will debut first as an online property and then as a TV series, followed by a consumer products line.

Created by Michael Polis, President, Wildbrain Entertainment, UMIGO will also be developed in collaboration with research/evaluation company The Michael Cohen Group.

Designed specifically for at-risk kids in the US living in low-income households, the online interactive UMIGO site will feature kid-initiative learning and play options for K2-8 to support the learning of basic principles of math, as well as develop their ability to think creatively and work collaboratively.

Scholastic and Sesame Workshop

2010-10-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Scholastic celebrates its 90th anniversary with the launch of the global literacy campaign, Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. ( www.scholastic.com/readeveryday ), which aims to increase literacy in the 21st century and underlines to kids the importance of reading has in their success in life.

The campaign will also target parents and teachers to help make reading easier, more fun and more accessible to kids at school and home. More than 120 organizations and individuals have joined the campaign as literacy champions. The Read Every Day initiative is comprised of several elements, including:

The Reading Bill of Rights the Bill of Rights is available on the website and will also be handed out at noted sites around the world on October 22, Scholastic's official anniversary.

Reading Action Steps, ways we can all encourage and help kids read
Celebrities, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Bates, Keke Palmer, and the NFL's Justin Tick, will support Read Every Day through public service announcements, while noted kid's illustrators, including David Shannon, Mark Teague, Norman Bridwell, and Barbara McClintock, have created special posters for the campaign

Scholastic has also created the social network site You Are What You Read (
www.youarewhatyouread.com), for readers worldwide where people can post the five books that changed their lives and connect with others through shared "Bookprints," and discover new books.

The site also features "Bookprints" of noted people such as Bill Gates, Eva Mendes, Tony Hawk, Jodi Picoult, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Malcolm Gladwell. The site launches October 22.
Taylor Swift will participate in a live webcast exclusively for schools to celebrate Read Every Day.

Read Now! with Taylor Swift will include an interview with the artist about how reading is part of her life and she will perform. Hosted by Nick Cannon, the event will take place October 27, 2010. Teachers can get more information and register at scholastic.com/readeveryday

Sesame Workshop names Dr. Charlotte Frances Cole as SVP/Global Education.

She will be responsible for Sesame Workshop's worldwide strategies and lead the development of curriculum and research around its international projects. Dr. Cole has worked with Sesame Workshop as part of its Education, Research and Outreach team since 1994.

CPB, PBS and new shows

2010-10-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

The new mixed live-action and CGI animated series Mia and me (26x24) debuted last week at MipJunior, becoming the top screened show.

Featuring a look based on the art of painter Gustav Klimt, Mia and me is a co-production of Lucky Punch (a joint venture between m4e and Gerhard Hahn), Rainbow and March Entertainment. Also serving as co-producers on the series are m4e, Hahn Film, ZDF (Germany) and Rai Fiction (Italy).

Telescreen, a unit of m4e, and Rainbow, expect to announce TV, home entertainment and product licensing deals, as well as a toy deal, soon for Mia and Me. Mia and me is expected to premiere at the end of 2011 on ZDF and Rai.

Entertainment industry veterans Pam Slavin, Toni Stevens and Bill Fox have set up the new family entertainment company, Wizard Hat Productions.

Based in Toronto Canada, Wizard Hat Productions plans to create and produce live action and animated series for kids and family audiences.

The partners each have solid entertainment backgrounds: Slavin has written and produced on a range of kid-targeted series including Little Bear, Johnny Test, Rolie Polie Olie and Berenstain Bears; Stevens has produced kids show including Caillou, Arthur, Gerald McBoing Boing, Storytime with Thomas the Tank engine and Will & Dewitt; and Fox served as EVP/Communications and Corporate Development, BCE, and prior to that as SVP/Public Affairs, Bombardier.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS have been awarded a Ready To Learn grant of close to $72 million by the US Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement to fund multiplatform content efforts to improve math and literacy skills of K2-8.

The grant, which is part of $15 million in funds that will be handed out to organizations between 2010-2015, enables CPB and PBS to further their multiplatform math and literacy educational efforts with a range of partners, including local PBS stations, and existing and new PBS Kids producers, including Sesame Workshop, WGBH, Universal, The Jim Henson Company, Out of the Blue, TPT National Productions, Kratt Brothers, Cloud Kid, Portfolio Entertainment Inc., and Random House Children's Entertainment.

Other partners include the School of Education at Boston University, the Chicago Public Schools' Virtual Pre-K and Virtual K programs, the National Summer Learning Association, Creative Commons and the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems.

Education Development Center, SRI International and WestEd will conduct research and evaluations to help support the CPB and PBS initiative. This is the CPB and PBS' fourth Ready To Learn grant since 1995.

Kids, Tweens and Teens

2010-10-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

by Daisy Whitney

Do the math - TV is still the big kahuna when it comes to kids.

For all the talk of growing up digital, kids, tweens and teens still gravitate to the TV for the bulk of their media consumption.

However, that doesn't mean digital avenues should be neglected when marketing to the younger groups -- either products on TV or TV networks themselves.

"No matter how you slice it, people of every age group are watching more TV than ever before and the time for all the internet and digital apps isn't coming from TV -- it's coming from print, radio, other things," said Jack Wakshlag, Chief Research Officer at Turner.

In fact, in the first quarter of 2010 kids 2-11 watched 24 hours of TV each week, compared to four minutes of internet video. Teens watched about 23 hours of TV per week, compared to 10 minutes of online video, Nielsen said.

Those numbers suggest that even though online video is incredibly popular -- at billions of views a month the numbers bear that out -- it's still just a fraction of overall entertainment consumption. So while the younger generation is infinitely more digital than the kids of yesterday, they still are devoting the lion's share of their attention to TV.

Plus, the kids market has always been one of the best targeted areas in TV, simply by virtue of the existence of cable networks for kids like Nickelodeon, Cartoon and Disney, said Donna Speciale, President of Investment, Activation and Agency Operations at MediaVest. "Kids used to always be on broadcast networks on Saturday and Sunday programming. Between Nickelodeon and then Cartoon Network and Disney, they started these very niche networks completely targeted to kids. The kids landscape has done the best job for years honing in on a specific target with a specific network," she said. Networks are also catering to smaller niches of kids, such as Nick Jr. geared to kids in preschool. "They'll segment their programming so it's even more targeted and this helps brands," she said.

However, marketers would be remiss to return to the days of old and just plunk all their ad money on the tube.

That's because teens especially spend a lot of time researching products and services on the internet-- goods that they are likely to hear about from friends and from TV ads. About 34 million teens aged 12 to 19 have $176 bullion in personal purchasing power, eMarketer reported, citing statistics from youth market research firm TRU. While they often spend that money in actual stores, they are doing their due diligence about the products and services online.

That's why there should be a natural throughline between TV and the digital venues where teens are making the purchasing decisions. Social media, cell phones and online connectedness to friends plays a major role in teens' buying decisions when they are finally ready to make a purchase. A teen girl, for instance, is more likely to buy products in stores than online compared to other internet users. But she has likely used social media to glean product tips and purchase advise from friends before she pulls the trigger, eMarketer said. A Piper Jaffray survey ranked friends, TV and the internet as the most influential factors in teens' clothing purchase decisions, for instance.

So while the numbers for TV will dwarf digital figures, the digital component of any media campaign for kids or teens plays a vital role in adding connection and authenticity, said Evan Gerber, Director of Experience Design at media agency Isobar. "If you are an advertiser running a campaign on TV, where is it sending them, how consistent is the messaging from one thing to the other, and are you giving them a conversation and a story to be involved with?"

The TV message is the megaphone, but driving to a web site or online experience for information, sharing and learning is critical to marketing to this demo. "That's where you get the legs for a campaign -- online," Gerber said.

Networks too have to think about kids holistically when they're marketing shows to young viewers. Cartoon Network, as an example, invests a lot of marketing resources in gaming because kids 6-11 are heavy online gamers. "Whether addictinggames.com or platforms like that, our approach is to bring gaming to those environments by syndicating games and then promoting tune-in," said Vicky Free, VP of 360 marketing for Turner Broadcasting's Animation for young adults and kids. "We give them something they like first before hitting them with the tune-in message."

Social networking too is becoming more important for marketing and that means creating games and other viral content for kids to share. "They want to buzz about it, rate it, tell us about, so we try to give them videos to share on Facebook or tell their friends about to help promote tune-in," she said. "They are consuming media in all platforms so we need to be in all those mediums to drive the kind of scale and awareness that is required for tune in."

That's because TV is still the epicenter for kids.

"Miley Cyrus is a superstar to this demo, and it's not because of the runaway success of HannahMontana.com," said Donald Seaman, VP and director of communication analysis at media agency MPG. "Her fame and status are because she has a TV show. For all their influence, YouTube, Facebook, mobile apps, Twitter, et al have no ability to create iconic brands they're user tools that allow fans to share their fervor about their favorites. They merely allow the proselytizing to be convenient, immediate, and global. I would offer that we're in as much a Golden Age for kids' television as we ever have been.Indeed, kids are watching just about as much television as ever. It's just that the ever-present content makes the on-air programs just a small part of the bigger packaging of the media product."

Later -- Daisy
Daisy Whitney for Cynopsis Media
10.18.10

WGBH and PBS Kids partner with Annie Leonard

2010-10-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

WGBH and PBS Kids partner with Annie Leonard on the new web-based series Loop Scoops (eight short videos), which will launch Monday, October 18 at pbskids.org/loopscoops ( www.pbskids.org/loopscoops ).

Targeted to K6-9/families/educators, Loop Scoop is designed to encourage kids to think about stuff in our lives (e.g. juice boxes, game device, magazines) and ask "Where does it come from? What is it made of? What happens to it when it's thrown away?, and after getting answers to make choices based on what they learn. Loop Scoops builds of the Story of Stuff animated video, written/hosted by Leonard, which illustrates the lifecycle of material items. Educational resources based on the Loop Scoops videos will be available via teachersdomain.org ( www.teachersdomain.org ) in late November.

Loop Scoops comes from the producers of Zoom and Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman. Funding for the Loop Scoops project comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Brought To You By The Letters P, B And S

2010-10-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

by Karen Herman , Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Southern Californians were shocked last week when public TV station KCET announced it would not renew its affiliation with PBS. The 46-year-old station will remain noncommercial, but will not run PBS programming. The station argues that its upcoming $7 million dues are too much of a budget strain. After months of negotiation, a deal couldn't be reached.

What does this mean for PBS fans? Come Jan. 1st, you won't find "Sesame Street" in Los Angeles! OK, that's improbable; there are three smaller public TV stations at-the-ready. KCET, if it takes its new job seriously, is in a sink-or-swim position where it must provide programming specific to the needs of Los Angeles' diverse community.

It is without question that other PBS affiliates will be facing similar budget constraints, making the KCET incident a potential precursor to the sea change in distribution methods that lies ahead. For PBS, this multimillion-dollar hit could be a blessing in disguise, forcing the company to more seriously explore alternatives methods to reach their audience -- namely, their lagging digital initiatives. The Internet is, after all, the publishing and broadcasting beacon of free public thought and enterprise.

Like all media entities, public television is in the midst of recreating its identity. Recently, a new mission statement was created by the leadership of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, National Public Radio, and the Association of Public Television Stations. It touts a vocabulary shift from "public broadcasting" to "public media":

"Public media informs, educates, and inspires by providing content that sustains the civic and cultural life of society. Public media is universally accessible, free from commercial or political pressure, and used by millions of Americans on all platforms including television, radio and on-line.

Going forward, public media - from our local radio and television stations to our national organizations - is building on the hard-earned trust and goodwill of our audience by becoming even more diverse, networked, nimble, innovative, and focused on serving the needs of our changing society.

With the support of the American people, we will continue to evolve as creators, curators and connectors on the local and national level in order to fulfill our mission of informing communities, enriching our culture, and inspiring dialogue."

Of course, in the next paragraph, the consortium backtracks to the importance of broadcast:

"For the foreseeable future, given Public Media's mission to bring service to all of the citizens of the United States, over-the-air broadcasting will remain critical. In fact, millions of households still rely on over-the-air reception to view public television, including many with limited distribution alternatives or limited resources to spend on subscription services.

....Whether received over-the-air or by cable or satellite, in addition to its ubiquitous reach utilizing technology and facilities across the country, broadcasting will continue to be a very cost effective medium for reaching mass audiences.

In fact, the Public Media system could not afford to stream its content to all its viewers and listeners due to the cost of bandwidth. As a result, public media organizations are mixing their distribution capabilities, making smart investments that integrate broadcast, online and mobile platforms in a seamless experience for the American public."

Fair enough. PBS' video portal has improved, but is limited in content and tends to follow, rather than lead, in terms of site-building. Here's an opportunity for PBS and company to engage visionaries (maybe ones that are reinventing television and trying not to "do evil") to integrate a true online PBS portal into TV's next iteration. As a noncommercial venture, it can still use its trademark "brought to you by" funding approach.

With IP addresses, content can be limited to geographic regions devoid of PBS carriers so that independent stations can survive. This online entity then could solicit funding and in-kind donations to bring broadband and emerging technologies carrying this new network into underserved homes. Isn't that really the mission of "public media"?

Face it, kids without digital savvy are already behind. Sure, "Sesame Street" is an amazing teaching tool, but it premiered 41 years ago. Things have changed and "public media" needs to change with it. More and more teens and twentysomethings don't even own TVs, meaning their kids will be nurtured on broadband.

As Joan Ganz Cooney, creator of "Sesame Street," said in her Archive interview, "You wouldn't say let's put in ten minutes of entertainment and ten minutes of education. Every piece of education would be entertaining and every piece of entertainment would be educational." Shouldn't we expect the same today?

Of course this is a very simplistic version. There's an alphabet soup of agencies, affiliates, funders and producers to worry about. But, it's clear that public broadcasters, like their commercial counterparts, have the opportunity and responsibility to innovate.

Sept. 28th news

2010-09-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

Paul Kontonis, Eric Korsh and Teal Newland have joined digital agency Digitas as VP/Group Directors, Content Strategy and Development, overseeing the company's The Third Act content platform (which launched to Real Women of Philadelphia campaign for Kraft.)

Paul comes over from Edelman's MATTER agency, Eric joins from Scout Productions and Teal formerly worked on branded entertainment for 60Frames.

This week marks the launch of PBS Kids Go! Digital Citizenship Initiative, which features a suite of new resources designed to help kids and parents steer their way through the digital world.

The initiative includes the debut of the new interactive game Webonauts Internet Academy ( www.pbskidsgo.org/webonauts), which is free, aims to educate kids about online privacy, how to deal with bullying and identify credible online sources.

Supporting information for parents can be found at PBSParents.org ( www.pbsparents.org ), which includes Common Sense Media's tips for kids' internet use. The debut of Digital Citizenship Initiative coincides with National Cyber Security Month and National Bullying Prevention Month, both in October.

Little Airplane Productions completes further deals for The Olive Branch (26x1), a short-form film preschool series produced by Little Airplane's new non-profit Little Light Foundation ( www.littlelightfoundation.org ).

Picking up The Olive Branch is Disney Australia, British Forces Broadcasting Service Television, Canal+ Multithematiques (France), SVT (Sweden), OXO (Macedonia), NRK (Norway), and WorldKids Foundation (India). The series focuses on two characters that live in the same olive tree and each episode must find ways to resolve their differences and get along.

The Olive Branch debuted on June 1, 2010 on Nick Jr. in the US, with an exclusive six-month window for the first three episodes, as well as on a non-exclusive on Nickelodeon networks globally.

The series has also been acquired by KidsCo Worldwide. Little Airplane is offering the series broadcasters for one unit of their own currency per episode, though broadcasters are invited to make tax-deductible contributions to help cover production costs. The series is endorsed by Deepak Chopra, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and UNICEF.

Nelvana Enterprises will attend Mipcom this fall with several new series on its slate:

Frankly and Friends (26x30, 52x11) targeted to preschoolers the new CGI animated series features Franklin the turtle. The series is a co-production from Canada's Nelvana and Singapore's Infinite Frameworks.
Frankly celebrates his 25th anniversary in 2011.

Mr. Young (26x30) the sitcom follows Adam Young, a 14-year-old genius who is currently in grad school and also starting work as a high school science teacher.

Targeted to kids and tweens, Mr. Young comes from writer Dan Signer (The Suite life of Zack and Cody, The Suite Life On Deck) and is produced by British Columbia-based Thunderbird Films in association with Corus Entertainment's YTV (Canada). The series will debuts on YTV in spring 2011.

Scaredy Squirrel (26x30, 52x11) targeted to K6-11, this 2D animated series is based on the book series by Melanie Watt. Produced by Nelvana, Scaredy Squirrel will premiere on YTV (Canada) in 2011.

Nelvana will also showcase a range of other programs including Life with Boys, Mike the Knight, Sidekick, Detentionaire, Babar and the Adventures of Badou, Beyblade: Metal Masters, Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge, and Hot Wheels Battle Force 5: Fused.

What Entertains Kids On Mobile

2010-09-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Laurie Sullivan, Sep 20, 2010 11:33 PM

The majority of mobile entertainment devices used by parents and kids host less than 20 apps geared toward children, but about 7% host more than 60 apps for a child, according to The NPD Group Kids' Mobile Entertainment & Apps study released Monday.

Gaming is the most popular type of app downloaded, with the average mobile device used by a child containing approximately 10 game-related apps. Music ranked No. 2.

When it comes to overall downloads, however, music dominates and games moves to the No. 2 spot. Video steps in at No. 3.

Music makes up more than half of all downloads and about 61% of all child-related downloads to a mobile entertainment device. The remaining types of downloads, including ringtones, TV shows and movies, comprise less than 10% of all downloading activity.

Three top themes emerged in the study that keep kids coming back for more, and parents agreeing to allow the kids to download, listen to music and play games. Anita Frazier, industry analyst at The NPD Group, says these themes include the love of music, laughter to keep kids entertained, and fun and addicting applications. "Parents are more willing to pay for apps when they think their kids will use them a lot," she says.

Connecting with friends through social elements also attracts kids. "We all know you're supposed to be 13 and over to use Facebook, but all of us know plenty of kids under that age with Facebook accounts," she says. "The social aspects are appealing to many kids."

The ability to download content or listen to music at no charge continues to entice consumers, especially kids. Seventy-five percent of respondents say free is the highest motivating factor driving app downloads. Other motivators include recommendations by family and friends, the request from the child for the app, and the app's affiliation with a character or personality.

About 82% of all apps downloaded for children are free. Those who purchase apps for children say they're willing to spend almost twice as much as they do. And the willingness to spend more rises as the child increases in age.

Despite some prevailing notions that many apps are used once and then deleted or forgotten, most kids will reuse the same app many times. Only about 1% reported abandoning apps after one use. A child might spend on average slightly more than 20 minutes at a time, but this varies by gender and age, Frazier says.

Most kids use the app multiple times, rather than just once, or only a few times, Frazier says. "Parents told us their kids are using the apps 'over and over,'" she says.

Frazier says the study didn't measure whether the parent became a motivating factor to the child downloading and using the app, but NPD found that apps downloaded to devices owned by the child created more motivation compared with those downloaded to parent-owned devices.

"For devices owned by the parent, but that the child uses, 'it's educational' became a much more motivating factor" when trying to sell the kid on the application, Frazier says. Friends and family recommendations also help to motivate the child into using the application.

Final data includes 1,043 completed surveys from parents who have kids 0 to age 14 using either iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry or another smartphone. The survey was conducted between June 18 and July 28, 2010.

Study: Kids Are Web Experts, But Still Tripped Up By Ads

2010-09-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

Mark Walsh, Sep 13, 2010 08:28 PM

A new report by usability experts Nielsen Norman Group confirms what many adults, especially parents, probably already know: that kids are skilled Web users before turning 10.

It's not uncommon today for children as young as nine to be as capable as adults when it comes to navigating the Web, according to the 262-page study released Monday and based on testing with 90 kids ages 3 to 12 who interacted with 53 sites geared to children and three sites for general audiences.

That wasn't always the case. When Nielsen Norman conducted its first study of kids' Web use in 2001, it found that children ages 7-12 weren't necessarily the computer whizzes people commonly assumed. But with kids being introduced to the Internet at earlier and earlier stages, children in that age bracket are now seasoned Web hands, while their three- to six-year-old counterparts are the ones stumbling to find their way.

Even then, "some 3-year-olds are very good at using the Internet," said Raluca Budiu, lead researcher on the report, in an interview Monday. But kids still aren't so savvy when it comes to recognizing the difference between ads and editorial content online. With marketers increasingly trying to blur the line between advertising and content online for adults, it's hardly surprising that kids can fail to separate the two.

But unlike adults, children -- especially those under the age of six -- were unaware of the concept of advertising, while older kids may know about ads but couldn't always distinguish them. "Even when words such as 'ad' or 'advertisement' marked the ads, some of the children still clicked on them, thinking they were legitimate content," states the report.

Sites should be providing more prominent notice of advertising by making the ad markers large enough for children to see in display ads and by explicitly saying when an ad appears at the start of a video. The study cites pre-roll ads on the Cartoon Network that ran before video-centric games and confused children because the word "Advertisement" appeared in tiny print at the top of the screen.

The study recommends that ads aimed at children avoid calls to action like "Click here" or "Play now" because they are likely to grab kids' attention away from page content without the understanding that they are clicking on an ad. That might sound like a marketer's dream, but Nielsen Norman suggests that's not necessarily the case:

"When children click on ads, they often get to content that is not appropriate for them (for instance, it may have a lot of text, or it may be just different than what they were hoping to find), and thus they might feel disappointed and cheated. Often, the bad experience on the ad site reflects upon the original site, and children decide to go somewhere else." So irresponsible marketing backfires.

The study also advises that ads should have consistent placement on the right side of a page, as on sites for adults, to help children distinguish between ads and content and learn that clicking on the right side could take them to a different site. The children's site Funbrain, for instance, ran ads that sometimes appeared on the right, and at other times in the center of the page, creating confusion.

Once kids have clicked on ads, they should be clearly warned they are leaving the Web site with a dialog-type box in the middle of the screen, with options to continue or go back. Nielsen Norman found that many sites still didn't provide adequate notice, but many more did than in its original study nine years ago. Discovery Kids was among the sites that did a better job of indicating to young users that they were exiting the site after clicking an ad.

In what seems like advice that could lead to confusion, the study suggests matching ads closely to site content. The reasoning is that if kids see ads containing content not geared to their age group, they assume the site would not interest them either. Most sites matched ads to content well, although there were exceptions, like an ad on Neopets for AT&T U-verse -- a service for adults.

Government-mandated rules for online marketing to children include the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires Web sites to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children, including their names, home addresses, email addresses, or hobbies.

The FTC also works with the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which publishes self-regulatory guides for children's advertising.

Some Spanish language news

2010-09-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

US-based Hispanic broadcaster Vme launches Vme Kids, a new US channel specifically targeted to preschoolers, for whom Spanish is their home language, and their families.

The new 24/7 channel launches on AT&T U-verse, with further carriage deals in the works, featuring a programming lineup including Dibo (the Dinosaur), Los Difraces de Dougie (Dougie in Disguise), Los Supernumeros (Numberjacks), Bruno y los amigos Banana (Bruno & the Banana Bunch) andCinco Minutos Mas (Five Minutes More), LazyTown, Jim de la Luna, Musti, 7 Pets, Pororo and Connie la Vaquita (Connie the Cow), among others.

Vme is supporting its carriage partners with local marketing events including book tours with its sister company, Santillana USA and a LazyTown Live! school tour. The new preschool channel will feature programs and interstitials designed to help kids use their Spanish language skills and vocabulary in English, as well as providing parents with activities to reinforce what their kids are learning on screen.

Vme will continue to offer its daily kid-targeted programming block on the Vme network.

Canada's Skywriter Media & Entertainment Group and Brazil's Mixer are teaming up to develop the new interactive preschool animated series, Vivi, for TVO(Canada). The series will feature a mix of 2D cut-out animation and live-action.

Vivi follows the travels of an artistic girl, Vivi, and her grandmother, during which Vivi creates interesting souvenirs and scrapbook from the various cultures and locations she visits. Mixer will produce the animation, while Skywriter designs the interactive online component for the property.

Vivi has received funding from the Brazilian program, AnimaTV, which aims to stimulate animation development in Brazil.

So much Kids media action!

2010-08-31T11:35:00.001-07:00

Alloy Media + Marketing has teamed with Kmart on its new webseries, First Day ( www.firstdaytheseries.com), which premieres today on the multiplatform digital networkAlloyTV ( www.alloytv.com ).

Created by Alloy Entertainment (Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl), a division of Alloy Media + Marketing, First Day will air bi-weekly. Targeted to tweens and teens, the webseries follows a teen girl as she relives the first day of school over and over and over.

Alloy and Kmart put together scripts that showcase Kmart's exclusive fashion brands throughout the eight episode series. Kmart and its retail brands will get extended promotion during the run of the series, with additional media featured throughout the Alloy Digital Network and Alloy's Channel One Network.

Kmart will offer viewers a shopping component in each episode of First Day, during which its fashions will be featured and through a link they can then click and jump to the items on Kmart.com.

Evolve Media is announcing of the formation of its branded entertainment division - Springboard Studios - slated to produce close to 1,000 original video segments this year distributed across Evolve-repped sites as well as sites owned by the company's publishing arm, AtomicOnline (which oversees SheKnows, CraveOnline, GameRevolution, etc.)

Recent Springboard branded entertainment shows include reality decorator series Home Stretch and in-laws reality show Families Collide for SheKnows and Fanboy Fun House for CraveOnline.

Meredith Corp.'s BIG Communications

imbee, a tween-centric social media company, launches Drew ( http://drew.imbee.com ), a new pop culture news site for tweens.
Drew, which by the way stands for the Dopest, Realist, Epic, Wrap-up, will feature anything and everything in entertainment, tech gadgets, sports, style and anything else important to tweens.

With a graffiti style logo, Drew aims to provide news on all these areas by getting information directly from sources and offer a story behind the story/headline/photograph.

Keith O'Brien is named Sales Manager/Non-Linear Digital Media, BabyTV. O'Brien will oversee the commercial development of the BabyTV brand worldwide across non-linear digital media, which includes SVOD, video search platforms, Smart phone, mobile, syndication, gaming, social networking sites, among others.

He previously served as a Sales Executive with Sony Pictures Television, and an Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

Wizards Of Waverly Place: The Movie - Disney Channel - Salty Pictures
Peter Murrieta, Executive Producer
Kevin Lafferty, Produced By

Mondo TV, an animation producer/distributor, signs a US$6.7 million production pact with Visual Picnic and Licensing Works to produce the 2D animated preschool series, Playtime Buddies (52x13).

Produced in HD, Playtime Buddies will be showcased at MipJunior this October 2-3, 2010. Mondo TV will head production and worldwide TV and home video distribution, and has also been named licensing agent for the property in Italy.

MEG Toys has been granted the master toy license worldwide and distribute toys based on the series following its debut in each territory.

Visual Picnic owns the property, which was created by Erik DePrince. Licensing Works represents the worldwide licensing and merchandising rights for Playtime Buddies.

CBeebies (UK) acquires Uki (52x2), the first preschool animated series developed by record label Universal Music UK. The series will debut on CBeebies early next month as part of the channel's Show Me Show Me program.

Universal Music UK will handle licensing for the series. Created by Patrick Busschots and Peter Decraene of Universal Music's Belgium office, the series revolves around the daily adventures of Uki ( www.ukiland.com ), a happy little yellow character with endless curiosity and sense of fun, and his friends. Already picked up in a number of countries, Uki is currently airing in Belgium on kid's channels Ketnet and Club RTL, with books, DVDs, greeting cards and plush toys set to be available there from October.

BBC Worldwide will offer Uki at MipJunior this year. Uki was the winning project in the Pitch It award at the 2008 Kidscreen Summit.

MarVista Entertainment acquires the worldwide distribution rights for the feature film Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure, which is based on Lois Leppard's kid-targeted book of the same name, from Lost World Pictures.

Under the original previously announced pact, MarVista picked up the global rights to license the first movie in the series, Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, with an option for the next four movies.

MarVista will showcase Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure, as well as the first movie, at Mipcom this fall. Set in the early 1900s, there are 40+ titles in Leppard's Mandie book series. Produced and directed by Lost World's Owen Smith and Joy Chapman, also the rights owners, Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure stars TV/screen/stage actor Dean Jones (The Love Bug, That Darn Cat and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Company), Lexi Johnson (Sugar Creek Gang) and William Yelton (Hounddog, John Adams, One Tree Hill).

The third season of Scholastic Media's animated series WordGirl will debut on PBS Kids Go! beginning September 13, 2010 (check local listings). Produced by Scholastic's animation studio Soup2Nuts, features a voiceover cast including new and returning cast members Kristen Schaal (Toy Story 3, The Flight of the Conchords, Modern Family), John Henson (Wipe Out), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development, The Hangover 2), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), John C. McGinley (Scrubs), and Dannah Phirman (MadTV) as WordGirl, Chris Parnell (SNL, 30 Rock) as the Narrator, as well as Maria Bamford (Kick Buttowski) as Mrs. Botsford, among others.

Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun's Berman Braun Productions penned a deal with Starcom MediaVest Group giving the agency's clients a first-look sponsorship option for all of the producer's online content, per AllThingsD. The deal, involving brands such as Wal-Mart, P&G and Coke, could be worth north of $100 million.

Discovery's TLC.com is partnering with Volkswagen to promote the Routan minivan in a multifaceted campaign, with the automaker exclusively sponsoring family travel content on the site and the van being featured in an original web series dubbed " The Great Getaway.”

Beyond Distribution will debuts its new preschool property Toybox (75x30) at MipJunior in Cannes, October 2-3. Created by Ian Munro and Ron Saunders (Hi-5, New MacDonald's Farm, Bananas in Pyjamas, Magic Mountain and Milly, Molly), Toybox is designed to encourage kids to use their imagination and get up and dancing to music.

The series follows the adventures of a group of toy friends and the mischief and fun they have when they are left alone and come to life. Created with the assistance of childhood development experts, each episode features segments where the characters and audience discovers things together. Among the cast members is actress Brittany Byrnes (Babe).

Director/producer Ivan Reitman is developing a movie based on The Kid Table, an upcoming young adult novel from author Andrea Seigel, per Coming Soon. Reitman will produce the movie and writer Justin Adler (Better Off Ted, Less Than Perfect, Futurama) is adapting the book for the movie.

The Kid Table, set for release from Bloomsbury USA Children's Books on September 14, 2010, revolves around Ingrid and her group of siblings and cousins who have long been seated at the kid's table at family functions ... until the oldest is promoted to the adult table causing some consternation for the rest of the gang, particularly Ingrid.

Disney Channel will offer a North American sneak peek at Aardman Animation's preschool stop-motion animated series Timmy Time ( www.timmytime.tv ) on September 7. Following the preview Timmy Time get its official debut on the channel on September 13.

The series is based on characters in Aardman's series Shaun the Sheep, which runs also runs on Disney Channel. Lionsgate and HIT Entertainment will handle DVD distribution for the series here, with the first title slated for release in early 2011. Additionally, the Timmy Time toy line from Jakks Pacific will launch in spring 2011.

Tween Reporters: The girl tween/teen-targeted AllyKatzz.com ( www.allykatzz.com ) will re-launch this September and is looking for as many as 50 girls from around the world to serve as reporters for the site.

Girls that want to find out about the first set of tween reporters or are interested in becoming a reporter can do so at allykatzz.com.

Family Channel (Canada) gives the go ahead on three new live-action comedy series, each with multiplatform opportunities and all of which will premiere in spring 2011.

Decidedly Debra (13x30) - the series follows Debra, a vivacious teen with her own style and attitude, and her pal Preston as Debra sets out to star her own business. Produced byCookie Jar Entertainment, Decidedly Debra is created by Andrew Nicolls and Darrel Vickers (writers on Jimmy Neutron, Fairly OddParents, Back at the Barnyard)

Really Me (13x30) - When friends Maddy and Julia get their own reality TV series the girls dream of endorsement deals and all the perks they think will go along with the show ... but ... with a pushy producer, over zealous family members, and 24/7 coverage of their every move things are exactly how they'd imagined. Created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch, the series is produced by Fresh TV.

What's Up, Warthogs! (100x5)- the short-form series revolves around a group of teens looking to make their school's morning announcements an entertainment news show. The series will initially rollout on Family.ca (www.family.ca) prior to premiering on the network. Produced by Aircraft Pictures with Dolphin Entertainment's Bill O'Dowd executive producing, the series is created by Alex Diaz and Julie Sagalowsky. The writing team is led by Dean Batali (That 70s Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Discovery Education ( www.discoveryeducation.com) enters into a new deal with The Jim Henson Company that will see the entire preschool Sid the Science Kid(40x30) available via Discovery Education Science for Elementary in the next few months. The animated series, which airs on PBS Kids, is based on national science learning standards and the preschool science curriculum, Preschool Pathways to Science.

Sid the Science Kid revolves around a kid named Sid and his adventures during which he finds answers to questions using basic science principles. Additionally, Discovery Education will add 51 news segments from PBS NewsHour, produced by MacNeil Lehrer Productions, for high school students by the end of year.

Finally, Discovery Education will add 16 new streaming video resources to its STEM Connect area. A curriculum-based and career development science resource to help teachers, the video resources will be available at no cost to Discover Education streaming subscribers as part of its Be the Future initiative.

Haim Saban's Saban Brands acquires Paul Frank Industries (PFI), featuring its library of 150+ characters including Julius the monkey. Though the deal terms have not been announced, the deal is believed to valued at about $50 million. Saban Brands plans to support PFI with new content and media strategies that will incorporate the Paul Frank characters.

Ryan Heuser will continue to serve as Chief Creative Officer, PFI, reporting to Elie Dekel, President, Saban Brands. Mossimo Giannulli, one of the previous owners of PFI, will continue on as an advisor, while John Oswald will exit the company.

Saban Brands, a unit of Saban Capital Group, will manage PFI's business, while the creative operations remain based at PFI's current headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. Saban Brands bought back Power Rangers from Disney earlier this year and plans to launch new episodes of the TV series (the 18th season) on Nickelodeon, with previous seasons running on Nicktoons. Saban Brands previously said it has committed $500 million to acquire various entertainment and consumer properties.

BabyFirstTV promotes Itamar Daube to VP/Creative. Under his newly expanded role Daube, who had been Creative Director, will direct creative development for all series for the network and its cross-platforms (online, mobile).

Additionally, he will oversee on and off-air marketing and branding and lead the graphic art department. Daube will report to SVP/Programming and Operations, Arik Kerman.

Little Airplane Productions and Spin Master Entertainment will launch their new preschool property Suzy Takes the Stage (52x11) this fall at MipJunior.

The series revolves around Suzy, a young confident and tenacious girl, who works hard to learn and help others around her through daily and regular events (e.g. learning to ice skate, getting her brother ready for preschool) with determination, humor and music.

Suzy Takes the Stage is a mix of computer animation combined with elements of theatrical stagecraft (e.g. trap doors, sets, lighting effects). The series features Theatre Arts Animation, a new style of animation developed by Little Airplane for the project. Each episode includes original songs and features a curriculum underlining developmental skills including resilience and self-knowledge.

Chocolate Liberation Front

2010-07-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Liberation Front (CLF), the year-old interactive producer, lines up a slate of TV-based multi-platform projects in the US, Canada and Australia including Santo Sam & Ed's Cup Fever!, Dance Academy, Harriet The Spy and The Kids In The Hall.

Santo Sam & Ed's Cup Fever! a social media experience produced by CLF for SBS and Australia-based production company Working Dog. During the World Cup, CLF delivered a 24/7 online environment to support the World Cup live television program, delivering 1+ million visits to the social network extensions.

Also in Australia, CLF has been tapped by Werner Film Productions, ZDF and ABC3 to produce the Dance Academy choreography application, Dance Academy Dance Maker.

In Canada, animation studio 9Story has commissioned CLF to produce a promotional web site for the new Disney Channel TV movie Harriet The Spy: Blog Wars, and Accent Entertainment and CBC appointed CLF to deliver the interactive strategy for the latest Kids In The Hall eight-part prime time series 'Death Comes To Town,' which includes behind the scenes footage, original video and an interactive hockey game.

CLF is currently producing The Wild Kratts interactive project for the Kratt Brothers, 9Story, TVO and PBS, with financial assistance from The Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund and The OMDC - an Asylum Seeker Simulation for SBS with the assistance of Screen Australia, Film Victoria and in conjunction with the Refugee Council and The Immigration Museum.

Vans will introduce a line of Yo Gabba Gabba! sneakers for kids and toddlers this November at retailers and online at shop.vans.com. The collection offers eight different versions of Yo Gabba Gabba! Vans, with each series character featured on their own show as well as two versions of a group character shoe. Created by Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz, Yo Gabba Gabba! Is produced by The Magic Store and Wildbrain Entertainment.

A LOT OF KIDS NEWS WITH LOTS OF PRE-SCHOOL AND WEB

2010-07-27T14:05:00.001-07:00

Sprout is set to launch its first, long form original series Noodle and Doodle (26x11) on Saturday, September 25 at 9a, in conjunction with the channel's fifth anniversary.

Noodle and Doodle will then air every Saturday and Sunday morning at 9a and again at 11:30a. The preschool series will air as part of the channel's live morning programming block, The Sunny Side Up Show, which is expanding to include weekends.

The Sprout produced series is hosted by Sean, co-hose of The Sunny Side Up Show, and Noodle, a puppet that enjoys working in the kitchen, and Doodle, a virtual electronic pal, and features arts, crafts and healthy cooking step-by-step activities for preschoolers and their families.

The series also includes Sean's dog Doggity, who takes viewers into an animated world where a group of cooking dogs team up to solve problems and cooking snacks in the kitchen.

The animated Doggity segments were created in conjunction with series creator John McCoy and Ka-chew!, a division of Klasky Csupo (Rugrats, Wild Thornberrys). A corresponding website for the series will debut at SproutOnline.com ( www.sproutonline.com ) after September 25.

Disney Channel will premiere the new preschool special, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally, on Tuesday, September 7, 7-7:50p. Disney Studios Home Entertainment will release the special on DVD the same day and date. A week before the premiere, August 31, the full special will be available via Disney Channel On Demand.

Meanwhile in conjunction with its TV debut, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally will be available on iTunes and Xbox Live, as well as simulcast on mobile providers Sprint TV, FloTV and MobiTV. Finally, the special will be accessible on mobile VOD for AT&T CV, Sprint TV and Verizon V Cast from September 8. Online PlayhouseDisney.com/Mickey
( www.playhousedisney.com/mickey ) will launch Clubhouse Rally Raceway.

Ameba, a Winnipeg-based and kid-targeted IPTV system, expands its programming with the addition of CCI Entertainment's classic series Nilus the Sandman, Time Blazers, as well as Monster by Mistake to its AmebaTV.com ( www.amebatv.com ) subscription portal.

Koba Entertainment is currently producing a live theatrical production of Nelvana's animated preschool series Max & Ruby, which is based on the book series of the same name by Rosemary Wells. Targeted to family audiences, the musical tour, Max & Ruby: Bunny Party, kicks off in Western Canada this fall. Featuring music and lyrics by Norman Foote, the show will make its way across Canada and then throughout the US in 2011. ( www.maxandrubyontour.com)

Lots of Kids news

2010-07-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Sesame Workshop and V-me ( www.vmetv.com ), a Spanish-language US TV network, partner to co-produce original Spanish-language content for the series Plaza Sesamo in the US. The new co-produced content includes 10 live-action films that reflect diversity in the Hispanic community in the US, and support healthy eating and exercise habits and healthy social-emotional lifestyles.
The films are part of the new season of Plaza Sesamo, which debuts Monday, July 19 on V-me as part of its preschool block V-me Ninos. Production of the Plaza Sesamo original content for V-me was made possible in part by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

41 Entertainment (41e), an animation and distribution company, will begin production this fall on the new mixed 2D and 3D animated series, Blake: Double Identity (26x24), which it will co-produce with TOONF Valencia.
Written by Andy Briggs and directed by Eric Robert, the series will also feature state-of-the-art special effects and will delivered in HD. Blake: Double Identity revolves around the adventures of twins, Justin and Tatiana Blake (who think and do things alike), and two of their friends Mandisa, from South Africa and Cho Jordan, a Korean American, who are recruited by an international multi-government organization to go undercover on various missions.

The team is overseen by Mr. Li, a 30-something mysterious Hong Kong-based James Bond type. Slated to be available for fall 2011, the series will be showcased this fall at MIP Junior.

Disney Channel orders a second season of its new live-action series Good Luck Charlie along with a holiday-themed original TV movie. Geoff Rodkey (R.V., Daddy Day Care) is penning the Good Luck Charlie TV movie.
The series is executive-produced by TV veterans Dan Staley (Cheers, Love & Money), Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen (Suddenly Susan and What I Like About You), and is a production of It's a Laugh Productions. Baker and Vaupen are also the series creators.
Good Luck Charlie airs Sundays at 8:30p on Disney Channel (US), and can be seen on Disney Channels worldwide, with episodes available via DisneyChannel.com, Disney Channel on Demand, various mobile providers, as well as on airlines.

ITV (UK) re-teams The Foundation, a production unit of RDF Media Group, and beverage company Britvic as it orders a second season of Skillicious With Fruit Shoot H20 for air on kid-targeted channel CITV. The new season of the will be hosted again by Nigel Clarke his new co-host Anna Williamson (Toonattik, GMTV) and will continue to be filmed in front of a live studio audience.
Skillicious with Fruit Shoot H20 is a The Foundation production for CITV, produced by Dan Pickard. Ged Allen serves as executive producer for The Foundation and Jamila Metran as executive producer for CITV.

CBeebies launches programming blocks in Latin America and US Hispanic market that are designed to dovetail with the regular activities in a preschooler's day.
Based on the UK CBeebies channel schedule, the new programming grid for both markets is broken into four blocks: Tiempo de Despertar (Get Set Go, 6a-9a);
Tiempo de Descubrir (Discover and Do, 9a-2p);
Tiempo de Jugar (Big Fun Time, 2p-7p);
and Tiempo de Sonar (Bedtime Hour, 7p-9p).
The programming lineup throughout the day features show including Chloe's Closet, Wibbly Pig, Numberjacks, Nina and the Neurons, as well as Get Squiggling, Garth and Bev, Zigby, and Finley the Fire Engine, Roly Mo, Tellytales, and In the Night Garden.

Sprout, Milkshake!

2010-07-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sprout, the 24/7 preschool service owned in part by Comcast, inks a carriage deal with Charter Communications. Under the agreement Sprout is available now On Demand for customers with Charter TV in Digital.

Additionally, Charter will make Sprout's 24-hour digital cable channel available to its subscribers on a market-by-market basis through the end of this year.

Sprout's On Demand lineup offers 65-hours of programming monthly, including 15-hours of Spanish-language programming, such as Sesame Street, Bob the Builder, Barney & Friends and The Wiggles. Sprout is a joint venture between Comcast Corporation, HIT Entertainment, PBS and Sesame Workshop.

Charter announced it is adding PBS' pre-school programming service Sprout as an On Demand offering across its entire footprint. The MSO also plans to add the linear digital channel on a market-by-market basis by the end of 2010.

In the UK, Five's plans to launch a preschool targeted digital Milkshake! channel have been put on hold due to the broadcaster's financial situation according to Five's Director/Children's Programming Nick Wilson in an interview with Broadcast Now. While Five looks for a new owner, Wilson says he plans to further develop the Milkshake! brand online in the meantime

DISNEY JUNIOR, PBS Henson

2010-05-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Disney/ABC Television Group to shutter the 10-year-old SOAPnet channel to make room to launch Disney Junior, a new preschool-targeted multiplatform brand and 24/7 HD basic cable/satellite channel and corresponding website, in the US in 2012.

Ahead of the new channel debut, Disney Channel's daily preschool-targeted Playhouse Disney programming block will be re-branded as Disney Junior (date TBD). Carolina Lightcap, President/Disney Channels Worldwide, will add Disney Junior to her portfolio, which already includes Disney Channel, Disney XD and Radio Disney.

Outside the US, the 22 Playhouse Disney channels and programming blocks, available in 156 countries/territories, reaching 45+ million households will be re-branded Disney Junior beginning in 2011.

Designed to encourage parents to engage and watch/participate with their preschoolers, the new Disney Junior early learning skills and entertainment brand will provide affiliates with VOD offerings and a Spanish language SAP feed.

Disney says its new channel will feature 200 new episodes each year of both new series, such as Jake and the Never Land Pirates, and existing preschool series, including Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso and Imagination Movers among others, as well as Disney movies. SOAPnet is currently available in 75 million homes in the US.

The Jim Henson Company inks new licensees for its preschool series Dinosaur Train, which airs on PBS Kids ( www.pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain ).

The newest domestic partners signing on for Dinosaur Train include: DecoPac (cake toppers); Anagram (balloons); Cranston (fabric); Kidz World (upholstered furniture); Pacific Play Tents (tents, slumber bags, folding animal chairs); Publications International (sound boos, look and find books); and Global Manufacturing (scooters, skates and bikes). The new lines of Dinosaur Train merchandise will begin rolling out in the US from late summer.

2010 Upfront: The Hub

2010-05-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

2010 Upfront: The Hub, the new joint venture network between Discovery Communications and Hasbro, joins the upfront season as preparations continue for its October 10, 2010 launch.

Margaret Loesch, President and CEO, The Hub, unveiled a portion of the programming, including six original series and seven US series premieres featured on the network.

These series will be broken down into four demo specific programming blocks:
Preschool (K2-5; 9a-1p);
Kids Afternoon/Kids Prime (K6-12; 1-6p);
Family Prime Access (6-7p); and
Family Prime (7-11p).

Further original and acquired programming information and programming lineup launch schedule will be announced later. Here are The Hub's original series and acquired series (including US debuts), thus far:

The Hub Original Series:
Dan Vs. - the animated series revolves around Dan, a loveable loner, and Chris, his reluctant sidekick, as they strike out against the frustrations modern life has put upon him (real or imagined). Produced by Film Roman, a unit of Starz Media Company, in association with The Hatchery

Family Game Night - an hour-long, live-action game show series featuring kids and adults playing a range of classic Hasbro strategy games, such as Cranium, Bop-It, and Connect4. Produced by Hasbro Studios.

G.I. Joe Renegades - an animated action/adventure G.I. Joe origins series. The show follows the G.I. Joe team as it develops and goes up against their nemesis, the Cobra organization. Produced by Hasbro Studios.

Pound Puppies - Set in Shelter 17, the series follows a team of dogs and their mission to find a home for every puppy. "A pup for every person and a person for every pup." Produced by Hasbro Studios.

R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour - a scary-themed half-hour, live-action anthology series based on/inspired by kid horror author R.L. Stine. Produced by The Hatchery.

The 99 - the animated series is an adaptation of the eponymous comic book that follows the adventures of superheroes from 99 countries that work together to maximize their powers and foster peace. Created by Dr. Naif al-Mutawa, a Middle East scholar/clinical psychologist, each member of The 99 embodies one of 99 positive values (e.g. wisdom, mercy, and strength).
Produced by Teshkeel Media & Endemol Digital UK Production Group.

Acquired programming:

US Premieres include: Animal Mechanicals (preschool, 52x11) produced by Halifax Film

the CGI animated Cosmic Quantum Ray produced by Moonscoop Entertainment

Deltora Quest (52 episodes) a CGI animated series produced by Dentsu

Maryoku Yummy (preschool) - animated series produced by American Greetings Properties and DQ Entertainment in association with Telegael Media

Strawberry Shortcake (26 episodes) - the new CGI animated series produced by American Greetings Properties

The WotWots (preschool) - the puppet series comes from Weta Workshop and is produced by Pukeko Pictures

Twisted Whiskers - a CGI animated series produced by American Greetings Properties, and co-producers DQ Entertainment and Moonscoop

Other Programming: Fraggle Rock - produced by The Him Henson Company; Meerkat Manor - produced by Oxford Scientific Films; and Family Movie Night - which will offer family-targeted movies (titles TBA).

Veggie Mates, 37th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards

2010-05-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

CBeebies is beginning production in the North West area on Veggie Mates (26x15), a new mixed live-action/puppet and music series that focuses on the concept of nurturing, caring and growing.

The series aims to get kids outside and learning about the world around them, including the fun of gardening and caring for living things, the importance of drinking water when it's hot out, and that everyone is good at different things.

Slated to premiere in early 2011, each episode a team of young kids arrive to help Mr. Bloom care for the plants and produce growing in his garden.

The series features a group of vegetable puppets, the Veggie Mates, who the kids can play with, teach and care for, they include: Colin the Runner Bean - he's always first with the wrong answer; Margaret the Cabbage - she's shy but fun and has her heart in the right place; Joan the Fennel - a mothering type; Raymond the Butternut Squash - who is always saying sorry; Sebastian the Aubergine - who enjoys summing up the day's events with a song; and the Wee MacGregors - a group of mischievous radishes that cause havoc.

Veggie Mates is a CBeebies production made in BBC Manchester.

Nominations for the 37th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards were announced yesterday, which of course includes a collection of kid-targeted categories. Leading the way in kid-related programming nominations is PBS with about 36 nominations, followed by Nickelodeon with 25 nods, Disney Channel with 5 and Cartoon Network receiving 4 nominations. CBS will broadcast the Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards on Jun 27 at 9p, live from the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas. The Daytime Entertainment Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be handed out at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles on June 25. Some of the categories and nominees are listed below, happily there are far too many to list here! Congratulations to everyone and keep up the amazing work. For a full listing of categories and nominees check out our home page Cynopsis.com ( www.cynopsis.com ).

Outstanding Children's Animated Program
WordGirl - PBS
The Backyardigans - Nickelodeon
Curious George - PBS
Sid the Science Kid - PBS

Outstanding Children's Series
Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman - PBS
Design Squad - PBS
The Electric Company - PBS

New Approaches - Daytime Children's
Come On Over - ComeOnOver.com ( www.comeonover.com )
Fizzy's Lunch Lab - PBS
Design Squad - PBS
The Electric Company - PBS

Outstanding Preschool Children's Series
The Wonder Pets! - Nickelodeon
Between The Lions - PBS
Sesame Street - PBS

Outstanding Special Class Animated Program
SpongeBob SquarePants - Nickelodeon
The Penguins of Madagascar - Nickelodeon
Ni Hao, Kai-lan - Nickelodeon
Sid The Science Kid: "Getting a Shot: You Can Do It!" - PBS

Sesame Workshop and Televisa

2010-04-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Co-production partners Sesame Workshop and Televisa (Mexico) have begun production on a 13th season of Plaza Sesamo, which will include 65x30 new episodes of the preschool literacy-centric and story telling series, at Televisa's San Angel studio.

The new season will see the debut of the new Muppet character Gaby, a 4-year old girl, who, despite being timid and a dreamer, can overcome her shyness to sing.

The new episodes will also include new set features such as more buildings and windows, brighter colors, all designed to reflect Latin American neighborhoods that can be found in Mexico, Colombia, Chile or anywhere, and a new tree on the Plaza. Additionally, the new season sees the appointment of Lorenzo Dunoyer as new Sr. Producer. Javier Williams continues to serve as Executive Producer.

Season 13 of Plaza Sesamo will premiere on Televisa this fall and on Discovery Kids throughout Latin America in January 2011.

Sesame Workshop teams with the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) to assist in reducing the number of road accidents and fatalities among kids and families around the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Using its media expertise, Sesame Workshop will work with GRSP to create content and distribute materials that will educate kids/families about road safety behavior. So serious is the issue around the world, the UN General Assembly recently passed a resolution making 2011-2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Eori, Sesame Workshop and BASF Kids' Lab,

2010-04-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Malaysia-based Ed-Online Technologies, a multimedia developer of content including e-learning and entertainment projects, inks a co-production pact at MIPTV with South Korean animation producer/distributor NHC Media.

The deal is valued at US$15 million. Together the two will c0-produce the new 2D animated preschool series Eori (78x7), which will be available in English, Korean and Bahasa Malaysia from 2Q 2011.

Featuring a budget of US$2 million, the new series revolves around Eori, a boy that saves a fairy that in return provides him with a lifetime of adventure by giving him mask that can magically place him as a character in her wide range of storybooks.

The stories are all based on Malaysian, Korean and international folk tales. Primary work on the series will be produced in Malaysia, where it will create 100+ jobs.

The co-production is supported by Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), and Korea's Seoul Business Agency (SBA) and Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).

Sesame Workshop and BASF Kids' Lab, an three-year-old interactive educational program founded by chemical company BASF, join for a live interactive educational show featuring the Sesame Street Muppets called Magic Map Show, which will run at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, May 1 October 31, 2010, twice daily at the Dock Theater at the Expo Garden in Pu Xi.

Targeted to K6-11, the musical filled live show will take kids in the audience on a tour of five continents to educate them about and encourage them to take care of the Earth, and will also offer a hands on clean water-centric experiment called Recycle Dirty Water.

Monkey See Monkey Do, Totally Spies Fashion Agents

2010-04-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hit Entertainment debuts the new kid-targeted mixed CG animated/live-action preschool series Monkey See Monkey Do (26x7) at MIPTV this week, and has inked seven deals with international broadcasters. Produced by Smartoonz, Monkey See Monkey Doo is hosted by Monkey, an animated character, and is designed to get kids up and moving and dancing around. The series has been acquired by: France 5 (France); TVA, TVO and Knowledge (all Canada); Al-Jazeera Kids (Middle East); Minimax (Eastern Europe) and Disney Latam (Latin America). A US broadcaster deal will be completed soon.

Canada-based kelencontent is debuting two new kid's series at MIPTV 2010:

Red Caps (26x30) - a 2D animated series aimed at K6-11, follows Santa's special year-long team of helpers that have special powers to help kids around the world stand up for their rights and take responsibility for the world. The series will also feature a book series, online community and games, a 3D feature film, The Magic Crystal, which will be available from September 2010. Red Caps is a co-production between Epidem Zot (Finland) and Cartoon One Italy). The series has been pre-sold to RTL2 Germany, Hungary, Finland, Turkey, Middle East and Baltic territories.

Lotza (52x30) - the mixed animation and live-action preschool series is virtually non-verbal and uses music to help kids develop cognitive skills and prepare them for school. kelencontent holds the worldwide right.

Marathon Media and Ouat Entertainment partner to launch the co-published Totally Spies Fashion Agents ( www.fashionagents.com/en/), the first Role Play Game (RPG) based on the Totally Spies animated TV series, on Facebook. A Beta version in French and English will be published online April 20, with new missions and functions added every week.

The Totally Spies game invites players to create their own avatar and set out on missions to help save the world and play mini-games, and also acquire costumes and objects to decorate their apartments. In the Facebook game, players can share their apartment with friends just like the friends in the series.

Additionally, players can buy objects/items via micro-transactions that allow them to move through the game quicker, though they aren't mandatory to progress in the game.

CBeebies, Small Potatoes, Tinga Tinga Tales

2010-04-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

BBC names kid's TV veteran Kay Benbow as the new Controller of CBeebies. Currently Head/CBeebies Production, Animation and Acquisitions, a role she has held since 2006, Benbow will make the move next year with BBC Children's to BBC North in Salford.

Benbow takes over the vacancy left by Michael Carrington who exited the position earlier this year to join Turner Broadcasting as Chief Content Officer, Cartoon Network EMEA. Benbow joined BBC Children's in 1988, after beginning her career with BBC World and Domestic Services, and she also managed, produced and directed various series.

She spent two years at Tell Tale Productions, where she was a producer on Tweenies, before returning to BBC Children's and has since developed and executive produced a range of programs.

Little Airplane Productions inks pre-sales for its short-form preschool animated series Small Potatoes (26x3) across Europe, Australia and Canada. The new broadcast deals for the music-centric series include CBeebies (UK), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), ABC TV (Australia) and TVO and Knowledge (Canada). CBeebies plans to premiere Small Potatoes in summer 2011. Designed to help preschoolers learn about different genres of music, Small Potatoes features works by composers and lyricists such as Jerry Bock (Fiddler on the Roof).

Classic Media signs further license agreement for its new preschool property Tinga Tinga Tales.

New deals across all categories include: William Lamb (footwear); Roy Lowe & Sons (socks and hosiery); VMC Accessories (dress up and accessories); Trademark Collections (bags, umbrellas, wallets); Zap (bedding and towels); Hall & Associates (health and beauty); MV Sport (bikes, trikes, scooters); Paul Lamond (board games and puzzles); Titan (stand alone magazine; BBC Worldwide (multi-character CBeebies Weekly and CBeebies Animals Magazine).

Previous deals include pan-regional deals with Penguin Group, as global master publishing, which will release its first titles in the UK this May 2010, and a Bandai, the master toy partner for the brand, which will roll-out toys based on the property from this September.

CBeebies, Mister Maker, Survive This, Teletoon

2010-03-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

CBeebies gives its preschool line-up a refresh for spring 2010. Beginning Tuesday, April 6, Driver Dan's Storytrain and 64 Zoo Lane are joining In The Night Garden as part of the Bedtime Hour programming line-up.

The Bedtime Story remains as the final programming of the day. Waybuloo will run weekday mornings and afternoons on CBeebies and BBC Two, and on weekends on CBeebies.

Additionally, on three consecutive Mondays this April CBeebies will launch the new live-action music series ZingZillas on April 5 at 8a, followed by the new series Bob The Builder: Ready! Steady! Build on April 12, and Big Barn Farm from April 19.

RDF Rights signs further program sales for the kid-aimed arts and crafts series Mister Maker. Acquiring all three seasons of Mister Maker are CITI Channel (Ukraine), Ecuavisa (Ecuador) and Al Jazeera Children's Channel (Middle East).

Additionally, picking up seasons 2 and 3 of the series are ABC Australia and Hop! (Israel), while NTV7 (Malaysia) and Medicorp TV12 (Singapore) take seas 1 and 2.

BBC Kids commissioned a fourth season, entitled Mister Maker Comes to Town (20x20), that will see Mister Maker make his way to towns across the UK in the Makermobile. RDFR holds worldwide rights in all media for the property.

9 Story Entertainment has wrapped production on a second season of its adventure series Survive This (13 episodes). Hosted by Les Stroud, 9 Story will debut the new season kid/tween-targeted series, which features eight new teen 14-17-year-old contestants, next month at MIPTV 2010. YTV (Canada) plans to debut the second season of Survive This on April 19, 2010.

Corus Entertainment, which already manages on-air sales for Teletoon's (Canada) English-languages TV services, adds representation of Teletoon's kid/youth-targeted English interactive sales for the online brands, teletoon.com ( www.teletoon.com ), teletoonretro.com ( www.teletoonretro.com ) and teletoonatnight.com ( www.teletoonatnight.com ).

Corus' VP/Digital Media, Tim Cormick, will manage Teletoon's English interactive sales. Corus' youth-focused portfolio of websites represented by Corus' interactive sales team include Corus' YTV.com, Treehousetv.com, nickcanada.com, as well as representing Nick.com and Nickjr.com in Canada.

FTC To Consider New Restrictions On Collecting Data From Children

2010-03-25T10:50:00.001-07:00

Wendy Davis, Mar 24, 2010 08:12 PM

The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that it's seeking input from the public about whether to broaden regulations aimed at preserving children's privacy online.

The last time the FTC issued regulations regarding the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act was in 2000. The commission said it's now considering revamping the regulations due to "changes to the online environment ... including children's increasing use of mobile technology to access the Internet."

The 12-year-old Children's Online Privacy Protection Act prohibits companies from collecting personal information from children younger than 13 without their parents' consent. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the FTC specifically asks how the regulations regarding that law should apply to new platforms, including mobile, interactive TV and interactive gaming.

The commission also says it's considering whether the definition of "personal information" should be expanded to include "persistent IP addresses, mobile geolocation information or information collected in connection with online behavioral advertising."

That language is yet another sign that the FTC is concerned that even supposedly non-personally identifiable information -- that is, data other than name, address, phone numbers, etc. -- could be used to identify specific users. Last year, the FTC said in suggested guidelines for behavioral targeting that clickstream data potentially could be tied back to particular users.

Privacy advocate Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, says he supports a ban on the use of behavioral targeting techniques on commercial sites geared toward children. "The agency must bring its regulations on COPPA up to date, including specifically prohibiting the use of cookies and other techniques that track, profile and target kids on children's commercial sites," he said.

Chester also said that advocates have asked the FTC to specifically address efforts to collect data from TV viewers.

PBS Business and Daisy Whitney's upfront report

2010-03-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

PBS Kids names Happy Kid Toy Group as its master toy licensee to launch a new line of preschool-targeted educational toys. Under the multi-year licensing deal the new PBS Kids toy line will debut in 2011 at a range of retailers (e.g. including specialty stores, catalogue, internet, department stores and major mass retailers). The line will feature craft and activity sets, science sets and role-play games and will be packaged with information for about play ideas for parents/caregivers interaction. PBS will invest the revenue earned from the project into the creation of the next generation of educational content for kids. Additionally, PBS Kids and Happy Kid Toy Group worked with Big Boing to help create an educational experience that delivers on the PBS KIDS promise through toys.

Kids Upfront 2010: Networks, Agencies Cautiously Optimistic
By Daisy Whitney

Advertisers, agencies and networks are holding their breath for budgets to come in for the kids upfront. Why? Because the kids business usually unfolds first and could set the tone for the big ad selling season that's about to begin.

Everyone in the business wants to know the same thing will ad dollars be up over last year?

That's the looming unknown. But kids networks have reason to be cautiously optimistic as their upfront selling season begins. The big kids networks have seen double digit ad spending increases in the fourth quarter and into the first quarter as well, giving them hope that the upfront season may lift over last year's bleak one. Plus, one of the stalwart categories in the kids market family movies has enjoyed a terrific year and studios will likely spend more money this year, buoying the kids market.

Still, the market may be complicated this year by the coming addition of new players. Later this year, Discovery is expected to launch "The Hub" to 60 million homes in place of Discovery Kids. That network is a joint venture between Discovery and Hasbro. The ownership of the company presents unanswered questions for the industry such as how much Hasbro advertising will run on the channel and whether Hasbro will still spend as much on other networks. Discovery is keeping quiet on those specifics for now and doesn't plan on holding an upfront presentation, but will start individual meetings with advertisers and agencies in the near future, the network said.

However, ad buyers and kids networks say they aren't expecting the presence of new entrants to impact the upfront much. What's more, toys should remain a strong category for everyone, experts say.

While the market probably won't move in earnest for at least several more weeks, Disney and Nickelodeon have already presented their new programming slates to advertisers and Cartoon will take its turn next month. The early deals they're able to strike could set a tone for the rest of networks that follow.

Advertising Begins Rebound

"We started to see positive signs in the kids category back in October," said Jim Perry, executive VP of 360 brand sales at Nickelodeon. "That seemed to be a turning point when we started to see more movie studios and toy companies up their scatter spending." The network finished the fourth quarter of 2009 up 20% in scatter spending. Growth has continued into the first quarter, he said.

Though Disney Channel doesn't write scatter deals, revenue was up in double digits year to year for the fourth quarter, said Michelle Scarola, senior VP TV ad sales at Disney Media Sales and Marketing.

The fourth quarter is the true litmus test for the kids market since that's the time when advertisers want to tout their new goods and when parents spend the most money on kids. The strength in the toy and movie categories during the fourth quarter and on onto this year has been coupled with new spending from non-endemic kids advertisers. Dell, Hewlett Packard and Kodak have started to market printers and computers on kids networks, Perry said.

Still, the memory of the recession is far too fresh for networks or agencies to make bold predictions on spending. While kids networks enjoyed a strong holiday ad season, the circumspect nature of the recovery may keep spending tepid for some time. "The economy has stabilized but I wouldn't suggest it's back to where it was two years ago," said Jackie Kulesza, senior VP video activation director at Starcom. Plus there are ongoing regulatory issues surrounding kids advertising, she added. "There are a lot of factors that play into kids marketplace. There are discussions outside of our advertising world in Washington about this space and it continues to be a concern from a regulatory perspective. This administration might be bringing a different tone," she said.

Another ongoing challenge in the kids market is pricing. Demand is so strong for holiday buys, but advertisers and networks need to work out the right pricing for pre-holiday ad buys, she said. "It's a challenge for us and the vendors to figure out the demand in other times of the year," Kulesza said.

In terms of timing, she suspects the kids market will likely start to move closer to the adult market. "The kids upfront usually moves commensurate with the regular upfront," added John O'Hara, executive VP and general sales manager of Cartoon Network.

However, when the selling actually begins is anyone's guess and the kids market has the potential to move earlier.

O'Hara expects the market should rise in the toy, quick service restaurant and entertainment categories. "The toy business had a better fourth quarter than was anticipated so there's reason to believe that will sustain and movies are strong as well. The marketplace went through a lot last year and I am confident there will be growth in spending that will reflect the stronger demand," he said. "We will see a different demand scenario that will lead to stronger pricing in the marketplace versus last year."

Also, some deal-making will happen sooner and that's because multiplatform buys are critical to reaching kids who are so facile with digital viewing. Those deals take longer to put together so they occur year round, Scarola said.

New and Returning Shows

During its presentation, Disney focused on original movies and series as well as its hit animated show "Phineas and Ferb," which launched two years ago and has been a ratings juggernaut that attracts both boys and girls.

Meanwhile, Nickelodeon touted its sixteen returning shows and five new shows, including a live action series headlined by rising teen star Victoria Justice. Perry said the first quarter is on pace to be the most watched quarter in the network's 30-year history.

During its presentation next month, look for Cartoon to focus on its scripted live-action drama series, such as "Unnatural History" and "Tower Prep," and to continue to build on the success of its "Ben 10" franchise. The series has posted double digit ratings gains in kid demos in the fourth quarter, Cartoon Network said.

Other Players

In addition to the three networks, 4Kids Entertainment is another sizable player with its five-hour programming block on the CW. 4Kids will be presenting to agencies and clients over the coming weeks, focusing on its reach via broadcast, said Dan Barnathan, president 4Kids entertainment ad sales, marketing and promotion.

The other broadcasters will also play a role in the kids upfront via their Saturday morning kids lineups. That includes NBC's Saturday morning block programmed by Qubo, CBS's "Cookie Jar," and the kids block on ABC programmed via Disney. Fox no longer programs kids showing on Saturday mornings, due to competition from cable.

SyFy is also developing a kids programming block, but has not announced details or a timeframe.

Starcom's Kulesza also pointed out that marketers are also spending money in digital venues entirely separate from the upfront. "Certainly money will get more spread out as kids use media differently and use digital properties," she said.

Reading Rainbow, BBC Children, PBSKids, Sprout

2010-03-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Reading Rainbow plotting a return? In a tweet last week actor LaVar Burton, the host of the series for its full 23-year run, said, "You heard it here first ... Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in th[e] works! Stay tuned for more info.

But, you don't have to ...", per Huffington Post. Reading Rainbow, which both educated kids about reading, spotlighted books, provided kid reviews and encouraged kids to read for (dare I say) fun, ran on PBS 1983- 2006. For lots of folks, even those that don't recall the series clearly, the theme song remains in their heads ...

Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow

Sprout, the 24/7 multi-platform preschool service, and Decode Enterprises, the distribution arm of DHX Media, announce the exclusive US debut of dirtgirlworld, a green living series for preschoolers that aims to get kids up, outside, active and to "go get grubby" with the dirtgirl and her equally eco-interested friends.

Sprout's Dig Into Earth Day with dirtgirlworld marathon will feature several episodes of the series and air on Sprout on TV from 12p-3p on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22. Following its debut, dirtgirlworld will air on Sprout daily at 4:50p.

Games, crafts and environment friendly tips for parents of preschoolers will be available on SproutOnline.com ( www.sproutonline.com ). Created by writer/producer Cate McQuillen and composer/writer Hewey Eustace in northern New South Wales, Australia, the music-centric dirtgirlworld series features a mix of live-action and animation with photomontage and illustration. dirtgirlworld also airs on CBeebies (UK), CBC (Canada) and ABC (Australia).

PBS Kids will host its annual Share the Earth Day, featuring eco/science/outdoor-themed episodes of 15 series, on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010 (check local listings).

The goal of the programming event, which includes episodes of Curious George, Sesame Street and Super Why!, The Electric Company and Cyberchase, is to encourage kids to learn about the earth and explore earth sciences on a daily basis.

On the digital front, PBSKidsGo.org/video ( www.pbskidsgo.org/video ) will feature the online premiere of WordGirl's Earth Day Girl episode, as well as a themed channel of Earth Day episodes. From this week, PBSKidsGo.org will launch new content on EekoWorld, an interactive website that introduces kids to the basics of ecosystems, conservation and pollution, and on April 5th, PBSKidsSGo.org/designsquad/contest will feature the launch of the 2010 Trash to Treasure competition which challenges kids to recycle, reuse and reengineer everyday items into new inventions.

PBSKids.org ( www.pbskids.org ) will offer 20+ environment and nature games, as well as an Earth Day specific playlist at PBSKIDS.org/video. Additionally, PBSParents.org
( www.pbsparents.org ) will showcase eco friendly crafts and kid party ideas, and host an as the expert Q&A with Kimberly Brenneman, education advisor on Sid The Science Kid. PBSTeachers.org ( www.pbsteachers.org ) will host a webinar on April 5, titled Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.

BBC Children's new Director, Joe Godwin, unveils the new CBeebies spring/fall 2010 programming line up. Included in the new lineup are:

Zingzilla - a music-based series developed and produced in-house by CBeebies Productions;

Mighty Mites a new series hosted by Sarah-Jane Honeywell, which encourages kids to get up and get moving in various activities, each episode two kids go on an adventure to try an activity for the first time;

Mister Maker Comes To Town Mister Maker returns with a new series as he takes his arts and crafts on the road to get kids involved in art projects at home; Let's Celebrate celebrates the different religious and cultural festivals around the UK and meeting kids and families as the prepare for the celebrations;

The Octonauts debuting later this year the series features a group of underwater adventure heroes as they set out to rescue sea animals and explore underwater worlds, the series is based on the books by Meomi;

Same Smile host Nisha Anil bicycles across the UK with her three cuddly pandas to visit kids and discover our similarities and differences, the series is a collaboration with BBC teams from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London;

Everything's Rosie the CG animated series about Rosie, "a 21st century ragdoll" that lives in a playhouse and sets out on adventures with her pals during which they learn about life and friendship;

Timmy Time Timmy and his pals head out on a new set of barnyard exploits;

Tinga Tinga Tales the series returns with new stories about animals based on African folk tales and the Tingatinga art of Tanzania.

Star Wars for preschoolers, My Friend Boo, Tangerine & Cow

2010-03-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

George Lucas is working on a new Star Wars animated series and this one is for preschoolers and kindergarteners, per IESB. No really it isn't April 1 just yet.

Lucas and the folks at Skywalker Ranch are in pre-production on a series based on the Star Wars: Galactic Heroes, a line of Star Wars toys aimed at younger kids.

The series is reportedly operating under the working title Squishies, and there is a director on board. While Cartoon Network has had great success with the animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars, there is no word about a network deal.

My Friend Boo is a new preschool-aimed animated series that focuses on environmental issues, in an age appropriate way, such as water conservation and climate control.

Supported by the European Commission's fund for the environment, the series is produced by illustrator/animator/author Curtis Jobling (production designer on Bob the Builder, author/illustrator Frankenstein's Cat) and debuted in five European countries last week.

The series will be available in 11 languages across Europe from June. My Friend Boo will also be available in schools, social clubs and via other European organizations, such as Europe Region of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

Each episode is accompanied by free downloadable education packs for teachers/schools. The series follows a group of young kids and their magical dog Boo, who takes them on environmental-centric adventures.

Imira Entertainment completes sales of the Normaal Animation produced 2D animated comedy Tangerine & Cow (78x7), just ahead of MIPTV. Z@pp (The Netherlands) acquires the public free TV rights for the series, with Cartoon Network taking the pay TV rights for Spain and TV Catalunya (Catalunya) the free TV rights.

Additionally, RTP (Portugal) and Channel 5 (Lithuania) also picked up the series, while Al Sayyar (Middle East) takes the TV and home entertainment rights.

Further home entertainment and licensing deals have been signed with Kids Planet (Netherlands and Belgium), and Pourquoi Pas (France). Based on Jacques Azam's comic book Chico Mandarine, Tangerine and Cow is a co-production of Imira and Normaal.

Bedrock Studios, Summer in Transylvania, Cookie Jar Entertainment, Zinkia Entertainment, ZingZillas, PBS Kids

2010-03-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Cary Granat and Ed Jones open the doors of their new family-centric Bedrock Studios, which will develop/produce animated and live-action projects for movies, TV, publishing and digital media, with budgets of $35 million or less, per The Wrap.

Their first project is Turkeys, an animated feature film that will be directed by Ash Brannon (Toy Story 2, Surf's Up) and features a voiceover cast including Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson. The Thanksgiving themed Turkeys is currently in pre-production.

Granat is a co-founder and former CEO, Walden Media and Jones is an animator who runs Reel FX Creative Studios, he is a former executive at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Bedrock plans to draw on the various resources from the prolific Reel FX. Other projects on Bedrock's development slate also includes movies based on popular kids books The Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and Dinosaur Bob by William Joyce.

Nickelodeon UK picks up the new tween-targeted live-action comedy Summer in Transylvania (20x30) from The Foundation, a division of RDF Media Group. Currently in production, Summer in Transylvania revolves around Summer Farley (Sophie Stuckey My Life in Ruins, Midsomer Murders) as she struggles to make the best of her home, school and social life when her family relocates to Transylvania for her dad's job.

Life in their new home is complicated when the local community, which of course, is comprised of zombies, werewolves, vampires and mummies, looks upon Summer's "normal" family as weird. At least Summer has two new friends to help her along, Heidi (Amy Wren Life Bites), a zombie girl, and Bobby (Kane Ricca), a wereboy. Created by Andy Watts (My Parents Are Aliens), Nickelodeon UK plans to premiere this series in fall 2010.

In Toronto this week, C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures abruptly shuttered its doors and Cookie Jar Entertainment reduces its production staff by 35, primarily in the animation group, both blaming the economic downturn that has made it more expensive for US companies to commission work in Canada, per THR.

C.O.R.E. Digital, a digital effects and noted animation studio, is known for its CGI animated productions including The Wild, Ant Bully and Valiant as well as work on The Tudors, X-Men and other projects.

According to the report, Cookie Jar says it is moving more towards live-action production and also plans to further grow its Copyright Promotions Licensing Group, which is based in London and has 16 offices worldwide.

Zinkia Entertainment completes a deal with RAI 2 (Italy) for the animated preschool series Pocoyo (104x7). Co-produced by Zinkia and ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Pocoyo will debut this month on RAI 2, with two episodes airing back-to-back at 9:15a Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one episode at 9a on Fridays.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment handles worldwide distribution rights for Pocoyo, excluding Spain, Italy, Portugal and Latin America, which are handled by Zinkia.

CBeebies new music-based preschool series ZingZillas (52x22) is set to premiere next month. Set on a tropical island, the series features a group of musical primates, Zak (a gorilla and lead singer), Tang (an orangutan lead guitar), Panzee (a chimpanzee bass guitar/keyboard), and Drum (a monkey percussionist), under the guidance of their mentor and music expert DJ Loose, who together perform once each show.

The group is visited on the island by music stars including opera's Sarah Connolly, scat singer Dame Cleo Laine, and didgeridoo player Dhinawan. Kids/families can also be able to hear the ZingZillas songs via CBeebies radio or by logging onto www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/zingzillas . Additionally, kids can join the band and play along using their own webcams.

More new apps for preschoolers:
PBS Kids launches two new apps for iPhone/iPod touch that are designed to encourage kids to explore the world around them and support literacy skills. They are available at the iTunes App Store or www.pbskids.org/mobile.

Developed as part of the PBS Kids Raising Readers initiative, The Super Why! ($2.99) app features four interactive literacy games (rhyming, spelling, writing and reading) and four series characters, as well as a virtual sticker book.

The PBS Kids Photo Factory (free) app features characters/art from 11 PBS Kids series, which can be added to your own family photo, as well as offering local tune-in information. The photos can be shared via iPhoto, e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter.

Kindle Entertainment will release a new app based on CBeebies preschool series Big and Small via the iTunes App Store on April 1, 2010.

Developed by Ace Games in partnership with kindle, the Big and Small app will feature video clips and songs from the series, as well as sound effects from two series characters.

Schneider's Bakery, Material Girl

2010-03-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

Nickelodeon inks a new long-term production deal and has also picks up two pilots. The network enters into a three-year, eight-figure production with deal with prolific creator/writer/producer Dan Schneider, per Variety.

Nick and Schneider have worked together for many years, with Schneider creating and producing some of the network's hit live-action series including iCarly, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101 and the upcoming Victorious.

Prior to creating shows for Nickelodeon, Schneider worked on the network's series including All That and Kenan and Kel.

On the pilot side, THR reports that Nickelodeon has given the go ahead to Brian Robbins and his Varsity Pictures for the single camera pilot, Supah Ninja, about a group of ninja kids in high school, and to writer/producer Steve Tompkins (The Simpsons) for Everyday Kid, which revolves around a boy who wakes each day with a different super power. There will likely be more to add to this following Nickelodeon's upfront presentation this morning.

Madonna and her daughter Lourdes are helping to design Material Girl, a new junior collection for Macy's. The line is the result of the formation of MG ICON, a new joint venture between Madonna and Iconix Brand Group.

The Material Girl collection will bow with products ($12-$40) in a range of categories, including back-to-school, footwear, handbags and jewelry, in about 200 Macy's stores and online at www.macys.com beginning this August 2010.

The Material Girl plan will include the addition of products across lifestyle and beauty categories, including fragrance, from 2011. Additionally, under the deal Macy's will have the option to launch further brands with MG ICON.

Peep and Mandie and the Secret Tunnel

2010-03-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

Peep and the Big Wide World, the animated preschool science series, will be available to Spanish-speaking and bilingual preschooler for the first time when it debuts weekday mornings on V-me ( www.vmetv.com ) beginning this month (Monday-Friday, 9:15-9:30a).

Peep is produced by WGBH and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids.

A Spanish section of the Peep and the Big Wide World ( www.peepandthebigwideworld.org) is launching simultaneously. The site will offer animated Peep stores and related live-action videos featuring real kids playing the real world, as well as providing additional online educational activities and the like in Spanish for parents and caregivers.

Major funding for Peep is provided by the National Science Foundation, with additional funding is provided by the Northrop Grumman Foundation.

MarVista Entertainment acquires the worldwide distribution rights to the feature film Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, which is based on Lois Leppard's kid-targeted novel of the same name, from Lost World Pictures.

Under the deal, MarVista will license the rights to movie worldwide, and also maintains the option to acquire the remaining four movies for which Lost World's Producer/Director team Owen Smith and Joy Chapman own the rights.

The second movie in the series, Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure, is currently in development and will be completed this year. Mandie and the Secret Tunnel will debut to the international market at MIPTV. By the way ... there are 40+ titles in the Mandie book series, which are set in the early 1900s and follow Mandie on her mystery solving adventures with the her friends and cat Snowball.

Dora's 10

2010-03-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Nickelodeon celebrates the 10th anniversary of Dora the Explorer by launching Beyond the Backpack, a new multi-year/multi-platform campaign that aims to help parents and educators prepare preschoolers socially, emotionally, with early literacy and math skills and healthy living basics, for school, with the support of new partners actress Salma Hayek Pinault and Children's Defense Fund's president/founder Marian Wright Edelman, and the National Parents Teachers (PTA).

Nickelodeon will also mark Dora's anniversary with four primetime TV specials, an original documentary, and new online content for kids and parents.

The Beyond the Backpack initiative will include: a Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign featuring Hayek Pinault and Dora; a fundraising auction of limited edition celebrity designed Dora backpacks around the world (US proceeds to Children's Defense Fund, international funds to education in each country); dorabeyondthebackpack .com, a dedicated website launching in April, offering downloadables for parents and teachers; and local community activities.

The Children's Defense Fund and PTA, along with a range of experts, will inform an advisory committee. The PTA will also help with distribution of educational materials through their infrastructure and will c0-author a parent's toolkit for distribution.

Nickelodeon will premiere the first of the new primetime Dora the Explorer specials, Swiper the Explorer, on Sunday, March 21, at 8p.

In mid-August, in conjunction with Dora's official anniversary, the network will air the one-hour primetime special, Dora's Big Birthday Adventure. The Nickelodeon commissioned documentary is produced by Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) and also slated to debut on the network in August.

Milkshake! YOOPA

2010-02-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

In the UK Five's Milkshake! will launch its newly redesigned preschool-centric website next week. In addition to a new look, the Milkshake! site will feature less text and more images and offer a point and click process with icons, character pictures and host branded areas to make navigation easier for younger kids, as well as offering a range of activities, downloads, games and printables.

Additionally, the site will be home to the new re-branded Milkshake! area of Demand Five, All Day Milkshake!, where kids can view shows on demand. Five's in-house Digital Media Group and the Milkshake programming team produced the new site. Bionic Communications created the design and flash aspects of the site and it was developed and built by Unboxed Consulting.

Canada's TV Group is launching YOOPA, a new multiplatform French-language preschoolers and their parents brand this spring, per KidScreen. Specifically aimed at families in Quebec, YOOPA will include a digital TV channel and magazine, both schedule for an April 1, 2010 launch, as well as a website to bow in May.

The TV channel will initially feature programming from 6a-10p, eventually becoming a 24/7 channel. Original programming a part of the plan, with a new live-action/puppet series currently in production and slated to bow in June and a second series planned for this fall. In the meantime the channel will launch with acquired programming including Angelina Ballerina, Waybuloo, Blue's Clues, LazyTown and Pororo.

The website will mesh together existing kid and parent sites PetitMonde.ca and EspaceParents.ca. TV Group is a unit of Quebecor Media.

BBC Worldwide, MarVista Entertainment

2010-02-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

BBC Worldwide signs new broadcast deals for the animated preschool series Wibbly Pig (52x10). Set to premiere on ABC TV (Australia) in 2010, Wibbly Pig has now been acquired by TVB (Hong Kong), EBS (Korea) and RTE (Ireland). Wibbly Pig, which is just kind of fun to say, is co-produced by Wish Films and 9 Story Entertainment for BBC's CBeebies. The series will be seen on CBeebies channels in Africa and Latin America.

MarVista Entertainment completes principle photography in Vancouver on its Disney Channel TV movie co-production Sixteen Wishes. The new movie is slated premiere on Disney Channel US this summer and then rollout on other Disney Channels around the world. Starring Debby Ryan (The Suite Life on Deck) and Jean-Luc Bilodeau (Kyle XY), Sixteen Wishes is a comedy about a girl who has been planning her 16the birthday since she was little and over time has created a secret wish list that she has taped to her closet door. What starts off as a bad birthday turns the corner when a box of sixteen birthday candles arrives and the wishes on her list begin to come true, until she makes one wish on a candle that changes things forever.

Guess with Jess, In the Night Garden

2010-02-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Classic Media's CGI animated preschool series Guess with Jess debuts this week on Treehouse (Canada), Corus Entertainment preschool network, where it will air daily.

Co-produced by Corus' Nelvana Studio, Guess with Jess made its initial launch on BBC's CBeebies channel (UK) in fall 2009, and now airs on broadcasters around the world. Additionally, Tele-Quebec (Canada) will also begin airing Guess with Jess in summer 2010.

BBC Worldwide inks a licensing deal with publisher PT Media Griya Harmony, a unit of MRA Printed Media, to launch the preschool-aimed In the Night Garden magazine in Indonesia. The In the Night Garden magazine is based on the kid's TV series of the same name.

With Aksara Sophiaan as Editor in Chief, the first issue of the magazine in Indonesia, debuts this week featuring 20% original content and 80% UK content. Produced by Ragdoll Productions, the In the Night Garden TV series debuted on CBeebies channel in Indonesia in April 2009.

Friday kids news

2010-02-19T10:32:00.001-08:00

Nickelodeon picks up a second season of its new kid game show BrainSurge. Production on the new season or 40 episodes will commence this spring 2010, with Jeff Sutphen returning as host.

In addition to the BrainSurge TV series (Monday-Friday at 4:30p), kids can play the game online at www.nick.com/brainsurge . BrainSurge is produced by 310 Entertainment and Stone & Company.

In Canada Family Channel, Astral Media's commercial kid/family network, will premiere Disney Channel's new original TV movie StarStruck on Friday, March 19 at 7:30p.

The movie will also be available on Family OnDemand (an SVOD service) from March 16-April 5. StarStruck premieres as part of Family Channel's week of spring break programming Monday-Friday, March 15-19 and Monday-Friday, March 29-April 2.

The animated preschool series the WotWots (52x10) will premiere in Canada on Treehouse on February 22, 2010 at 6:15p. The WotWots will air regularly on Treehouse on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6:15p, and Saturdays at 6:30p and Sundays at 1:40p.

Created by Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor and Martin Bantyon, the WotWots made its initial launch in New Zealand on TVNZ last year and currently airs on TV2 and TVNZ6 daily. The series also airs in Australia (ABC1, ABC2), the UK (Channel 5's Milkshake), and in Finland (MTV3)

PBS Kids is inviting Mister Rogers fans young and old are invited to vote for their favorite episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood at www.pbskids.org/rogers . Once at the site you can choose from seven Mister Rogers episodes, with the winning episode to broadcast on air and online on Saturday, March 20 (check local listings), as part of the third annual Won't You Be My Neighbor? Day, which celebrates Fred Rogers' birthday and his world of neighborhoods.

While online fans can also view previously unseen clips, behind the scenes moment and outtakes from the long running preschool series at pbs.org/video, as well as share their own photos and stories in the Neighbors of All Ages area at PBSKids.org/rogers. Additionally, PBS Kids has also recently introduced Mister Rogers' Make a Journal iPhone/iPod Touch application.

Dolphin Entertainment signs a program sales deal with NRK (Norway) for the live-action series Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. Created and executive produced by Scott Fellow, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide was developed and produced for Nickelodeon, which launched the series in 2003. The series airs around the world on various broadcasters.

Doodlebops and Yo Gabba Gabba

2010-02-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

The new preschool animated series Doodlebops Rockin' Road Show from Cookie Jar Entertainment will premiere on Kid's CBC (Canada) on Saturday, February 20, at 11:30a. Based on the live action Doodlebops series, the new series is a co-production with Argentina's Illusion Studios and Germany's OPTIX Entertainment.

The series, during which the Doodlebops will help viewers solve age appropriate problems, will air regularly on Kids' CBC on Saturdays at 11:30a and Wednesdays at 10:30a.

Nickelodeon premieres the third season of the preschool music series Yo Gabba Gabba! on Monday, March 8, 10:30a.

The new season debuts with a week of new episodes, Monday-Friday, March 8-12, featuring a range guest appearances including Sarah Silverman, Weird Al Yankovic, Black Kids, Jack McBrayer, Paul Scheer, Weezer, Anthony Bourdain, Of Montreal, Mos Def, Devo, The Aquabats, Mark Mothersbaugh, Biz Markie and a special remix by Travis Barker.

Created by Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz, Yo Gabba Gabba!, is produced by The Magic Store and Wildbrain. Returning in their regular segments is Biz Markie in the Biz's Beat of the Day, Mark Mothersbaugh in Mark's Magic Pictures and Jack McBrayer and Paul Scheer in the recurring Knock Knock joke segment. The season will include many other celebrity appearances.

Electus, JimJam, Big and Small

2010-02-16T10:24:00.000-08:00

Electus, Ben Silverman's newly formed multimedia company that is a business of IAC, inks a development deal with kid-centric build-a-robot entertainment brand Robotgalaxy for TV and movie projects.

Under the deal, Electus will package, develop, distribute and produce original content based on the brand's likeness across a variety of platforms including TV and film worldwide.

Additionally, Electus has teamed with Charlie Walk's CWE Media to serve as producer on all Robotgalaxy projects. Robotgalaxy is a concept based on the RobotGalaxy comic book series that includes a build-a-robot retail experience, a web-enabled toy, as well as a virtual world, which allows kids to create and program their own robots.

JimJam, the global preschool channel, expands further throughout Asia, which coincides with the channel's new look. The JimJam channel has its first launch in Thailand as a 24/7 service on Cable Thai Holding, a consortium of TV operators, and also signs a carriage deal with Indovision (Indonesia). The channel's new look begins with the jungle theme and later this year will feature other themes such as outer space, circus and the sea. The JimJam on-air refresh, which was created by Chello Zone's in-house production team, also simultaneously rolls out on all its feeds, including 50+ countries across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Welsh broadcaster S4C acquires preschool series Big and Small (52 episodes), as well as the series website, from Kindle Entertainment. S4C will debut the series as part of its preschool service Cyw from April 2010, weekdays at 12:30p. The broadcaster will feature the Big and Small microsite as part of the Cyw website. Big and Small is a co-production of Kindle Entertainment the 3J's Productions for BBC, produced in association with Treehouse TV and studio 100.

What kids’ buyers are looking for

2010-02-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

(Kids | MIPJUNIOR, 04.10.09)

Although the new online screening system means programmes can be viewed online for the next 12 months, key buyers were making the most of the opportunity for two days of intensive screening at MIP Junior, fuelled by refreshments provided by Cookie Jar.

- “We want strong live action and animated comedy for 6-9s, and boys’ action series,” said Jules Borkent, SVP global acquisitions and international programming for Nickelodeon (photo).

- Francine Laprade, evaluation officer for CBC Radio-Canada, wanted 2- and 3D animated series of all lengths for all age groups between 2 and 12. “I will screen more than 50 series this weekend,” she said.

- David Levine of Disney Channels Worldwide directs programming strategy for nearly 100 Disney channels around the world. “Our priority is animation for Disney XD, and original movie co-production opportunities,” he said.

- Signe Lindkvist was buying for Ramasjang!, Danmarks Radio’s new kids’ channel. “We launch next month,” she said. “It’s Denmark’s first public service channel specifically for kids.”

- Bella Stjerna, head of children’s and youth at SVT was seeking ‘anything good’ for SVT Barnkanalen, SVT’s dedicated children’s channel. “We have plenty of good pre-school content,” she said. “But it’s more difficult to find content for the hard-to-please 7-11 year olds.”

- Ola Kurcz of Poland’s Canal+ Cyfrowy was seeking content for the pre-school channel Mini Mini and Zigzap, for 8-12s. “We saw a lot of new titles this year, particularly from Asia.”

- Nils Stokke, head of planning, scheduling and acquisitions for NRK Super, the Norwegian public service children’s channel, screened for kids from 2-12. “I’d like to see more live action for older kids,” he said. “That’s been hard to find for a couple of years now.”

- At his first MIP Junior, YLE’s Jusu Lounela was buying for 12-16 year olds for Finland’s TV2 channel. “I’m also seeking content for my youth magazine show, Summesi,” he said.

Branded Content initiatives

2010-02-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

Walmart and Procter & Gamble (P&G) are teaming to produce family-friendly TV programming and begin this effort with the 2-hour TV movie Secrets of The Mountain, which will premiere on NBC on April 16, 2010.

Family-friendly TV commercials from both companies will run during the movie's breaks and, per the WSJ, it will also feature an array of product placements during the movie, and that P&G is spending $4.5+ million to produce the TV movie.

Secrets of the Mountain is described as a drama-adventure about a single working mother who takes her family to a mountain cabin they inherited from their eccentric uncle, where they set off on an adventure.

The partnership falls under Walmart's new Family Moments, a marketing, in-store and digital family-centric entertainment initiative. P&G is co-founder, and Walmart is c0-fhiar with P&G, of the Alliance for Family Entertainment (f/k/a Family Friendly Programming Forum), a group of about 40 national advertisers, which is supported by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

Ameba, a Winnipeg-based IPTV system for kids' entertainment, prepares for the North American launch of AmebaTV.com ( www.amebatv.com ) by taking delivery of proprietary set-top boxes in preparation. This new portal aims to deliver commercial free, kid-targeted entertainment directly to television viewers via the web.

AmebaTV.com's library includes 500 hours of live-action and animated kid-centric content from producers including Decode Entertainment, Breakthrough New Media, Casablanca Kids, Sockeye, Marble Media, Portfolio, TVO, Compugraf, Blender, Agogo Entertainment, Ingaldson-Smith Productions, and Janet's Planet, National Film Board, among others.

Sprite is inviting teens to express their creativity via music and film in its first global integrated marketing campaign, The Spark, which takes its name from Sprite's newly updated Spark logo. The campaign includes TV commercials, an online interactive music mixer featuring content from music artist Drake and a digital film mixer, aimed at inspiring teens to interact and be creative. The Spark launches this year first in North America, and then across Europe, Africa and Asia. The new campaign will be showcased at the NBA All-Star 2010 this weekend, which will feature a soundtrack by Drake. A range of different artists will be featured in The Spark campaign around the world. Sprite is part of The Coca-Cola Company.

Hit Entertainment, Latin America Multimedia Corporation

2010-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Hit Entertainment goes ahead with the development of two new projects from noted US TV writer/producers:

For the Birds - an animated comedy series targeted to K8-11, which follows the adventures of Earl E. Bird. The series comes from writer/producers Tom Ruegger (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain) and Randy Rogel (Animaniacs, Batman).

Zip Zip Zippy - a music-based preschool series that invites viewers to physically participate in story-based adventures, and featuring a live-action host in an animated world of animals and kids. The series is created by Jeanine Kay and Luciana Brafman Bienstock.

Latin America Multimedia Corporation (LAMC) moves forward with new episodes of the live action preschool series Dos y Dos. Recorded in Spanish and English, the new episodes of Dos y Dos will include 26x30 new episodes for two new seasons of the series, which are scheduled to be available beginning September 2010. 4Kids Entertainment is the worldwide merchandising and licensing agent and brand manager for the property.

Mexico City-based Rose Entertainment handles international distribution for the series. Dos y Dos has also inked a deal with Peer Music to serve as the exclusive music publisher in the Americas and parts of Europe. Peer Music and 4Kids Entertainment will work together to develop merchandise that showcases music from the TV series.

Additionally, the four main characters from the series will star in a new live stage version of Dos y Dos, currently scheduled to stop in 10 cities in the US this summer.

Spin Master Entertainment, The Kratt Brothers, PorchLight Entertainment

2010-02-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Spin Master Entertainment, a division of Spin Master Ltd., and animation studio Titmouse are partnering to co-develop and produce a new tween animated music TV series The Special Offers.

Created by Titmouse's VP Keith Fay, the series will feature music by Fay and Gina Shock -- yes, you remember her as the drummer of the Go Go's (she has also penned songs for Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Miranda Cosgrove). Fay previously produced the first two seasons of Adult Swim's Metalocalypse, and was also creative producer for in-game cinematics scenes on the last five Guitar Hero video games.

The series follows four music-loving misfit kids that form a band, The Special Offers. Each episode will feature an original song, culminating in a soundtrack release at the end of the season.

We can also look forward to a live tour. Spin Master Entertainment will serve as the global merchandising, licensing agent and toy maker for the property, with Titmouse Entertainment creating the animated series and retaining the global music rights.

Spin Master's Matt Wexler and Jennifer Picherack and Titmouse's Fay and Shannon Prynoski will serve as Executive Producers of the TV series. Schock will serve as a producer and will collaborate on original music with Fay for the series.

The Kratt Brothers head back into the wild in the new animated wildlife adventure/comedy series Wild Kratts (40x22). Targeted to K6-9, Wild Kratts will premiere in January 2011 on PBS Kids Go!, and in Canada on TVOntario, Knowledge Network and Tele-Quebec, and will be showcased next week at the KidScreen Summit in NYC.

Co-produced and distributed by The Kratt Brothers Company and 9 Story Entertainment, the series follows animated versions of real life zoologist brothers Chris and Martin Kratt as they take viewers on adventures where they explore habitats of unusual animals.

In each episode the brothers work to help animals in crisis, often instigated by their nemesis Zach Varmitech and his mission to collect endangered animals. 9 Story Entertainment will distribute the series outside of North America. The Kratt's created and produced Kratt's Creatures, Zoboomafoo and Kratt Brothers: Be The Creature.

PorchLight Entertainment adds the new Flash animated series Agent A to Agent Z (52x11) to its development slate. Created by Andy Rash (author/illustrator) and Dan Yaccarino (author/creator, Oswald, Willa's Wild Life) and based on Rash's kid's book of the same name published by Arthur A.

Levine Books, Agent A to Agent Z is a comedy/mystery that revolves around the misadventures of a father and son (12-yr-old Aaron) spy duo and their secret missions.

Disney Television Animation, Sesame Street Old School Vol. 1

2010-02-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

Disney Television Animation commences production on Jake and the Never Land Pirates, a new interactive mixed 2D and CG animated preschool series, which will premiere on Playhouse Disney-branded blocks and channels around the world.

Designed to underline the importance of teamwork, the original music-filled series follows Jake and his pirate friends (and parrot) as they travel through Never Land in search of lost treasures and learning to work together and hone their problem solving skills, with the help of the at home audience, to outsmart Captain Hook and his ever-present lackey Smee.

The series stars Colin Ford as Jack, and Madison Pettis (Cory in the House, The Game Plan) as Izzy, and Jonathan Morgan Heit (Bedtime Stories) as Cubby. Executive produced by Rob LaDuca (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), Jake and the Never Land Pirates features original music by Loren Hoskins and Kevin Hendrickson of the pirate rock band Captain Bogg & Salty.

On the heels of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, E1 Music will release the CD box set Sesame Street Old School Vol. 1 on March 23, 2010.

The box set features three of the earliest Sesame Street albums, cast and original art: The Original Cast Recording (1970), Big Bird Sings (1974) and Bert & Ernie Sing Along, all digitally re-mastered and all on CD for the first time.

A ton of great songs and of course performances including at least one song featuring Mr. Hooper.

SpaceFace

2010-01-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Another kid-targeted social network launches. SpaceFace ( www.spaceface.com ) is a new space-centric virtual world aimed at kids/tweens 4-14.

SpaceFace features games, private messaging (SpaceChat), and a way to earn and collect points (SpaceGold), which can be used in its shopping area (SpaceMall). The also has 24/7 content monitors.

PBS,BabyTV

2010-01-15T11:29:00.000-08:00

Public broadcaster PBS, which recently retooled its video site to make it much easier on the eyes and the mouse, continues to impress by devoting significant creative resources to its online efforts.

The network unveiled two new projects at TCA this week worth noting. In partnership with its local New York affiliate, WNET.org, PBS plans to launch "Need To Know" in May, a broadcast and online news show hybrid.

The idea is to cover stories using multiple mediums that are getting missed as less and less American pick up a newspaper. The property will aggregate news and public affairs content along with offerings from editorial partners in a weekly one hour show produced by WNET.org and via a "supervertical" site at pbs.org.

PBS also continues to up the ante for its online kids properties.

Lifeboat to Mars is a new Flash-based educational game designed by Red Hill Studios that includes an ambitious array of customization features. Watching online video to today's kids is like reading the cereal box for earlier generations.

PBS says kids watched more than 87.5 million video streams across the PBS Kids family of sites last month, a new high for the portal.

BabyTV partners with the Hong Kong Bureau of Education (EDB) to launch a 'guidebook', Growing Together: Making the most of TV for toddlers. The book is designed to help parents make better media relate choices for their kids, as well as how to engage with their kids to get the most out of kid's TV and media.

Created using the results of a survey conducted last summer in Hong Kong by BabyTV, which found that while 90% of parents use screens with their kids most aren't well educated about what makes age appropriate content, the book will be distributed to parents at kindergartens across Hong Kong.

Wilson & Ditch: Digging America

2010-01-13T13:06:00.000-08:00

This week marks PBS Kids Go! and The Jim Henson Company's exclusive online launch of the comedy digital puppet series Wilson & Ditch: Digging America.

he series was created by Joe Purdy (story editor/Dinosaur Train, Sid The Science Kid) and Craig Bartlett (creator/Dinosaur Train, Hey Arnold), and produced by The Jim Henson Company.

Targeted to K6-10, Wilson & Ditch: Digging America takes viewers on a cross-country adventure with two gopher brothers (performed by Brian Henson and Paul Rugg), learning about American culture, history and geography along the way.

In addition to the webisodes, Wilson & Ditch also features interactive games, original comics a travel blog, online location audio podcasts, and downloadable activities from Wilson and Ditch's adventures.

Little Airplane Productions' new animated preschool series, Tobi (4x4), is set to make its worldwide launch on Sunday, March 7 on Nickelodeon Australia and Treehouse TV (Canada).

The series debut coincides with UNICEF's annual International Children's Day of Broadcasting, which encourages broadcasters to air programming for, about or by kids.

The short-form series revolves around a young boy, Tobi, who wants to make the world a better place and focuses on global issues in an age appropriate way, including human rights, endangered species and homelessness.

A traditionally hand drawn animated series featuring backgrounds created with recycled materials, Tobi is written in verse and uses a combination of stylized jazz and dialogue to support the narration. Tobi is produced at Little Airplane's NYC studio, with the company's Supervising Producer Tone Thyne heading up the production.

Team Umizoomi, Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation in Children's Learning.

2010-01-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

Looking to empower preschools with early number skills Nickelodeon will launch its new math-centric series, Team Umizoomi (20x30), on Monday, January 25 with two back-to-back episodes from 11:30a.

A mixed 2D/3D animated and live action series, Team Umizoomi presents and bolsters preschoolers with math skills and self-esteem through interactive action-adventure missions.

Following the series premiere, Nickelodeon will air two weeks of new episodes Tuesday-Thursday, January 26-28 and Monday-Thursday, February 1-4 at 11:3oa. To supp the series launch, the network will offer a sneak peek at Team Umizoomi at Nick Jr. Video (at www.nickjr.com ) and wireless carriers via VOD.

The premiere episode will simulcast on Nick Mobile. Additionally, two episodes of the show will play back-to-back on the Nick Jr. channel on Sunday, January 31 and Sunday February 7 at 7p. Created by Blue's Clues alumni Soo Kim, Michael T. Smith and Jennifer Twomey, the series features a team of superheroes that use age-appropriate math to help solve their challenges.

NickJr.com will offer a Team Umizoomi learning section featuring math activities for parents to use with their kids, as well as games, videos, printables, and later this month additional free content such as personalized and customizable printables and a mo newsletter.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center ( www.joanganzconeycenter.org) at Sesame Workshop is accepting online proposals (by April 1, 2010) for its first Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation in Children's Learning.

Designed to encourage creators to develop new tools and content in kid's digital media and learning, the new annual national competition was launched last week at the Consumer Electronics Show's Kids at Play Summit.

Creators can develop projects in two categories: Breakthroughs in Mobile Learning mobile learning projects for K3-11; and Breakthroughs in Literacy Learning: Innovate with The Electric Company projects should promote literacy skills for K6-9 using The Electric Company series, not only on TV but for wherever kids are.

Up to five finalists in each category will be invited to pitch their ideas to industry and educational executives at an event held at this year's E3 Expo

Little Charley Bear and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

2010-01-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Chapman Entertainment names Vivid Imaginations as the new master toy licensee for its new preschool series, entitled Little Charley Bear.

Commissioned by CBeebies, Little Charley Bear revolves around a teddy bear named Charley who uses his imagination to go on adventures under the watchful eye of his pal, the Narrator. The series also features other characters including Squeak (a penguin), Tina (teddy bear), Pixel (a robot), Bluey (bunny), Caramel (cow) and Bella (a ballerina).

Under the five-year toy deal Vivid Imaginations will develop a Little Charley Bear toy line including plush, playsets, role play, arts and crafts, puzzles and games for distribution in the UK, France, Benelux and Germany.

Vivid also has global manufacturing rights for the brand excluding the US, and plans to debut Little Charley Bear products in the UK in fall/winter 2011. Vivid Imaginations also serves as the master toy licensee on Chapman's preschool series, Fifi and the Flowertots and Roary the Racing Car.

Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams, inks a deal with Lucasfilm, Ltd. to feature Yoda n a new middle school novel titled The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.

Written by Tom Angleberger, the book revolves around Dwight, a "total loser," who somehow provides his sixth-grade classmates with particularly useful advice via an origami Yoda finger puppet; like the date of a pop-quiz, who has a crush on whom, and moments of potential humiliation.

How does Dwight do it? That's what Tommy, a hipper classmate, wants to know and sets to finding out how a dork like Dwight is pulling this stunt off.

Forum Nokia and my iPhone APP

2010-01-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

Forum Nokia launches its annual Calling All Innovators 2010 app development challenge, which is designed to inspire creative and change.

Additionally, Forum Nokia is partnering with Sesame Workshop for the education apps section of the life improvement category (see below) to encourage developers to create educational apps and possibly use Sesame Street characters to teach early literacy on Nokia devices. S

esame Workshop, which will offer guidance during the judging process, will work with select developers to further enhance their related projects.

The annual contest, which runs February 1-May 18 2010, is broken into four submission categories that enhance the use of Nokia mobile devices in the real world:

Eco/Being Green apps that help save the planet

Productivity apps that make users lives easier and more efficient (e.g. utilities, business, personal finance)

Life Improvement apps that positively affect on daily lives of those living in developing countries by using mobile devices to teach kids and illiterate adults critical skills among other things

Entertainment apps showcasing multimedia features including music, multimedia and games.

Here's the app for the Whole Wide World: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/art-star/id299569441?mt=8

digital media in the classroom

2010-01-07T10:15:00.001-08:00

The use of digital media and internet in the classroom is on the rise according to the latest edition of an annual study conducted by Grunwald Associates for PBS.

More than three-quarters (76%) of K-12 educators say they use digital media, up from 69% in 2008. Of K-12 teachers who use digital media in the classroom, 80% say they are frequent or regular users.

While DVDs are still the preferred medium by a narrow margin, 72% of teachers reported streaming or downloading content from the Internet, up from 65% in 2008. About one in three (29%) pre-K educators use this method.

One-quarter of K-12 educators say they belong to an online community specifically for teachers such as PBS' pbsteachers.org site, and those who use social networking sites are comfortable with a variety of online activities. Results are similar for pre-K educators.

Kids and Cell phones

2010-01-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

If you've looked around or talked to friends recently you probably noticed that more and more younger kids have cell phones, but just how many more are there?

Well, there has been an increase of +68% of kids with cell phones in the past five year, according to MRI's recently release America Kids Study. Specifically, 20% of US Kids 6-11 owns a cell phone, this is up +11.9% from 2005, with the biggest increase among K10-11, which is up +80.5%, in the five-year period.

Not surprisingly boys were later to the cell phone ownership game, with the last three years showing the biggest growth among boys up by +47.6% since 2007, versus an increase of +17.2% among girls.
MRI believes that some of the increase, particularly with boys, is the result of wireless providers targeting parents and kids with kid-friendly phones and I'd add in the increase in kid-targeted wireless mobile content. So, what are kids doing most with their cell phones?
Survey Says... Top Cell Phone Activities for Children Ages 6-11:
Activity %
Call my parents 88.1
Call friends 68.1
Emergency purpose 55.7
Text messaging 54.1
Play games 49.0
Take pictures 47.8
Listen to music 34.4
Picture messaging 24.2
Download ringtones 16.5

Tipping the Iceberg

2010-01-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

Daisy Whitney, Dec 01, 2009 04:58 PM
Missing the mark with messages is costly (and common)

Sometimes a number can be both frightening and liberating. Like this one from Don Schultz, a professor of integrated marketing communications at Northwestern: Only 4 to 5 percent of customers account for the preponderance of a consumer product's sales. Does that make the other 95 percent of a marketer's customers chopped liver? Maybe a little bit. Because not only does that 4 to 5 percent comprise most of your sales and your profits, the rest of your customers often cost you money to acquire.

"What that says is, I better figure out who those 5 percent are and pick them up in a car and drive them to the store and help them shop," says Schultz. That's why he is advocating a complete overhaul in the way media planners approach campaigns. Rather than focus on the distribution of a message, they should concentrate on finding the customers. By flipping their thinking around, they'll have a much better chance of reaching prospects with the right media mix and, in so doing, gain a bigger share of dollars for digital budgets.

"Most advertisers and marketers will have some clear definition of who they are trying to reach and it could be broad, like women ages 18 to 49, or it could be individual names and addresses. All I am suggesting is starting at the other end of media planning. Start with what media forms they consume as opposed to what [the marketer] wants to do," Schultz says.

In some ways that sounds elementary, but many shops are still married to old ways of thinking. "We have used averages and broad statistical analysis for so long that we have lost sight of what the marketplace is really like," Schultz adds.

Instead, media planners should consider four critical measures in media consumption: what media is accessed, how much time is spent with each media form, what media is used together and which media has the greatest influence on product purchase. Makes perfect sense, right? So obvious that all marketers must do this in their sleep?

Maybe not.

Because, says Schultz, if you calculate cost weighted by the influence, then auto marketers overspent last year in TV by $3 billion, underspent in radio by $1.6 billion and underspent online by $1.5 billion.

Other marketers are misfiring, too. Computer marketers, as an example, should have been marketing online, in magazines and via email, while radio is much less relevant to prospective computer purchasers, Schultz says, citing data from June 2008.

The key to success is to study consumption. Most people consume multiple kinds of media at once. They read a magazine while talking on a cell phone or use Twitter while watching TV. Knowing the media consumption habits, preferences and combinations for your prospective customers is the proper way to plan a campaign. "It's what media combinations are most important to people and having a clue how to put media combinations together," says Schultz.

And that means reach isn't all it's cracked up to be. "It's not how many messages are distributed, it's how many are consumed. It's not what is most efficient, it's what is most effective. It's not how big your share of voice is, it's how important your customers think you are."

That 4 to 5 percent may seem small, but as the saying goes, good things come in small packages.

YouTube’s Quest to Suggest More

2009-12-31T14:15:00.001-08:00

December 31, 2009

By MIGUEL HELFT
SAN BRUNO, Calif. — YouTube, the video site owned by Google, is about 10 times more popular than its nearest competitor. But Hunter Walk still thinks of it as an underdog.

For Mr. Walk, director of product management at YouTube, the competition is not other Web sites: it’s TV.

“Our average user spends 15 minutes a day on the site,” he said. “They spend about five hours in front of the television. People say, ‘YouTube is so big,’ but I really see that we have a ways to go.”

To that end, Mr. Walk leads a team of about a dozen engineers, designers and project managers who are fine-tuning YouTube to give its users what they want, even when the users aren’t quite sure what that is. The goal is to get them to spend a few more minutes on the site every day.

This is easier said than done. YouTube will not disclose the size of its video library, but the company has said that about 20 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. That is the equivalent of more than 100,000 full-length movies uploaded every week. With hundreds of millions of clips to choose from, the challenge that Mr. Walk’s team faces is to figure out how to select the 5 or 10 or 20 that a user might enjoy most.

The payoff could be large. Google executives have said YouTube is still losing money but is on a path to profitability. Getting users to spend more time on the site would help it get there faster by selling more advertising. It could also go a long way to extend its dominance, shoring up its position against sites like Hulu, which are attracting a growing number of users with full-length movies and television shows.

And it could also help YouTube keep up with other competitors, including video search engines like Truveo and Blinkx, or sites like Clicker.com, which specializes in recommending professionally created videos online.

After Blinkx added better analysis of the visual content of videos to its engine early this year, for example, the average number of clips watched by users jumped to nearly five, from 2.5, said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and chief executive of Blinkx.

For YouTube, part of the challenge is in handling people’s searches. In November, Americans typed some 3.8 billion search queries on YouTube, more than on any search engine other than Google, according to comScore, a market researcher. While Google queries tend to be quite specific, users often come to YouTube with requests as vague as “funny videos.”

But perhaps more important, YouTube must finesse what technicians call discovery. That’s the art of suggesting videos that users may want to watch based on what they have watched before, or on what others with similar tastes have enjoyed. The effort requires mastering data-mining techniques similar to those used by the likes of Netflix and Amazon to make movie or book recommendations.

“I don’t think the YouTube problem is different from the Netflix problem or the Amazon problem,” said Christopher T. Volinsky, executive director of statistics research at AT&T Labs Research. Mr. Volinsky recently helped lead a team that won a $1 million prize established by Netflix to improve that site’s recommendation engine by 10 percent.

That it took his team of top computer scientists three years to make a modest improvement to Netflix, which has some 70,000 titles, illustrates the complexity of the task, Mr. Volinsky said.

YouTube’s work in these areas is largely hidden from users and involves dozens of tweaks, small and large, that Mr. Walk’s team makes every month. Recently, for instance, the group began tackling what it calls topic exhaustion. No matter how much users may like to watch, say, Shaquille O’Neal highlights, they will inevitably reach a point when they will have had enough.

So while YouTube used to suggest more of the same topic to users who watched a particular video, it has gently begun to nudge them toward related topics. The Shaquille O’Neal video may prompt suggestions for Kobe Bryant highlights, N.B.A. clips or even topics further afield, like sports stars who appear in films.

“If we guess wrong, you could leave us sooner,” said Jamie Davidson, a 25-year-old associate product manager on Mr. Walk’s team. “But if we guess correctly, we may get you to watch another 10 videos. This is very hard.”

The techniques involve creating vast graphs, which Mr. Davidson calls conceptual maps, of related concepts like Shaquille O’Neal, the N.B.A. and Kobe Bryant, on which the proximity of two nodes indicates the closeness of two topics. The YouTube recommendation engine uses these maps to find new subject areas that might interest a user.

Over time, YouTube says it plans to rely more heavily on personalization and ties between users to refine recommendations.

Mr. Walk’s team meets weekly to discuss tweaks to YouTube’s software. During a recent meeting, a small group of engineers and user interface designers were brainstorming what might be the next big step in the site’s evolution: pages that would immediately begin playing a stream of clips tailored for a user, instead of offering lists of suggested videos. The idea is to push more videos at users in the hope of allowing them to abandon the keyboard and increasingly experience YouTube from the couch.

“On YouTube, every 45 seconds, you are stuck at a decision point,” Mr. Davidson said. “Any time there is a decision point, people may leave. We don’t want to take out the interactivity, but the default user experience should be a lot easier.”

Palash Nandy, an engineer on the team, suggests a couple of ideas. How about putting an “I’m feeling bored” button next to the search box, echoing Google’s famous “I’m feeling lucky” button? Or why not give users a slider to select the amount of time they want to be entertained, and let YouTube’s software assemble a playlist accordingly?

None of this is likely to appear on the YouTube home page soon. But the team is already working on new ways to let users collectively create lists of videos that share a topic, like cats playing keyboards (youtube.com/bestofkeyboardcat). The ideas may show up first in the TestTube, YouTube’s site for experimental features.

Gauging YouTube’s success so far is difficult. YouTube will not release detailed traffic statistics. But it says improvements in its search and discovery software have helped increase the average time that users spend on the site by 50 percent in the last year.

Data from comScore appears to back that up. The average YouTube user watched 83 clips in October, compared with 53 a year earlier, though it is difficult to know how much of that growth was the result of improvements in YouTube’s algorithms.

Either way, Mr. Walk’s team plans to speed up the pace of innovation to help YouTube users search less and watch more.

“We are the second-largest search engine, and yet search is not even the right paradigm for discovering video,” Mr. Davidson said. “We are trying to move beyond it.”

The Electric Company, Sesame Workshop

2009-12-28T10:34:00.000-08:00

The second season of Sesame Workshop's series The Electric Company (12x30) is set to premiere January 25, 2010 on PBS Kids Go (check local listings).

Targeted to K6-9, the new season of The Electric Company, which airs five days a week, will begin with a special three-episode recurring role by Kyle Massey (Cory in the House), playing Keith's cousin PJ.

Following the debut week, new episodes will bow each Friday. The new season will also feature celebrity appearances by NBA player Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic/center), John Leguizamo, LL Cool J, and Sherrie Shephard among others.

Season two of The Electric Company is made possible by the support of American Greetings and Beaches Resorts. The series is part of PBS Kids Raising Readers national literacy initiative, which focuses on using public media to improve reading skills of K2-8, particularly for kids from low-income families.

Smart Kids Group debuts Live at the Hive, a new social networking community targeted to kids/tweens and their parents.
The bee hive-themed community features Bert the Bee and other characters that lead users through Live at the Hive, which includes a range of areas or in this case neighborhood hives like The Healthy Hive, The Travel Hive, and The Safety Hive among others.
Safety is a key component of this social network. So, it will include various features such as monthly reports to parents that show where their kids have visited and who they have been interacting with on the site.

The NPD Group leisure time activities research

2009-12-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

Despite the excitement generated from new platforms, America is still mostly a nation of couch potatoes who spend a vast majority of their leisure time in front of the boob tube, according to the latest update to the "Entertainment Trends in America" consumer tracking surveys conducted by The NPD Group. Some 81% of respondents reporting watching an average of 10 hours of TV per week (not including movies.)

Other finding included:
Despite the proliferation of iPods and other MP3 players, 78% of Americans still spend 5+ hours/week listening to traditional AM/FM radio

with 60% still listening to music on a CD

70% of Americans spend 4 hours/week on average on IM and email

Some 47% visited social networking sites, spending an average of 5 hours/week

11% of respondents reported tweeting an average of 3 hours/week

Top 5 Leisure Time Activities in the U.S.
(based on % of consumers who took part in prior week)
Watch TV show/sports/news (excluding movies): 81%
Listen to music on traditional AM/FM radio (not satellite): 78%
Instant-messaging or e-mailing: 70%
Listen to music on a CD: 60%
Watch a movie on TV (excluding PPV and VOD): 58%

Source: The NPD Group

Kenn Viselman presents

2009-12-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

Producer/marketer Kenn Viselman, he brought Teletubbies and Thomas the Tank Engine to the US, forms a new film and TV production company Kenn Viselman presents ... The company recently completed filming its first feature film The Oogieloves In The Big Balloon Adventure.

Targeted to kids, the interactive movie features Cloris Leachman, Chazz Palminteri, Jamie Pressly, Toni Braxton, Cary Elwes and Christopher Lloyd. Directed by Matthew Diamond, Viselman plans to release The Oogieloves In The Big Balloon Adventure in November 2010 on 3000+ movie screens.

The company's development slate includes eleven movie projects including Sleeping Rudy, Step Off and a follow-up of The Oogieloves, which heads into pre-production this January. Kenn Viselman presents

... appointments include Angela Rivet as SVP/Production; Eileen Potrock as SVP/Marketing and Third Party Strategic Alliances; Julie Polkes as VP/Public Relations; Kara Moline as Director/Ancillary Rights; and Mitchell Rivet as Manager/Investor Relations.

Our Little Genius, Sprout

2009-12-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

Actor Kevin Pollak will host Fox's new kid-centric game show Our Little Genius. The series, which challenges kids that are expects in select areas, will makes its debut on Wednesday, January 13 as the lead-out to American Idol and then find its permanent home the following Tuesday, January 19 at 9p.

Mark Burnett Productions and Zoo Productions are the producers behind the Our Little Genius game series. Pollak is best known for his roles in the movies A Few Good Man, The Usual Suspects and Casino, with upcoming movies including playing opposite Bruce Willis in Kevin Smith's A Couple of DICS and Middle Men with Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi.

Given the time slots, the series is more likely for adults which is good because most average kids don't likely want to watch genius kids on a regular basis.

Hit Entertainment teams with Sprout, the 24/7 preschool TV, on demand and online destination, to launch Let's Grow, a DVD series that will focus on life skills and lessons for preschoolers.

The new line will feature themed DVDs comprised of episodes of Hit Entertainment series, such as Barney, Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends, among others, and tied together by live-action interstitial segments starring hosts from Sprout's Sunny Side Up Show.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment, a longtime distributor of Hit's home entertainment, will release the first DVD title, Lend a Helping Hand on January 12, 2010, followed by a second title in 2Q 2010. Additionally, each DVD will come with a parent resource guide including information and suggestions that correspond with the theme of that DVD.

Sesame Street is headed for Nigeria!

2009-12-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

Sesame Street is headed for Nigeria! Sesame Workshop is developing a new series targeted to Nigerian kids, which will offer messaging about staying in school, girl empowerment and HIV/Aids.

Sesame Street Nigeria (working title) is being produced through a 5-year grant from the American people via the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and will initially include 78x30 (making up three seasons) as well as outreach materials.

Sesame Workshop is working closely with an advisory board of local exporters in order to determine the focus and content for the new series. The series will feature Kami and Big Bird among other characters. The first three seasons will address these goals through the following themes:

Season 1: We Can - will focus on empowering kids to aspire to be anything they want and encourage them to stay in school. Show content will portray community participation in the learning process and suggesting there is also time for play, fun and creativity in kids' lives.

Season 2: We Do It Right will highlight honesty and integrity, courtesy and coping with mistakes. Themes will include mutual respect and understanding and gender parity.

Season 3: We Live Here will focus on community activities that reflect the importance of culture and caring for the environment.

Chello Multicanal and Zon Multimedia

2009-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Chello Multicanal and Zon Multimedia ink a partnership for the production, marketing and distribution of kid's movie and entertainment channels across Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

The partnership sees the creation of a new company to handle these projects, Dreamia Servicos de Televisao, of which Chello and Zon are equal partners. The three companies will launch a Panda Biggs, a tween-targeted channel.

Dreamia will broadcast four channels, with the other three being the kid-aimed Panda, a movie channel titled Hollywood, and MOV, which will offer movies and TV series. Chello will distribute the Dreamia channels in Portugal, while Zon will do so in Portuguese-speaking Africa.

Branded content and Educate to Innovate

2009-11-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Disney Online launches a new Clorox sponsored web series, The Possibility Shop, from The Jim Henson Company. Hosted by Courtney Watkins, The Possibility Shop offers various kid activities and projects and will update every two weeks with season and/or holiday-based content.

With Clorox as its exclusive sponsor, specifically supporting its Clorox2 Stain Fighter & Color Booster as well as its disinfecting wipes and toilet-cleaning products, The Possibility Shop features ads for these products in and around the episode.

President Obama yesterday launched the Educate to Innovate campaign, a nationwide initiative designed to encourage US kids to work hard to move to the head of the class in science, technology, engineering and math (also known as the STEM education courses) over the course of the next decade.

To support this new effort, the White House has entered into partnerships with several companies, foundations, non-profits and science and engineering societies that work to educate and motivate young people in the areas of science and math. Among the many plans, an annual science fair will be held at the White House, featuring winners from across the country.

Some partners and their efforts include:
Sesame Workshop in partnership with PNC Bank launches Sesame Street's Early STEM Literacy Initiative, a two-year and $7.5 million investment the science and math effort aimed at encouraging young kids to have positive attitudes towards nature and care for the environment.

In the new season of Sesame Street, which includes its My World is Green & Growing as part of the new 2-year initiative, 20 of the 26 episodes will focus on STEM, 13 will focus on science and seven on math. Additionally, Sesame Workshop, with PNC Bank's Grow Up Great Program, introduces a new math program for preschoolers entitled Math is Everywhere.

Time Warner Cable, in partnership with FIRST Robotics and the Coalition for Science After School, launches a campaign to connect 1+ million students to after-school STEM activities that are already available in their area. Time Warner will support this with a searchable website, connectamillionminds .com, public service announcements (PSAs), and has committed $100 million over the next five years, as well as further corporate philanthropy.

Discovery Communications launches Be the Future, a five-year campaign in partnership with universities and federal agencies to create content including PSAs for air on its 13 US networks, a commercial-free kid-targeted educational programming block on the Science Channel and other programming including its Curiosity series. Additionally, Discovery is creating interactive educational content for schools, and via a partnership with Siemens Foundation, will create STEM Connect, a resource for teachers.

National Lab Day, a grassroots effort that aims to upgrade science labs and support learning projects and support STEM teachers. The effort is a partnership with science and engineering societies with financial support from the Hidary Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners.

The MacArthur Foundation, Sony Computer Entertainment America and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and its partners launch National STEM game design competitions. The competitions will include the 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition, an annual effort supported by the MacArthur Foundation that advances innovative approaches to learning through games, social networks and mobile devices. One competition will be open solely to kids. Sony will participate in one segment of the competition this year, encouraging the development of new games that build on the existing video game Little Big Planet.

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! DVD

2009-11-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

Anchor Bay Entertainment will release a new Earth-themed Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! DVD, Wubbzy Goes Green (58-minutes), Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Featuring the star of Nick Jr.'s Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! preschool series, the DVD release coincides with the 40th annual celebration of Earth Day on April 22.

Comprised of five episodes, Wubbzy Goes Green will also offer two consumer promotions with two new partners. The first (April-December 2010), offers consumers a $3 rebate (via mail) with the purchase of any two First Juice Brand 8-0z reusable and recyclable sippy top or 32-oz. multi-serve refill bottles and any Wubbzy DVD. The second, (April-June 2010), consumers will receive $3 (via mail) with the purchase a MaMa Rosa's refrigerated pizza and any Wubbzy DVD.

Cookie Jar Entertainment, Marblemedia

2009-11-20T10:42:00.000-08:00

Indie kids producer Cookie Jar Entertainment has engaged Gorilla Nation's GNKids and Teens to handle the online advertising for Jaroo.com, its new streaming video portal for kids.

Marblemedia has established a new department that will be responsible for working in tandem with broadcasters and brands to develop new and innovative Canadian programming to multiple screens. To support this movie, marblemedia names Lisa Reis as Director/Brand Integration.

Integrations will be customized and developed collaboratively on in house projects as well as special initiatives with marblemedia partners including broadcasters, brands and producers. Marblemedia is currently in talks with several partners about branded entertainment initiatives for several upcoming projects such as Just Like Mom ... and Dad a remake of the classic Canadian family game show that is currently in development, which teams-up parents and their kids in two rounds of family-related trivia plus a frenetic bake-off challenge.

An online game will allow Just Like Mom ... and Dad viewers at home to play along online. Marblemedia recently partnered with Fresh TV, creators of the tween-targeted, animated and music-centric series Stoked, which currently airs on Teletoon. Marblemedia executed Stoked's interactive component as well as sourcing, negotiating and executing cross-platform brand integration initiatives.

Adult Swim

2009-11-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

Cartoon Network's Adult Swim brand launched a new website allowing users to create their own custom DVDs made up of Adult Swim programming from shows such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot Chicken.

Fans can mix-and-match up to 110 minutes of programming for a flat rate of $20 per DVD, including shipping. Warner Bros. Archive Collection launched a similar site earlier this year.

Generation gap-shmeneration gap!

2009-11-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

Generation gap-shmeneration gap! According to a new Nickelodeon Research study, The Family GPS, the gap between generations is closing and technology and cultural attitudes are at least some of the reasons. The Family GPS study was conducted as part of an ongoing partnership with Harris Interactive that looks at the changing face and role of the family in the US.

Looking specifically at the technology and entertainment factors findings include that 82% and 77% of families are watching TV or movies together at home respectively each week.

Additionally, 41% of parents and kids are listening to the same music, which really isn't all that surprising for the most part as rock n' roll and country music, for example, have remained strongholds for the music industry for 40+ years now. Gender-wise, 56% of sons 8-21 share the same taste in movies as their dads, and 48% enjoy listening to the same music. Meanwhile 64% of daughters 8-21 share similar tastes in movies as their moms, and 44% share the same sense of fashion and clothing as mom.

On the importance of being together as a family, 83% of parents said they spend at least some time each week just hanging out and talking with their kid(s); and 86% eat dinner together at least once a week. Additionally, 51% of parents say they worry a lot about spending enough time together as a family, equal to their concern about their own or their family's health (53%) and paying their bills (51%).

Attitudinally, parents of Boys 2-21 believe the most important value to instill in a son is to be respectful of women (70%), while for daughters the top values include self-sufficiency and independent thinking (66% each). Parents have equal educational expectations for sons and daughter, however, it is a bit more important to parents of girls than those of boys that their kid gets good grades (92% vs. 86%). One of the nicest findings, to me anyhow given that the kid entertainment industry has been stressing cultural tolerance messaging for some time now, is that 88% of kids believe that it's important to learn about different cultures, and 95% of kids value the importance of respecting other cultures.

Our Little Genius, Google, Bollywood Bob, Gigapix, dirtgirlworld

2009-11-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

FOX approved a new game show, Our Little Genius from Mark Burnett in association with ZOO Productions, producers of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. The game show features real child prodigies, from 6 to 12 years old, answering increasingly difficult questions and trying to win hundreds of thousands of dollars for their families.

The caveat at play is how far the little geniuses keep going will depend on the parents who gauge how a panel of leading experts, from Ivy League professors to world-famous doctors and scientists perform with the same questions. If a child is pulled by the parent, the tiny genius can still try to answer the question to prove his/her amazing ability.

The host of Our Little Genius will be announced at an upcoming date. Families interested in participating with their little genius can send inquiries to ourlittlegenius@yahoo.com. Mark Burnett, Barry Poznick and John Stevens are executive producing.

Google began testing a new "skippable" pre-roll ad format on select YouTube advertisements yesterday, in an effort to address high abandonment rates. (This measure when viewers click off the site rather than watch a pre-roll ad.) Abandonment rates, which tested as high as 70% when in-stream ads were first launched on the site in 2007 according to the company, are affected by several factors including length of the ad and the relevance of the creative.

Nickelodeon UK caps off the 10th anniversary celebration of SpongeBob SquarePants with a new live-action two-minute film Bollywood Bob. Choreographed by Longinus Fernandes (Slumdog Millionaire), Bollywood Bob will premiere on November 14 as part of Nickelodeon UK's weekend SpongeBob marathon, SpongeBash, and then across Nickelodeon channels around the world.

The short features a Bangra/Bollywood modified version of the SpongeBob theme song, arranged by Akbar Sami and Firoze Patel. A 30-second version of the film will screen in the Vue and Cineworld movie theaters in the UK from November 13 through January 1. Nickelodeon UK produced Bollywood Bob in collaboration with Nickelodeon International and Nickelodeon India.

Essential Entertainment inks a multi-picture deal with Gigapix Studios for five kid-targeted pictures (rated G or PG) through its Recess Films, per IndieWire. The movies, most of which will be live-action and one CGI animated, will be produced by Gigapix over a period of three years. The live action movies will have budgets of $8-10 million each and the CG title will carry a budget of $20 million.

Anchor Bay Entertainment has first look rights in the US while Essential Entertainment will handle all international rights to the movies. The first movie under the agreement is The Return of Captain Kidd, which features a script by Jymn Magon (DuckTales, A Goofy Movie) and Kern Konwiser (On Hallowed Ground, Miss Evers' Boys'), with Konwiser directing.

Production on The Return of Captain Kidd is slated to begin in early 2010. Kip Konwiser, head of production at Gigapix, said information about two other live action movies and the CG animated movie will be announced in the next few weeks.

The music-centric preschool series dirtgirlworld (52x11) is set to premiere in Australia on ABC1 and ABC 2 this December 4. A mixed live action, animation with photomontage and illustrated series, dirtgirlworld was developed by mememe productions and is a co-production with Decode Entertainment.

The series recently launched on CBeebies (UK) and CBC (Canada). The dirtgirlworld rights are held by mememe production in Australia, where it has appointed Merchantwise to manage the publishing and retail licensing program. In the UK, BBC Worldwide holding the UK rights, while for the rest of the world Decode Enterprises takes all TV, home entertainment and digital rights and DXK Licensing manages licensing and merchandising.

Do you know where your children are? Probably...

2009-11-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

Nielsen reports television viewing by Americans (Persons 2+) reached a record high during the 2008-2009 TV season with an average of four hours and 49 minutes per day spent watching TV.

This total is up four minutes compared to last year and up 20% from 10 years ago. Furthermore, the average household watched an average of eight hours and 21 minutes per day, another record increase.

Primetime viewing per day was flat compared to last year though it is still at its highest level since 1991. Nielsen says the TV viewing increases may be due to more TV sets existing in homes, Americans have more channels and content to choose from and DVR usage is also on the upswing.

75% of Students Prefer Downloading Music To Streaming

2009-11-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Press Release
Source: Comtex IT - Internet Research
On 10:53 am EST, Tuesday November 10, 2009

NEW YORK, Nov 10 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey of 10,000 university students by the University of Reading, found that 75% of students download music, rather than buy in stores or pay for on music-streaming sites.

Despite the recent popularity of music-streaming sites such as Spotify, 75 percent said they wouldn't pay for a music-streaming service but would rather use sites such as iTunes to download and keep tracks on hard drives or MP3 players.

The industry is in for a shake up as more students and teenagers are looking at pricing and sites that offer songs without copy-protection technology known as digital-rights management, or DRM. This prevents customers from being able to copy music or play the MP3 music on other devices other than Apples iPods or using iTunes player.

The industry is taking note of the growing demand for cheaper downloads; one such site that has already lowered prices considerably is TunesPro.com. Launched 3 months ago, the company has reduced the cost of its tracks already, to attract the younger customers.

A spokes man for TunesPro said, "We have seen a huge surge of younger people using our site as more and more of torrents and P2P files contain viruses, so our pricing must be competitive enough for the younger students with perhaps less disposable income than professionals. We keep our prices low and concentrate of making money through volume sales. Currently we charge 19c per song and offer a further 10% when a whole album is purchased. We believe this will attract the younger users away from iTunes, which charge almost 6 times more than we do."

Recording companies pick the prices, much as they did for CDs sold in stores and online. On day one, songs including "Jai Ho" from the "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtrack, "Single Ladies" by Beyonce and "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band were bumped up to $1.29. TunesPro have made agreements with a number of record companies and have decided to keep profits on single downloads at reasonable levels. iTunes have become greedy, but things look set to backfire as more and more download site open for business and like TunesPro.com, cash in on the younger users by keeping prices low.

    Contact:
  Comtex IT - Internet Research
  922 W. Beverly Dr.
  Beverly Hills, California 90210
  Dr. Richard Jones - Chief Researcher
  Website: www.certifiedby.com
  Media Relations info@certifiedby.com
  Telephone: 818-475-2935

40th anniversary of Sesame Street

2009-11-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

Today is the official 40th anniversary of Sesame Street that includes the debut an all new look and format for the series, which continues to air on PBS. Produced by Sesame Workshop, the new season includes the launch of a new two-year environmental curriculum-based initiative titled My World is Green and Growing.

Among the many honors the series has received, NYC has proclaimed today Sesame Street Day. Also, opening today is a photo exhibit, Sesame Street: The longest Street in the World, open today at Washington D.C.'s Union Station. Additionally, the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater will throw a birthday celebration for the series on November 15, and the Brooklyn Public Library honors Sesame Street with a three month-long exhibition of the show's memorabilia.

Rise of the FLIP, ABC3, Mar Vista Ent.

2009-11-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Cisco's Flip Video division is launching a new multi-million dollar national marketing campaign this week with BIRD Design, Urgent Content and Media Storm, utilizing both everyday users and celebrities to communicate how empowering the little handheld cameras can be.

Famous Flip users including Tony Hawk, Dwayne Wade and Stevie Wonder will appear in 10-30 sec. spots with the content they shoot for personal are charitable reasons.

The spots will appear on broadcast and cable, select websites and via outdoor digital advertising platforms. From Jan- Aug. 2009 Flip captured 75% of the handheld "shoot and share" camcorder market and 26% of the HD Camcorder unit market in the US, according to the NPD Group.

MORE for the UGC thirsty brands -

Nokia is partnering with Island Def Jam Music and UMG International artist Rihanna to promote its new X6 handset, which ships with Nokia's Comes With Music unlimited streaming service.

Rihanna will perform select tracks from her new album "Rated R" in London on Nov. 16, and the show will be broadcast live at nokia.com/rihanna and streamed to Nokia handsets.

The site will also feature UGC-uploaded videos shot by attendees via their Nokia X6 phones. Nokia will make an exclusive Rihanna application and exclusive footage from her London gig available at the Ovi Store and in selected territories, as well as an exclusive window to the track, 'Wait Your Turn' from the album before its release.

ABC3, Australia's new kid-targeted digital and online channel, commissions an Australian version of the series Prank Patrol (26x30), which will be produced by activeTV. Currently in production, ABC3 will launch Prank Patrol in primetime from Q4.

Created by Canada's Apartment 11 Productions, the original Prank Patrol is a long running series on YTV (Canada) with a UK format version airing on CBBC (UK). The Australian adaptation of Prank Patrol is the first production resulting from a partnership between activeTV and MarVista Entertainment. MarVista will also handle worldwide distribution of the Australian version of the program.

The youngest development execs ever!

2009-11-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

PBS Kids Go! and WNED-TV Buffalo/Toronto are partnering to launch the PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest, a national-local contest designed to promote the development of kid's reading skills via hands-on learning. The Writers Contest invites kids in grades K-3 across the country, to create and illustrate their own stories and submit them. Beginning on January 27, 2010, PBS stations nationwide will partners in the PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest and work with schools, public libraries and other literacy organizations to encourage kids in their communities to participate in the contest. Local winners will be entered into the national contest where a panel of noted judges will select the winners. The contest website, www.pbskids.org/read, will launch in early 2010.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

2009-11-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

Posted by
Jack Schofield Wednesday 4 November 2009 14.44 GMT
guardian.co.uk

The Big Bird Google Doodle celebrates 40 years of Sesame Street

It's somewhat shocking to discover from a Google Doodle that Sesame Street is 40 years old. The educational show created by the Children's Television Workshop certainly has legs, as they say, and Google has chosen to highlight the ones belonging to Big Bird rather than exploit Kermit, Bert and Ernie, Elmo or other likely candidates…

Well, that's true for the US and Canada, though your local version of Google may vary. There are different logos and different characters in different countries, as The Next Web has pointed out. And in the UK, where Sesame Street (as distinct from The Muppets) has not had the same cultural impact, Google has gone with Wallace and Gromit's 20th birthday instead.

Google's Sesame Street celebration is slightly early -- it should be on 10 November, when there will be an anniversary show featuring First Lady Michelle Obama, with or without Hula Hoop. There will also be a couple of books: Sesame Street: A Celebration of Forty Years of Life on the Street, and Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street.

When I was growing up in Canada in the early 1970s*, I almost never missed Sesame Street, and while Big Bird was never the best character, I enjoyed his jousts with Mr Hooper Hooper. In the UK, however, the series was considered too fast-paced and people frowned on its use of advertising techniques. Of course, a series made for disadvantaged inner-city kids also had lots of elements unfamiliar in suburban Surrey, or even Islington. And even the most brilliant of those early episodes would not pass through the Political Correctness barrier today.

* Technically, I was doing an MA at UBC at the time, but I also did some toddler-sitting with some of Sesame Street's biggest fans.

Cookie Jar TV, jaroo.com, PBS and Disney XD

2009-11-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Children's entertainment producer Cookie Jar Entertainment is introducing a new ad supported premium video content destination for kids.

Jaroo.com launches in pubic beta in the U.S. and Canada this morning with about 500 full-length episodes from more than 50 of its popular shows including Inspector Gadget, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, Johnny Test, Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. Cookie Jar's digital team decided to keep the portal focused on video, so don't look for social networking, games or other interactive features.

But new shows and episodes will be added daily, with the online schedule spelling out the rotation and over 2,000 episodes planned for the site over the next 3 months. Cookie Jar is currently in talks with other kids programmers about licensing additional titles, according to Frederic Soulie, VP/Digital Media.

Sesame Workshop is awarded a grant from MetLife Foundation to promote Healthy Habits for Life with the help of the Sesame Street Muppets in India and Mexico.

The initiative will launch in India via Galli Galli Sim Sim, a multimedia educational initiative that facilitates young kids learning basic and life skills, as well as delivering health messages to kids, parents, and educators, and in Mexico via the expanded Plaza Sesamo Habitos Saludables para la Vida, a multimedia effort that provides age-appropriate, educational health messages to meet the needs of Mexican preschoolers.

The grant will enable the production of special themed episodes, public service announcements (PSAs), online content, storybooks, posters, and community events. The PSAs begin airing in Mexico this month and distribution of the outreach materials is slated for the spring of 2010. In India, PSAs will begin airing this winter, along with the launch of mobile community viewings of Galli Galli Sim Sim content and online health messages and activities.

Disney XD will launch its new short-form sports-themed series Moises Rules! (4x2.5) on Monday, December 7 at 5p. The series features Moises Arias (Hannah Montana) going up against other kids in unique sporting events such as foam tetherball and finger football. The episodes will debut Monday-Thursday, December 7 10. Additionally, new features and exclusive show content will debut Tuesday, November 10 at DisneyXD.com, viewers can send a message to Moises, play sports-themed games and download all-new wallpapers.

Disney, PBS and Nelvana

2009-11-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

Disney Television Animation and Disney Channels Worldwide have begun production on Fish Hooks (working title), a new 2D digital and photo collage animated comedy.

The 21-episode series follows the underwater adventures of three aquatic pals that live in the same fish tank at a local pet store trying to make it through their tween/teen years and high school.

Created by kid's book illustrator Noah Z. Jones, and developed for TV by Alex Hirsch The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack) and Bill Reiss (Chowder), Fish Hooks features the voices of Kyle Massey Cory in the House), Chelsea Staub (Jonas) and Justin Roiland (The Sarah Silverman Program).

PBS Kids will premiere four new regular episodes and a holiday episode of the preschool series Super Why this month. First up is, Super Why and Hansel and Gretel: A Healthy Adventure debuting November 9 (check local listings). While Super Why regularly helps kids with their early reading and decoding skills, this new episode also focuses on making eating choices. The other new episodes and their respective premiere dates are as follows: Cinderella: The Prince's Side of the Story (November 11); The Princes and the Pauper (November 11); The Ugly Duckling: Becoming a Swan (November 12); and Super Why and The Nutcracker (November 25).

Nelvana Enterprises (Canada) inks broadcast deals with KI.KA (Germany) for two of its kid-aimed series. KI.KA picks up:
Pearlie (26 episodes), which revolves around a less than two-inch high fairy. Co-produced with Sticky Pictures, Pearlie debuts this afternoon and will air weekdays.
Jane and the Dragon (26 episodes), a CGI animated co-production with Weta Productions. Based on Martin Baynton's Jane and the Dragon books, the series debuts Wednesday, November 18 and will air weekdays.

US kids are watching more TV

2009-10-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

US kids are watching more TV than they have in years; in fact kid TV viewing is at an eight-year high, according to new findings from The Nielsen Company.

The report says K2-5 are spending an average of 32+ hours a week in front of the TV, while K6-11 (who spend a chunk of their day in school) are watching about 28 hours per week.

Being in front of the TV includes actually watching what is on TV, as well as watching programming on DVR, DVDs and videos as well as video games. Nielsen says that increases in kid TV screen time mirrors that of overall increases in media consumption they've been tracking over the last two years, which includes TV, internet, video games and mobile phones, but still most of that is watching live TV.

Average Weekly TV and Peripheral Consumption
Among All Kids 2-5
Total Over 32 hrs
TV 24hrs 51mins
DVR 1hr 29mins
DVD 4hrs 33mins
VCR 45min
Game Console: 1hr 12mins

Among All Kids 6-11
Total Over 28 hrs
TV 22hrs 9mins
DVR 59mins
DVD 2hrs 28mins
VCR 18mins
Game Console: 2hrs 23mins

It is no surprise that both K2-5 and K6-11 are using DVRs easily, but the findings also point to the fact that K2-5 (50%) are watching more TV commercials in DVR playback mode in primetime for the four big broadcast networks during May sweeps, versus K6-11 (44%), Teens 12-17 (43%), People 18-34 (44%), People 35-54 (43%) and People 55+ (44%). Source: Nielsen Media Research

BBC kid's content

2009-10-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Following the BBC Trust's mostly positive review of children's services earlier this year, the BBC lays out plans for the additional $41.8 million it pledged for BBC kid's content across its services over the course of three years:

The funds will help support of existing big budget successful programs such as The Sarah Jane Adventures, Horrible Histories and My Almost Famous Family, as well as further seasons of 3rd & Bird and Kerwhizz for CBeebies. Additionally, funds will be earmarked for development of new original series, specifically comedy and dramas.

Funds will also go towards bolstering kid-targeted audio offerings such as streamed, downloadable audio content for kids. The CBeebies website is set to re-launch next month with every page featuring a link to a new version of the CBeebies Radio Player.

Plans also include growing the CBBC website, which had seen a decline, to achieve its weekly reach to 900,000 by April 2010. To achieve this goal, the site will see improved navigation. The site will be refreshed in early 2010, and feature newly created areas for kid shows like Horrible Histories, Tracy Beaker and Serious Explorers to keep visitors longer.

Money will go towards regaining audience lost when kid's programs were shifted earlier in BBC One's afternoon schedule, and development of a new weekday program to play during the CBBC block on BBC One at 5:30p, which would serve as a strong lead-in to the 6p news. If a new show is developed and is successful, over the next two years the BBC will consider reinstating Blue Peter and Newsround to their original time slots. In the meantime, however, the CBBC programming block on BBC One will stay put at 3:05-5:15p.

BBC will also continue to address digital programming for kids by looking to extend CBBC channel hours and providing its programs on-demand via the kid's iPlayer.

Baby Abuelita Productions

2009-10-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Baby Abuelita Productions, a manufacturer of Spanish-lullaby singing dolls that look like grandparents and animated DVDs focusing on Hispanic heritage, partners with Procter and Gamble (P&G) for a grocery store promotion aimed at Hispanic consumers nationwide.

Shoppers who buy a designated amount of P&G products will be able to mail-in for an Abuelita Rosa and/or Pancho doll. Retailers in P&G Food Channel can run the promotion any time between November 23, 2009 and June 30, 2010.

CBBC

2009-10-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

CBBC commissions new kid-targeted reality and factual series about different cultures and environments around the world and also focus on teamwork:

Hai! Karate - Journey to Japan (10 episodes) - the reality series follows five UK kids, each with a parent, as they travel to Japan for an intensive three-week karate training course with the hope of qualifying to participate in the World Karate Championships in Okinawa. Each kid also has a goal of improving their relationship with their respective parent. In addition to karate, during their time in Japan the kids will also be educated in Japanese culture and traditions. Slated to debut on CBBC in 2010.

Natural Born Hunters (13 episodes) - hosted by wildlife presenter Steve Backshall and CBBC's barney Harwood, the series explores the animal kingdom's greatest and dangerous predators and how they survive day to day. The series features footage from the BBC's Natural History Unit. The series is set to bow in spring 2010.

Serious Explorers: Livingstone (11 episodes) - The Serious adventure series returns in spring 2010 with this new expedition to East Africa's Tanzania. The series features 8 kids as they retrace the steps of explorer David Livingstone in a month-long expedition.

Safari 8 (13 episodes) - eight kids, four from the UK and four from South Africa, team up to train for a month to become game rangers in South Africa's Kruger Game Reserve. Set to premiere in January 2010, the kids will learn to work as a team and develop a range of skills.

Barney's South America (26 episodes) - This time around Barney Harwood and Gemma Hunt use their humorous approach to investigate the various wildlife living in South America. A joint production with CBBC and NHU, the series will premiere in spring 2010.

satisfied subscribers

2009-10-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

ID, The Investigation Discovery Channel, ranked as the basic digital network that satisfied subscribers the most in the most recent Beta Research Digital Cable poll with 65% of viewers expressing satisfaction.

PBS Kids Sprout ranked second with a 63% score. Gospel Music Channel and NFL Network tied in terms of Ave. Perceived Value, pegged at $2.06.

Nat Geo Channel was the favorite among Men 18+ and Hispanics; NickToons TV was tops among teens and TV One and Nat Geo Channel tied for tops among African Americans.

Top Basic Digital Cable Networks in terms of Viewer Satisfaction
Top-Ranked Digital Basic Networks Viewers of Network Very Satisfied
ID, Investigation Discovery 65%
PBS Kids Sprout 63%
Gospel Music Channel 62%
Discovery Health Channel 62%
History International 59%
National Geographic Channel 59%
Source: Beta Research Corp.

Moonscoop,PBSKids

2009-10-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Moonscoop begins production on the new 2D HD flash-animated series, The DaVincibles (52x11), co-created and co-produced with Italy's Neo Network, which is part of Zodiak Entertainment.

Targeted to K7-11, the series is a co-production with Rai Fiction, SLR, Telegael and Big Animation. The show has already pre-sold to Gulli (France) and Seven (Australia) and is set for delivery in late 2010.

Worldwide distribution for The DaVincibles will be handled by Moonscoop, with Neo Network managing the rights in Italy, and Big Animation handling Asia and SLR overseeing sales in Australia and New Zealand. The comedy caper revolves around siblings, Lisa and Pablo, and their inept Uncle Leo DaVinci as they travel the world in search of artifacts to sell at Leo's shop and meet up with villains trying to thwart their efforts.

PBSKids will premiere a special episode of the preschool science series Sid The Science Kid, entitled Getting a shot: You Can Do It!, on Monday, October 26 (check local listings).

With flu season upon us, the special explores the basic science of germs and viruses and how to stay healthy, including the use of vaccinations, in a kid appropriate way.

Produced by The Jim Henson Company and KCET/LA, the special episode is also supported by online games, activities and resources for kids, parents and educators at
PBSKids.org/sid ( www.pbskids.org/sid ), PBS Parents ( www.pbsparents.org ), and PBS Teachers ( www.pbsteachers.org ), the latter of which will host a live webinar for educators about staying healthy at school. Getting a shot: You Can Do It! is funded by The Department of Health and Human Services, The Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR), First 5 California and The Boeing Company.

Networking quotes: Branded Content Networking Lunch

2009-10-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

(Branded Entertainment | MIPCOM, 07.10.09)

When leading brands like Red Bull show up at MIPCOM, you know they’ve reached beyond product placement: they’ve become entertainment media. Bringing brands and content creators together was the theme of Tuesday’s Branded Content Networking Lunch, sponsored by the Branded Content Marketing Association.

The BCMA’s Chairman Morgan Holt sparked a spirited conversation, navigating the thorny issue of measuring the estimated $20 billion in worldwide branded content spend. The Association showcased its branded content evaluation system (BCES), which it hopes will become the universally accepted tool worldwide to measure and evaluate branded content effectiveness before, during and after placement.

Here’s what they said:
“Advice to brands: If it’s not about the audience, it isn’t branded content. Advice to producers: brands are not attached to single TV shows.”
Morgan Holt, Chairman, Branded Content Marketing Association, London

“Consumers interact because they can, that’s the role of mobile apps developers. They’ll opt if they’re incentivised, that’s the role of brands.”
Richard Morris, Director of Video, TV & Applications, Player Mobile Media, London

“Reality check for content producers and distributors, your role now is to drive a 360 marketing strategy for brands.”
Doug Scott, Senior Partner, President, Ogilvy Entertainment, New York

“Producers talk about 360, but what matters to brands is the upside and downside of each platform.”
Julius Just, CEO, Just News International, London

Children's TV: The problem with kids... | In-depth | Broadcast

2009-10-07T18:17:00.001-07:00

Children's TV: The problem with kids... | In-depth | Broadcast

Shared via AddThis

A gURLs wURLd, Penelope K, FlickerLab

2009-10-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Southern Star Singapore, Southern Star Entertainment (Australia) and Nord Deutscher Rundfunk (Germany) unveil their US$9million international co-production of A gURLs wURLd (26x30), a tween-targeted live-action series supported by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and Screen Australia, Australia's film and TV agency. The series will be distributed by Endemol Worldwide Distribution, and is set to premiere on ARD Network (Germany) and Channel Nine (Australia). Shot in part on location in Singapore, A gURLs wURLd is a multi-platform property that will feature unique content and virtual communities online for fans around the world created by Southern Star Singapore and Southern Star Entertainment. The series revolves around three teen girls, one each from Australia, Germany and Singapore, who become friends while attending school in Singapore. At the end of the term the girls return home and find that through technology they can transport them via a chat room portal to one another's home and thus a range of adventures.

BBC Worldwide Channels commissions a new live-action preschool series Penelope K, By The Way (25x12), the first original production for the international CBeebies channel. Developed by Australia's Blink Films the property was selected earlier this year from 100 submissions as part of a local production initiative in Australia. Produced by Blink Films in association with Freehand, Penelope K, By The Way will debut on CBeebies in Australia next year, followed by CBeebies in the UK and then rollout around the world. The series revolves around Penelope K and the Information Station she runs, which is a place where one goes to find answers to questions. Penelope K and her friends help collate information and provide answers to inquiring minds.

FlickerLab launches its newest K8-12-targeted animated series, The Wild Life (26x5), at Mipcom. The story driven series, which debuted earlier this month on TV2 (Denmark), is designed to teach kids about climate change and is produced using FlickerLab's real time animation software, Go. Each episode is comprised of a three minute story introducing a theme, followed by a two minute animated Climate Cartoon on that theme. Additionally, viewers can use FlickerLab's Animtoon animation software to create and share their own Climate Cartoons, the best of which will be shown with customized introductions by the series characters. There is also a corresponding website for the show that features a range of information, games and activities and other interactive elements. FlickerLab plans to expand The Wild Life into a longer form series (40x11) with production set to begin in fall 2010.

Gonzoft Television and the boss, Rich Ross and loads of Freemantle news

2009-10-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

FlickerLab and Gonzoft have agreed to merge to prepare for the launch of Gonzoft Television Animation's live animation software in the U.S. The newly renamed FlickerLab LLC focuses on socially and environmentally conscious media and the building of sustainable media brands, such as an animated segment in Michael Moore newest feature Capitalism: A Love Story.

Rich Ross steps up to Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Ross, currently President/Disney Channels Worldwide, takes over the position left vacant last month when former Chairman, Dick Cook, announced his resignation. Ross will oversee worldwide production, distribution and marketing for the studio's live-action and animated movie banners, including Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Disney/Pixar. No word yet on who will take over Ross' responsibilities at Disney Channel etc. though now that Ross' appointment has been confirmed the rumor mill has shifted to that topic. Ross joined Disney Channel in 1996 and has since overseen the growth of the channel domestically and internationally across brands such as Disney Channel, Playhouse Disney and Disney XD, their respective websites. He has also overseen Radio Disney. Under his watch, Disney Channel has delivered a range of TV successes including the tween series and TV movies Lizzie McGuire, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and High School Musical among others. Prior to Disney, Ross was part of the team that launched FX Networks, and held senior positions at Nickelodeon for several years.

http://www.mipworld.com/en/Industry-insight/articles/FremantleMedia-CEO-Tony-Cohen-keynote-report/

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) launches a new kid's division and appoints Sander Schwartz as EVP, Head/Children and Family Entertainment. Schwartz is reporting to David Ellender, Global CEO, FME. A long time member of the kids entertainment community, Schwartz was a producer on the animated series The Batman for Kids WB!, and previously served as President, International Production/Sony Pictures Television International and President/Warner Bros. Animation, as well as Sony Pictures Family Entertainment's first President, as well as heading Columbia TriStar Televisions Children's Programming.

The Fremantle Corporation teams up with UK-based producer Strict Machine to co-produce the new kids animated vampire series, Fang Force(26x13). Fremantle is showcasing the series at Mipcom this week. Fang Force revolves around the Browns, a typical suburban family except for that they are a family of crime fighting vampires that is. The Brown family includes Mom (cooking and chemistry genius), Dad (an inventor), Laurie (14), Ziggy (11) and their baby sister Annie (18-months), as well as the family pet vampire bat Desi, and 7-foot tall shape-shifting butler, Mouldorf.

KidMango, Yo Gabba Gabba!, 9 Story Entertainment, PorchLight

2009-10-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Online family video producer KidMango struck new distribution partnerships with Yahoo! Kids and media software interface Boxee, increasing the potential audience for a range of shows from producers such as Millimages, Your Family Entertainment AG and Devine Entertainment. Weekly shows will be added to the Yahoo Kids lineup via kids.yahoo.com. The deal also includes the creation of Boxee's first kid-targeted app, offering access to full episodes from KidMango.com, organized by age level.

Peace Arch Entertainment Group partners with producer Barnet Bain to acquire the movie rights to the kid's book, Milton's Secret: An Adventure of Discovery through Then, When, and the Power Of Now, by spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle and Robert S. Friedman. The plan is to adapt the movie as a live-action family-aimed movie.

RDF Rights, a division of RDF Media Group, completes deals for Yo Gabba Gabba! Produced by Magic Store and Wildbrain, season three of the live-action preschool series has been acquired by Disney Latin America, Treehouse TV (Canada), while seasons one and two are picked up by ATV (Hong Kong) and Mediacorp (Singapore) for Okto Channel. RDFR has sold Yo Gabba Gabba to 10+ international territories, with broadcast deals including ABC (Australia), Nick Australia, Nickelodeon Asia and Hop! TV (Israel).

In other news, 9 Story Entertainment is partnering with Just For Laughs to develop and co-produce Standup4Kidz (26x11, working title), a new kid-targeted standup comedy series based on a concept from Big Hug Productions. The mixed live-action and animated series will feature top comedians performing their cleanest/family-friendly comedy.

PorchLight Entertainment's KidMango is on the ground in Cannes searching for new programming content (shorts, series and feature length) and additional distribution partners. KidMango recently added distribution through partnerships with Yahoo! Kids and Boxee, which will expand KidMango's service to millions of potential new viewers. With its current library of 1500+ hours of programming, KidMango distributes content via three channels, online at KidMango.com (www.kidmango.com) in North America, through online syndication with the KidMango Content Network, and on-air through KidMangoTV, a programming block in partnership with PorchLight Entertainment and MyFamilyTV.

PBS Kids Go! - Yo Gabba Gabba and Go Go Lingo!

2009-10-01T10:29:00.001-07:00

PBS Kids Go! and Boston-based CloudKid are set to launch Fizzy's Lunch Lab (www.pbskidsgo.org/lunchlab) a new health-themed comedy web-only animated series, on November 16. The Lunch Lab will rollout over 10 months (40 weeks), with a new animated video and corresponding activities for kids/families simultaneously featured online. Aimed at younger elementary school kids, the series revolves around the adventures of Professor Fizzy and his pals as they prepare snacks and investigate the difference between good and bad food, and follow where food goes after it is chewed up and swallowed. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Fizzy's Lunch lab features a range of short video segments, interactive games and recipes and food facts. The website and webisodes are designed to entertainment and help bring kids and adults together to make healthy food choices, plan and make meals and snacks without making a force-fed experience. Additional resources will be featured at PBS Parents (www.pbsparents.org) and PBS Teachers (www.pbsteachers.org).

A week of new Yo Gabba Gabba! episodes will premiere Monday-Friday, October 12-16 at 1p on Nick Jr. (the channel f/k/a Noggin). The new episodes feature a range of celebrities including Andy Samberg (SNL), The Roots and MGMT as well as Biz Markie in the recurring Biz's Beat of the Day segment, and the great singer/illustrator/composer Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO) in the recurring Mark's Magic Pictures drawing segment, skateboarder Ray Barbee and Reeve Oliver, Lady Tigra and little Ones. Yo Gabba Gabba! is created by Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz and is produced by The Magic Store and Wildbrain. The new DVD Yo Gabba Gabba!: Meet My Family, released by Nickelodeon Home Entertainment and distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, will be available at retail on October 20, 2009.

GoGolingo.com (www.gogolingo.com) is new bilingual edutainment site from LA-based Bilingo Club, designed to immerse K3-7 in games and virtual experiences to help them learn Spanish. The story-driven curriculum utilizes interactive activities that build upon a kid's knowledge. The site also has a Tamogotchi-inspired element paring each kid with a virtual pet who accompanies them through the activities.

Ken Warun joins KO Creative as Creative Director. Warun previously served as VP, ABC Entertainment Marketing and Creative Director at Style, E! and GSN. KO Creative has produced a combination of key art, on-air promotions and websites and consumer marketing campaigns for Disney Channel's Hannah Montana and High School Musical, PBS' The Electric Company, MTV's VMAs and The Hills as well as Oxygen's Naughty Kitchen.

Maybe it's MIP, but there's a lot going on...

2009-09-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

PBS debuts a second season of national lifestyle series Moment of Luxury this Thursday at 730p (check local listings). The series, with 13 half-hour episodes, features award-winning international designer Bill Stubbs as he interjects comfort and luxury for any American budget encompassing home design, food, culture and art. The series is shot in hi-def and is presented nationally by WLIW in association with WNET.ORG.

Public television station KCET, serving Southern and Central California and Charter Communications announced V-me is now available throughout Southern California on Charter Digital Cable. V-me offers a combination of original content, exclusive premieres and acquisitions and public TV shows adapted for the American Latinos.

NBC has a new family-focused in-studio game show called Perfect 10 on tap for US audiences and for the international marketplace. The game encompasses 10 seemingly simple games that must be completed by contestants in 60-seconds or less each in order to win the $1 million prize. Universal Media Studios in association with Friday Television is producing eight 60m episodes and the format will be launched at MIPCOM next week. Prior to going into production, 50 games will be available at nbc.com and via on-air promotions for viewers to test at home. The official rules of each contest will also be posted on the show's website.

Breakthrough Films & Television was commissioned by TELETOON Canada to produce a new family comedy for primetime titled Crash Canyon. Thirteen 30m episodes have been ordered from Breakthrough who is working with Joel Cohen, co-executive producer on The Simpsons and the series creators Jam Filled Entertainment. Crash Canyon is about the Wendells who take a nose dive off a cliff and end up in a canyon where they can't escape. The Wendells meet other odd people living together in a community they created called Crash Canyon.

Vooz and BRB Internacional are partnering to co-produce the new preschool series Canimal (52x5). Set to be available at the end of 2010, Canimal revolves around a group of small curious gnome-like 3D animated characters, shaped like a tin can and with the face of a cad, dog etc., which find something new in every object. Vooz and Screen 21, BRB's creative division, will present the property this week at Brand Licensing Europe and next week at MipJunior.

Domo comes to 7-Eleven stores this fall in a new in-store and online promotion, which includes collectible Slurpee cups filled with Fuji Frost by Fanta, special Slurpee characters straws and Bit Bite hog dog containers, coffee cups and Domo Attack! Energy drink as well as themed candy displays, collectible Domo Qee, Domo Manga, plush characters and t-shirts and caps among other products. The promotion is being supported with a three-part stop-motion webisode, which will debut weekly from October 1, can be found at www.slurpee.com and www.somonation.com. Big Tent Entertainment, the marketing/licensing company for Domo, helped bring the 7-Eleven deal together. Domo was created by Japanese illustrator/director Tsuneo Goda as the mascot for Japanese TV station NHK in 1998, eventually becoming a pop icon.

Nielsen Online

2009-09-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Nielsen Online identified an interesting new online category: Power Moms, a group of Moms who collectively make up 19% of the total online population who increasingly turn to the web to network, learn and provide information and advice to other parents. Among the top 10 sites ranked by unique viewer composition percent in February 2009, eight featured predominantly kid's programming, indicating that moms are seemingly keeping up on what their kids watch and play online, as many of these sites also offer games and/or activities.

Top 10 Online Destinations for "Power Moms" by Unique Viewer Composition Percent
Site Unique Viewer Unique Viewers (000)
Composition Percent
PBS Kids 24.5% 241,000
Noggin 22.2% 121,000
Nick Jr. 21.7% 492,000
Playhouse Disney 20.7% 199,000
Kohl's 18.3% 203,000
Disney.com 17.8% 710,000
PBS 17.4% 125,000
DisneyChannel.com17.2% 689,000
Nick 16.2% 415,000
Source: Nielsen Online VideoCensus, Feb. 2009
Women 24-54 with at least one child in the household, sites with a min. of 100k unique visitors

Gator Group, Dr. Helen Boehm

2009-09-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

Gator Group, a new licensing agency, including product design and development, manufacturing and marketing, opens its doors. Founded by a group of former execs from global marketing services agency, Cresta, Gator Group's client list includes Paul Frank Industries and the newly launched Tales 4 Tomorrow ( www.tales4tomorrow.com ), the latter of which was created in partnership with Conservation International. With headquarters in Dana Point, California, Gator Group also has offices in LA, Paris and Hong Kong.

Dr. Helen Boehm is named as an advisor to the US Department of Education, where she will assist in the development of the Ready-to-Learn kid's video initiative for preschool and elementary school students. Boehm also continues to write and consult on kids' media and certify educational programming content at www.FCCReady.com .

Corus Entertainment and MTV Networks International and social media

2009-09-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment and MTV Networks International (MTVNI) have inked a new deal that will see the two launch a 24-hour localized Nickelodeon channel on Monday, November 2, 2009 at 6a. Corus and MTVNI's multi-platform agreement includes exclusive TV rights in Canada to all current Nick animated programming as well as live action series and all digital rights for Nickelodeon and related brands. So, the stand alone Nickelodeon channel will offer Nick programming, including the Canadian premieres of the new animated series Fanboy and Chum Chum, and the live action series The Troop, as well as Nick's other shows (e.g. SpongeBob SquarePants, iCarly, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Dora the Explorer etc.) and special events such as Kids' Choice Awards, as well as original Canadian shows like Grossology, Max & Ruby, Storm Hawks and My Friend Rabbit. Corus already owns the kid-targeted YTV and Treehouse services in Canada, as well as the animation studio Nelvana, which worked with Nickelodeon on a range of projects over the years.

9 Story Entertainment takes on a commission from YTV (Canada) to produce the animated series Almost Naked Animals (52x11). Targeted to K6-11, the series is based on the eponymous website created by Noah Z. Jones, and is slated to bow in fall 2010. Almost Naked Animals follows the adventures of a group of underwear-clad animals that run a beach-front hotel and are always looking for fun. The top dog/hotel manager, Howie, who has the attention span of an 11-year-old gamer, leads the pack. 9 Story will feature the series next week in Cannes.

Social media users may be less likely to click on banner ads than visitors of non-social media sites. But they interact with those banners at a higher rate, and in a more meaningful way when it comes to video - particularly with regards to campaigns for products in the entertainment industry, according a new a report from social ad platform Lotame, based on data from over one hundred campaigns. The upside of Lotame's findings is that advertisers have plenty of opportunities to reach social media users if they think beyond simple click-through metrics. Lotame's recommendations include:
For higher interaction rate, focus on Expandable formats instead of click-through formats, both video and non-video, and avoid in-page ads that don't offer video
For higher interaction rate, consider focusing additionally on leaderboards (728x90) as the primary ad size for the campaign's rich media format creatives
For higher video completion rate, consider in-page video formats over expandable formats

PBS, WordWorld, Valemont

2009-09-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

PBS is unveiling a new multiplatform brand package around the tagline "Be More" this fall. It features more than 600 elements including promo opens and closes, video bumps for IDs and support messaging and web elements. PBS stations will debut the new package in conjunction with the Sept. 27 premiere of Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

WordWorld launches its first iPhone application, Build A Word ($3), at Apple's iTunes store. The Based on the PBS series WordWorld, the Build A Word app helps kids learn about reading, spelling and writing and make words come to life with the help of WordFriends from the series.

Tomorrow, MTV premieres Valemont, a new short-form scripted series centering on a supernatural mystery. The co-branded, multi-platform series begins tomorrow night and the two and a half minute episodes will air over six weeks in the commercial pods before The Hills at 10p and following The City at 1030p. Twenty-three further episodes of Valemont will be available via MTV.com and on V Cast Video from Verizon Wireless including other bonus footage. Valemont is about 18-year old Sophie, played by Kristen Hager as she infiltrates Valemont University to discover why her brother Eric disappeared. The series is co-produced with Electric Farm Entertainment.

BBC, Marblemedia

2009-09-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

The BBC unveils plans to spend at least $41 million on kid's programming over the next three years! Additionally, BBC's will up its spending for BBC Two dramas by 50%, the channel also becoming the home for BBC Films. The news came in a speech by Jena Bennett, Director/BBC Vision at BBC Vision Forum, an annual event for in-house and indie producers. Bennett explained the move comes in response to the recommendation from the BBC Trust that BBC strengthen its original kid's programming output in the UK and explained, "This additional funding, derived from efficiency savings, once again recognizes the particular pressures facing this genre and it will be used to reinforce the creative strength of BBC Children's, and help the CBBC channel maintain its position."

Marblemedia acquires the rights to the 1980s TV game show, Just Like Mom. Marblemedia plans to produce an updated version of the series with new elements including an interactive portion, and changing the series name to Just Like Mom ... and Dad. The series will be showcased at Mipcom next month. The original Just Like Mom series, which aired on CTV from 1980-85, featured three mom/kid teams working together to prove they knew each other best through quests/answer rounds and The Bake-Off Challenge. Catherine Swing, a creator and co-host of the original series, will serve as creative consultant on the new incarnation of the show.

Chocolate Liberation Front, Hasbro Studios

2009-09-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

The recently launched Toronto-based Chocolate Liberation Front is developing is initial property titled, The World of Infinite Curiosity. A family-targeted multiplatform project, The World of Infinite Curiosity is currently being developed as a videogame with funding from Telefilm Canada and Screen Australia, and in the exploration process for a primetime TV series. The World of Infinite Curiosity is a fantasy world based on the imagination of Decklin, an 11-year-old boy, influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's numerous inventions.

More executives named for the newly launched Hasbro Studios, which will produce TV shows based on Hasbro's brands, new branded content and produce programs from third party content creators. Some of the new shows/content will be part of the new (and still unnamed) TV network from the joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications, which is slated to launch in fall 2010. The new hires were announced by Stephen J. Davis, who was named as President/Hasbro Studios last month, and include:
Bob Boden is appointed Head/Reality and Game Show Development and Production. Boden is currently SVP/Programming and Production, Fox Reality Channel and formerly served as SVP/Programming, Game Show Network.
Michael J. Vogel takes on the role of Head/Boys Animation. He is currently Director/Animated Programming, Sony Pictures Television.
Brian Charles Lenard joins as Head/Story Development, from RDF Media Group, Pangea Management Group and RDF USA, where he is Director/Scripted Development.
Mary Beth Bambridge, Head/Strategic Planning, William Morris Endeavour Entertainment, will be the company's Head/Finance,
Kevin Healy becomes Hasbro Studios' Head of Legal and Business Affairs, he had been Head/Business and Legal Affairs, Hasbro Entertainment and Licensing

Cookie Jar TV, BFC, Ink

2009-09-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

This week marks MGA Entertainment's launch of ., a new doll line featuring a group of five characters, each with their own personality and background story. Designed to underline the importance of being part of a supportive group of friends and working together, each BFC, Ink. (Best Friends Club, Ink.) doll comes with various fashion items and interactive journals. There are two different BFC, Ink. categories within the doll line, the BFC, Ink. 18-inch dolls and BFC, Ink. Fashion Dolls. Each doll comes with outfits, accessories, a BFC, Ink. Book and lock and key and a special membership card, which can be used to unlock game content online. Additionally, there will be a tween-targeted line of fiction books, written in journal format, tied in with the property that produced in partnership with Parragon Publishing. The publishing effort also provides girls with various tools to create their own club with titles such as BFC, IN. Club Kit.

CBS and Cookie Jar Entertainment will launch Cookie Jar TV, a three-hour Saturday morning kids block, on Saturday, September 19 on CBS. The newly named Educational/Informational compliant block for the 2009-10 season will include episodes of Busytown Mysteries and Noonbory & the Super 7 as well as episodes of Sabrina: The Animated Series. The Cookie Jar TV schedule will generally look as it does below, though its day and times may differ market-to-market and in some markets CBS News' The Saturday Early Show will air 9-11a. Cookie Jar TV takes over for the Kewlopolis (2007-9) Saturday morning block that had been originally programmed by DIC Entertainment, which was subsequently acquired by Cookie Jar Entertainment. Kewlopolis replaced KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS (2006-7), also programmed by DIC, which in turn took over for the Nickelodeon programmed Nick Jr. on CBS (2000-6) and which became Nick on CBS in 2002. Prior to fall 2000 CBS programmed its own kid-targeted Saturday morning block.

Cookie Jar TV from September 19, 2009:
7a Busytown Mysteries
7:30a Noonbory & the Super 7
8a Busytown Mysteries
8:30a Sabrina: The Animated Series
11a Busytown Mysteries
11:30a Noonbory & the Super 7
(different episodes in each time slot)

Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), Frederator Studios

2009-09-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) - announced plans to team up to develop new methods to measure TV viewing across multiple platforms. The group plans to mine set top box data, measure internet video consumption and analyze cross-platform usage to gain a more accurate picture of how audiences now consume premium content. The companies have agreed to make contributions of at least $1 million combined to build new research apparatus. "The velocity of today's technology developments enables us to demand a more sophisticated measurement model that provides greater accountability and accuracy to increase the effectiveness of our clients' media and marketing investments," wrote Nick Brien, President and CEO, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands about CIMM's missions. "We can no longer subscribe to outdated perceptions of engagement."

In more animation news, Sony Pictures Animation announced a deal to develop animated features with Fred Seibert and his Frederator Studios studio, one of the founding Next New Networks micro-nets. Frederator's credits include Butch Hartman's The Fairly Odd Parents, Genndy Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory, and Craig McCraken's The Powerpuff Girls.

Ian James Corlett, Skywriter Media and Entertainment Group and Atomic Cartoons are partnering to develop a new animated TV series, Elliott & Lucy, for a Canadian broadcaster. Based on characters from Corlett's book E Is for Ethics: How to Teach Kids About Morals, Values, and What Matters Most, the series follows the brother/sister duo as they learn about life and even have some fun. The book will be published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster this December. A voice-over actor, Corlett also created the animated series Being Ian and was co-creator of Yvon of the Yukon.

Stella Takes the Stage, TATTARRATTAT, The Jim Henson Company, Chorion, FremantleMedia Enterprises

2009-09-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

Little Airplane Productions and Spin Master Entertainment, a unit of Spin Master, enter into a partnership to develop a new preschool series entitled Stella Takes the Stage. Slated to be available from early 2010, the series will employ a new animation style called "Theatre Arts Animation", a mix of theatre stagecraft and computer animation developed by Little Airplane. Featuring an educational curriculum, Stella Takes the Stage is designed to encourage preschoolers to become more aware of personal qualities they posses or would like to have and help them identify new skills and potential career ideas.

SupperTime Entertainment, kid's book author/illustrator David Sheldon and Bix Pix Entertainment are teaming up to create a K6-11 targeted TV series and books and merchandise based on the TATTARRATTAT characters, which can flip, created by Sheldon. Under the arrangement, Bix Pix Entertainment is developing and producing the series with Sheldon serving as creative director/lead character designer, and SupperTime handling marketing and merchandising for the property. Bix Pix plans to produce the series using a style of animation that incorporates stop-motion and CG techniques. TATTARRATTAT is expected to begin production in early 2010 with initial distribution scheduled for fall 2011.

The Jim Henson Company will introduce the new series Pajanimals (26x30 or 78x7), which is currently in development, to potential co-production partners at Mipcom. Produced by Henson and 4Kids Entertainment, the short-form, live-action Pajanimals (10x2) music video series was commissioned by and airs on Sprout, as part of it's The Good Night Show programming block, in the US.

Chorion will introduce The Octonauts (50x11 and 1x22 special), a new HD CGI animated action/adventure preschool series, at Mipcom. Produced by Brown Bag Films, The Octonauts has already been acquired by CBeebies (UK), TF1 (France) and ABC Australia, which will all launch the series in 2010. The Octonauts follows a group of heroes that set out in their underwater adventures where they rescue sea creatures and explore underwater worlds.

Spain-based Imira Entertainment is heading to Mipcom/MipJunior where it will offer two new series:
Imira is representing the distribution rights to the live-action series Karku (76x26) across Europe. Imira will showcase the series at Mip Junior in October. Karku is produced by Chilean company My Friend Entertainment in co-production with Television Nacional de Chile. The series follows the adventures of 13-year-old Emilia, who is sent by her parents to live in Santiago, and her pals as they try all sorts of jobs and scheme to raise money to take a vacation together. Karku currently airs across Latin America on Nickelodeon Latin America, TVN (Chile), Ecuavisa, Senal Colombia, Televisa in Mexico and Brazil, as well as in the US, in Spanish, on Sorpresa.
Imira will also showcase the flash animated series Sandra, the Fairytale Detective (52x13). The series is co-produced by TVE and DQ Entertainment, with presales already inked with TF1 (France), Disney Channels in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and India and RTP (Portugal). Sandra, the Fairytale Detective revolves around Sandra, a 10-year-old that uses her detective skills as she travels to a parallel world inhabited by fairytale characters and lots of what ifs (e.g. what if someone steals Cinderella's glass slipper?).

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) signs new license deals for the design property Rebecca Bonbon. Rebecca Bonbon is the French bulldog created by designer Yuko Shimizu (Hello Kitty). Picking up the brand are: US apparel company Kids Headquarters - young ladies and junior products across categories including apparel, accessories, jewelry, sleepwear and loungewear, as well as a pet line; UK-based Blueprint - young lady-aimed stationery including storage products, notebooks, stationery sets and pencil cases and novelty items for launch in the UK in spring 2010; France's MOA the retailer will offer co-branded Rebecca Bonbon products including, jewelry, watches, hair/apparel accessories, mobile phone accessories, sunglasses, t-shirts, bags and footwear, among others, at MOA shops and MOA-branded areas in stores across France, Monaco and Andorra, Spain, Russia, Romania, Hungary and Greece.

Nickelodeon

2009-08-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

Nickelodeon commissions two new live-action comedy series featuring original music that will be co-produced with Sony Music, per Variety. Nick has picked up a new series entitled Victorious (20 episodes) from Dan Schneider (Zoey 101, iCarly, among others), and an untitled series (20 episodes) from the great Scott Fellows (Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide). The shows are part of multi-year deal between Nick and Sony to develop projects with a strong music component.
The new Fellows show revolves around a boy band that wins and American Idol type competition show. The series stars newcomers Kendall Schmidt, Carlos Pena, James Maslow and Logan Henderson.
Victorious stars Victoria Justice (Zoey 101, Spectacular!) as a new girl at a high school for performing arts. The series is slated to bow in early 2010.