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Channel21 International | Spring 2022
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Veronica Pickett
Veronica Pickett of Amazon Kids+ discusses how the subscription service expanding entertainment is e universes un such as Hello Kitty and Blippi and seeking out new ones. Bli By Jordan Pinto
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s the streaming wars have evolved and intensified, children’s content has become an increasingly important frontier upon which the battle for supremacy is being waged. A robust kids’ content offering has proven to be one of the most effective ways to combat churn, leading streaming players to invest heavily in ensuring they are not left wanting in that department. But while most of its rivals have jumped headfirst into video content, Amazon has looked to build out a broader offering with its subscription product, Amazon Kids+, which, despite what its name suggests, is not a streaming service in the traditional sense – at least not in the vein of Disney+, Netflix, Paramount+, HBO Max or even its sibling platform Amazon Prime Video. The subscription service, known as Amazon Freetime until it was rebranded and adopted a new strategy in September 2020, includes a library of more than 20,000 books, shows, movies and games. “We’re not a streaming service – that’s one of the things that makes us unique,” says Veronica Pickett, head of Amazon Kids+ original series. “We think of Amazon Kids+ as a virtual playroom where kids are able to independently explore.” The service is currently in five markets, the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Japan, and is offered as a paid-for add-on to Amazon Prime Video or as a standalone service. Broadly, it caters to kids aged from three to 12, and within that it targets three groups: 2-5s, 6-9s and 10-12s. In terms of shows, the service is mainly populated by acquired content from franchises, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Angry Birds, Peppa Pig, My Little Pony, Sesame Street and many others. But over the past 12 months the platform has started to turn up the dial on its original commissioning output, with the goal of creating an ecosystem where kids’ favourite characters and properties appear across books, games and shows. “We’re really trying to create a multimedia, immersive, engaging experience – the kind that only Amazon can provide,” says Pickett, whose role covers original series and development across scripted, unscripted, live-action and animation. Monkie Kid
Arpo Robot Babysitter
Delivering the goods It should be noted the Amazon Kids+ content strategy is separate from that of Amazon Studios, which pulled back on original preschool programming in 2019 to focus on primetime animation and family-friendly entertainment. Amazon Kids+ is pursuing a two-pronged strategy for its originals for kids aged three to 12. The first component of the strategy involves extending existing brands and franchises, such as Blippi and Hello Kitty. Last July, the platform announced it was partnering with children’s entertainment company Moonbug Entertainment to produce new episodes of YouTube preschool sensation Blippi. It commissioned the longform episodic series Blippi’s Treehouse, which marked the first new original series set outside the original YouTube show. Through its partnership with Moonbug, Amazon Kids+ also commissioned Arpo Robot Babysitter, a non-dialogue animated series based on Moonbug’s YouTube project Arpo. Also in the works is a new 3D series set in the Hello Kitty universe. Set to launch later this year, Hello Kitty: Super Style! is being produced with France’s Monello X
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Veronica Pickett
Productions and Watch Next Media in partnership with Hello Kitty’s creator, Tokyo-headquartered Sanrio. In addition, the platform acquired two seasons of Legobased series Monkie Kid last autumn. “It’s not rocket science,” says Pickett, who earlier in her career was a writer on kids’ shows including Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, Blaze & the Monster Machines and Creature Cases. “We want to find the brands and the characters that we know our audience already loves. We want them to turn on their Amazon Fire tablet or [Amazon] Glow, see those familiar faces and get really excited.” Pickett adds that Amazon Kids+ is not solely interested in taking existing TV IP and creating new episodes. One example, she says, would be creating a show based around a character found in one of the games on the platform. The development team is also keeping a close eye on characters that are resonating with kids on YouTube and social media and looking to partner with their creators. As well as growing existing franchises, Amazon Kids+ is eager to begin creating original franchises of its own. That, says Pickett, is a key part of the next iteration of the strategy. “We want to look at what kids really respond to, both on our service and out there in the media landscape. We want to look at the genres and trends they’re really loving, and the kinds of things they might like. “We work with veteran and new creators alike to do some experimenting, make pilots, get them in front of kids, listen hard and see what they respond to. Then we let
Blippi’s Treehouse
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
them be our guide on where we should go bigger,” Pickett says, adding that “tens of millions of kids and families” across the platform’s five operating territories are the “best focus group we could ever ask for.” Asked whether there are plans for Amazon Kids+ to expand beyond these five countries in the future, Pickett is mum, noting only that “a big part of our international strategy is making sure we represent different perspectives and stories, whether it’s from our writers, artists, animation studios or production companies.” Many have suggested that, due to Amazon’s position as the world’s undisputed e-commerce superpower, it would be a no-brainer to integrate its programming with the e-commerce side of the business. Pickett says if those opportunities present themselves, the teams are willing to explore ideas. But finding programming with consumer-products potential is not a defined goal for each new project. “The way we approach this is we want to make a show that can also be a game or a book. But not every project has to be everything. It’s not about making toys for toys’ sake,” she says. “What we really look for is letting the creative drive [the process]. What is the fiction of the story world? What is the core of the experience? And what extensions do we have under the big umbrella that is Amazon to help take the audience experience to the next level?” Another of the unique aspects of Amazon Kids+, says Pickett, is that the service is “kid-directed,” meaning it is designed so that children of all ages are “in the driver’s seat” when it comes to selecting the content they watch. One of the major content trends to emerge during the pandemic was a growing need for co-v co-viewing programming that could be watched at home by all members of the family. While many content providers leaned into that provid trend, Amazon Kids+ is towards tthe other end of the spectrum and seeks to put all the decision-making power de in kids’ hands. “They’re the ones doing the click clicking. They’re figuring out what they want to watch. So we we’re really looking for characters and brands they’re excited about, storylines exci that are relatable to them and content that meets them cont where they are in their cognitive development,” Pickett d says. While co-viewing content might not be its foremost priority, what is top of mind is ensuring that parents e have control over what their chil children watch, the exec adds. After two years of the pandemic, the children’s pand content sector finds itself in a very ver interesting moment in spring 2022. The pandemic has h had an enormous impact on young people and how ho they see the world – or, perhaps more accurate accurately, how much of the world they have been able to ssee – meaning content creators and platforms are having to tailor their h offerings to a new reality. Now is a time when platforms must take p greater with the content they g eater care than ever w gr serve s rve up to children, says se say Pickett. “When kids are at home, when they have less interaction with other kids, the friends they have on the screen and the stories s and the lessons they’re learning are even more learni impactful, so we take that imp responsibility even re more seriously.” m
We work with veteran and new creators alike to do some experimenting, make pilots, get them in front of kids, listen hard and see what they respond to. Then we let them be our guide on where we should go bigger.
“
Veronica Pickett Amazon Kids+
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CONTENT CONFIDENTIAL: Disney Junior
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
Firebuds
Junior grows up D
isney Junior has come a long way since its inception as a programming block on Disney Channel in 2011. After gaining traction with audiences and launching as a standalone linear service in 2012, the preschool-focused channel went from strength to strength in the years that followed with a slate of popular animated originals including D oc M c S tuffi ns and S ofia the First. The launch of Disney+ in late 2019 ushered in a new phase for Disney Junior, as the development team is now cultivating a slate of shows that will not only premiere on the linear channel, but also on its parent company’s global streaming service. As the content world goes full stream ahead, the Disney Junior brand has arguably never been more valuable to the wider Disney company. “There’s been increased enthusiasm for the Disney Junior brand and our preschool audience, especially as we move into the streaming era, and really having as much of our content on Disney+ as possible,” said Kim Berglund, Disney Junior’s VP of development, speaking at the recent Kidscreen Summit Virtual. “We’re only going to grow. Whereas we were only launching two shows a year, we’re now launching three, four, perhaps rhaps more. That’s That s an exciting prospect.” Disney Junior has around 50 projects in development across traditional al episodic television, movie specialss and shortform content. It is on the e hunt for character-driven programming mming that highlights and accentuates tuates friendship, humour, diversity, rsity, family, magic and fantasy. The Covid-19 pandemic mic has also led Disney Junior’s unior’ss development team to adjust st the 2D, CG, live-action and hybrid programming it is looking for. Berglund said that with the e extended time spent underr lockdown, the channel iss “definitely seeing the trend off
A decade after its launch as a linear channel, Disney Junior is enjoying re renewed prominence as its parent goes all in on streaming. Kim Be Berglund reveals what the preschool channel is looking for and w what lies ahead. By Jordan Pinto kids wanting to see more families on screen.” As it looks to the future, Disney Junior would “like to highlight family dynamics even more,” she said. At the same time, the confinement that has defined the past two years will also lead to a trend for more shows set outdoors, Berglund added. “We really want kids to be out and about, and not be afraid of being outside. I think there will be a trend of encouraging kids to get out into nature and to really start exploring their outside world even more,” she said. Another area into which Disney Junior is thinking about dipping its toe is the edutainment space. While the brand is not focused on “heavy academic skills,”
Newly released Alice’s Wonderland Bakery
Berglund said Disney Junior is looking at potentially broadening its commissioning remit to include shows that weave in some som educational aspects. One of its upcoming shows, O E ureka, about a girl who lives in prehistoric times, is the closest p thing Disney Junior has to an t edutainment programme, said Berglund. Its eponymous lead Kim Berglund
character is a budding inventor whose father created the wheel. Other upcoming shows include Fireb uds, created by Craig Gerber, who also created S ofia the First and E lena of A valor. The show follows a group of kids who are the children of first responders, along with their talking vehicle sidekicks. Meanwhile, Disney Junior’s slate of new releases includes A lic e’s W onderland B akery, which follows the seven-year-old granddaughter of the original Alice as she explores her passion for baking. Berglund said Disney Junior is always looking to work with a diverse range of creatives and innovate with its storytelling. One area where she sees an opportunity is a series that upends the typical portrayal of young boys. “I would love to see boy protagonists in positions of not being a superhero all the time,” she said. “A woman we work with, a writer, said it best: ‘What happens when they put down the sword and start really exploring the emotional life of boys?’ Or maybe having a boy character in the main nurture role. We’re really excited to explore the many different facets of who you are as a kid and breaking out of those stereotypes.” Above all else, Berglund said Disney Junior is on the hunt for shows with originality, humour, heart and inclusivity at their core. What excites her most in the coming year is continuing to expand on the diversity of ideas on Disney Junior’s development slate. She said: “I started at Disney Junior two-and-ahalf years ago with a lot of ideas – we all did – and now we’re seeing that come to fruition on our slate. It’s a really exciting time because of the people we’re working with, the characters we’re going to be introducing and the diversity and representation of all kids.”
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CONTENT CO C ONT TE EN NT CONFIDENT CONFIDENTIAL: Super RTL
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
Super’s strengths Thorsten Braun, CEO of Super RTL in Germany, discusses the network’s content str strategy, plans for collaboration, how it conducts a ‘multiplatform ap approach’ and the goals for its flagship Toggo brand. By Karolina Kaminska B
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TL Deutschland-owned German children’s network Super RTL goes beyond its obvious role of broadcasting kids’ TV shows, through what CEO Thorsten Braun calls a “multiplatform approach.” Under this strategy, Super RTL operates its traditional linear channels but also YouTube channels, an app and web offering, a radio station, live entertainment projects, retail operations and the kids’ segment of RTL Deutschland’s SVoD platform RTL+. Super RTL launched in 1995 as a joint venture between RTL Group and Disney, but the launch of a free-to-air version of Disney Channel led to the removal of Disney programming from Super RTL in 2014. In March 2021, RTL Deutschland acquired Disney’s stake in the channel, completely removing its affiliation with the Mouse House. “Disney became more of a shareholder who we met with twice a year,” explains Braun, who joined Super RTL’s management team from Disney Channel in May 2020. “So RTL Deutschland buying Disney’s stake in Super RTL was really good for us. Now we have more intense collaborations and one clear path for our strategy, without having to deal with another shareholder who might have some contradicting thoughts.” Super RTL’s core focus when it comes to content is animation, although it does acquire and commission some live-action shows for its older viewers. In 2022, the network is bringing more than 1,000 new episodes of existing IP to its
viewers, from programmes like Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol and Dino Ranch to new series such as WarnerMedia’s upcoming ming French animation Jade Armor. Additionally, Super RTL is increasing ng its focus on local production, meaning local kids ds can relate more strongly to the characters and d storylines. About 70% of Super RTL’s content is acquired, quired, with the remaining 30% being commissioned. ed. Projects can range from early development to ready-toair, while the network is also open to pre-buys and coproductions. In animation, Super RTL is currently tly looking for shows for its Toggolino preschool ool segment with a gender-neutral focus and shows ws that have parental approval. Diverse family setups are also key, as are programmes centred d on heroic characters and social learning. “In Germany, parents still have very strong rong control over their children’s video consumption, n, especially for the younger ones. So that’s somethingg we have an eye on when it comes to preschool storytelling. telling. It has to be entertaining, while social learning is important for us and repeating things like ritualss and catchphrases is also very interesting in n the preschool segment,” Braun says. “When it comes to characters, it’s helpful elpful to have a diverse family setup so preschoolers choolers can relate to things that exist in their own homes, while we also like heroic characters.” For Super RTL’s Toggo segment, which ich caters to children aged 6-13, the network seeks gender- X
Super RTL’s acquired content includes shows such as Dino Ranch (above) and Peppa Pig
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CONTENT CONFIDENTIAL: Super RTL
WarnerMedia’s upcoming French animated series Jade Armor will air on Super RTL
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
neutral programming for the linear channel, while content for the digital platforms can be more skewed towards a particular gender. Animations should also have themes kids can relate to, but with an element of escapism, while comedy is a top priority. “The most important thing that works in the German market [for kids’ TV] is comedy. So adventure and action series should have humour in them. It has to be easy to watch, adventurous and with diverse casts. Antagonists also need to be an strong characters because they bring depth to the str storyline,” Braun says. sto Importantly, Braun stresses that series for both Toggo and Toggolino should consist of closed To episodes without continuing storylines. “An ep overarching storyline is fine,” he says, “but if it’s ov a main principle, it becomes difficult because if a child misses an episode, they won’t know what’s ch happened, even though we have ways to bring that ha missed episode to the child digitally.” m
The most important thing that works in the German market for kids TV is comedy. m So S adventure and action series should have humour in them. It has s to be easy to watch, adventurous a and with diverse casts.
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Thorsten Braun Th
When acquiring content, Super RTL adopts an “all rights” strategy so it can air the shows it buys on both its linear channels and digital platforms. It has a “cross-platform planning” department that decides where content should launch first and how best it can reach kids. “Linear is still an important and massive reach driver in Germany; traditional TV still has enormous relevance. But from a strategic point of view, we look into how we can reach audiences across all platforms. The majority of our platforms are ad-funded, but we also have the SVoD portion on RTL+, so we are now figuring out how it can all work together,” Braun says. “For some content, we start it on the digital platforms, while other programmes begin their life on linear. Part of our launch strategy is that if we launch a programme on a linear channel with a direct AVoD extension, we then have the chance to push viewers to the streaming world. “The cross-platform planning department uses a method called the ‘content story process,’ where it develops a red line for individual IP. Everyone agrees on the red line of the story and decides together where it should go first, when the right time is to produce a game for the IP, when we want to air it on the linear channel, when it should go on the digital platforms, how we should connect it to the radio station, whether we should put it in the cinema before launching on TV and so on. We do this to work out how the content runs through all our platforms into the children’s households, based on research and insights. TV plays an important role because it has a lot of reach behind it, but it’s not the number-one decision maker.” As 2022 rolls on, Super RTL plans to forge more partnerships with its international peers, like the licensing partnership it struck with French kids’ channel Gulli last year. It also has big plans with its Toggo brand, in addition to extending its local reach and building its digital portfolio. “We have to find partners that have, from a programming and content distribution perspective, the same view on content. We’re looking at extending our footprint in the local market and want to give the Toggo brand a bigger focus, so it is the overall kids’ brand in the market,” Braun says. “The reach of linear channels is under massive pressure, so we will be working on that while also expanding our digital footprint and collaborating closely with our colleagues from RTL Deutschland to see what opportunities there are in the kids’ space. In 2022 we are in good shape for content, while 2023 also looks bright, so now we are looking for 2024. “We have also considered producing animated series on our own. So far we have decided against this, but that decision may change in the next five years if we find that some of the studio-led global streamers don’t allow us to pursue our all-rights strategy.” Braun concludes: “To sum up, our future plans include securing best-in-class content, growing locally, collaborating internationally and for Toggo to become the brand a child will go to when they want to be entertained.”
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COUNTRYFILE: Portugal
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
Portugal’s moment in the sun What’s It All About?
T
he Portuguese animation industry scored a major coup last year when it was named the spotlight country at Cartoon Forum. In a sure sign its once small animation sector is growing, a total of five Portuguese projects were presented at the Toulouse event in 2021. Among them were kids’ science series What’s It All About?, produced by Take It Easy, medieval fantasy show The Adventures of Princess P, from Ukbar Films, and mystery animation The Saskatoons, coproduced by Sardinha em Lata with Spain’s Pikkukala. What is also striking is the increased number of series, because in the past Portuguese animators have largely produced short films. Its acclaimed shorts include Tragic Story with Happy Ending, from Portuguese animator Regina Pessoa, which won awards at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2006, and Odd is an Egg, coproduced by Lisbon-based Sparkle Animation and Norway’s Qvisten Animation, which was awarded Best Animated Short at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. Humberto Santana founded Lisbon-based studio Animanostra in 1991 and says over the past three decades he has noticed a shift towards animation projects that aren’t just shorts. “Back then, there was barely an industry and producers would maybe make commercial short films, but nothing beyond that. But now more studios have been founded, each with their own personality and brand, the content is Manuel Claro becoming more varied,” he says. However, it’s not the first time Portugal’s animation industry has been on the rise. Diogo Carvalho, producer and director of animation at Sardinha em Lata, the Lisbon-based studio that also took young-adult animated series Pete & Bern’s to last year’s Cartoon Forum, says the country nearly had its moment in the sun back in 2010. “The first real boom was over a decade ago, but unfortunately it coincided with the European debt crisis and everything got shut down,” he explains. “In Portugal, unlike the UK and other countries, animation is almost completely supported by government funding, which stopped when the crisis happened. Funding was finally restarted in 2015 and the animation sector was reinvigorated. We’re seeing the results of that now.”
Th animation sector in Portugal is gaining momentum The and a international recognition, but what obstacles must it overcome to become a major European hub? o By Ruth Lawes A scheme that has played a key role in the Portuguese animation sector’s second boom is a cash rebate launched in 2018 and run today by the Portugal Film Commission. Animators working on film, TV and VoD projects can apply for a 30% cash rebate, providing there is a minimum spend of €500,000 (US$552,000) in Portugal for fiction and animation projects, and €250,000 for documentaries and post-production. The annual budget is around €12m, with a cap of €4m per project. There is no limit, however, on the number of productions that can share the pot; the scheme ends when the money runs out. “It works well for producers because it is on a first come, first served basis,” explains Manuel Claro, film commissioner at the Portugal Film Commission. “We also pay out upfront in instalments, which is appealing to creators.” Since the end of 2021, a total of 125 productions had benefited from the scheme, including six animation projects. Musical film They Shot the Piano Player, directed by Spanish creators Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, and Angola Civil War feature Nayola, directed by Portugal’s José Miguel Ribeiro, are among the animated productions to have taken advantage of the cash rebate. In addition to the Portugal Film Commission, the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual (ICA) dishes out funding to animators. Its Support for Cinema fund includes an Animation Short Films category, where producers can compete for a pay-out from a €900,000 pot, up to a maximum of €120,000 per project or €90,000 for debut shorts. The ICA also runs the New Talents and First Works funding scheme, which covers fiction feature films, fiction shorts, cinematographic documentaries and animated shorts. Creators in the four categories can apply to have a share of €3.375m, to a maximum of €525,000 per X
There are at least three degree courses in animation in Portugal, with around 40 graduates every year, so the community is growing. Students and our younger animators also have to be all-rounders – good at drawing, animating, directing and producing.
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João Miguel Real Easylab Animation
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COUNTRYFILE: Portugal
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
Above: The Saskatoons was among five Portuguese shows presented at Cartoon Forum 2021. Right: International coproduction Alice’s Diary. Below: Diogo Carvalho at Sardinha em Lata
production. It’s worth noting that financial support granted by the ICA cannot exceed 80% of the total cost of the production. Algarve-based Shane Perez, co-founder and co-CEO of Irish development company Hot Drop Films, believes that while the Portuguese government is moving in the right direction in terms of animation support, the funding system needs to be overhauled to truly benefit producers. “There could be clearer distinctions in the funding, including an award just for animation,” he says. “Animation support is currently also mostly skewed towards shorts and first- and second-time filmmakers, so it could be broader.” Previously based in Dublin, Perez says he sees similarities between the animation sector in Ireland and Portugal, adding that it wasn’t until the Irish government ringfenced cash ca specifically for animators that the industry in Ireland really rea took off. government funding is helping sustain While agreeing agre animation sector, João Miguel Real, director and Portugal’s an animator at Lisbon-based Easylab Animation, also points out its flaws. The executive shares concerns that cultural bodies support suppo typically Portuguese stories he describes and dense,” which have less potential to as “deep, heavy he travel. to get funding for projects that have “You’re unlikely un different views view or different angles, particularly comedic he explains. “There’s very much or lighter productions,” pro theme that’s catered to and we should have a specific th funding that promotes more commercial or mainstream animations.” animat However, Real says without government H funding Portuguese animation would not be fu produced because there are not enough p projects to fill local broadcasters’ schedules. On top of that, there isn’t enough cash
at Portuguese broadcasters to commission animation, which is expensive. Instead, local broadcasters look to other European countries, such as France and the UK, to stock up on animated series, according to Real. “Andrea Basílio, head of the children and youth department at [public broadcaster] RTP, is really keen on authored animated series,” he says. Among the acquired programming the Portuguese pubcaster airs is Mush-Mush & the Mushables, Peanuts and Dimitri. The problem with the abundance of nonPortuguese animation airing on local channels is that newer players in the country, such as Netflix, are less inclined to buy locally, according to Sardinha em Lata’s Carvalho. “As we import everything, and even dubbing only started happening recently, Portuguese audiences are used to watching non-Portuguese content. That drives down the demand for local productions.” On the upside, new funding models have emerged in the past few years, including international coproductions. For example, Sardinha em Lata is currently producing Alice’s Diary for RTP, along with Spain’s Alice AIE and Brazil’s Geppetto Films. UK-based Jetpack Distribution picked up worldwide rights to the upper-preschool series recently. Portugal is an attractive country for foreign investors because there is a wealth of affordable talent, according to Easylab’s Real. “There are at least three degree courses in animation in Portugal, with around 40 graduates every year, so the community is growing,” he says. “Students and our younger animators also have to be all-rounders – good at drawing, animating, directing and producing – because we don’t have enough specialised staff.” While Portugal may be a hotbed of well-trained animators, it’s having a problem retaining them because of a lack of work. Real says Portuguese studios will train young animators for a year or two, only for there to be no work once that period ends. “They’ll often go to another studio or country and it’s really hard to bring them back,” he adds. “Studios are now prioritising having work to guarantee their teams stay.” With all this in mind, does Portugal have what it takes to become a major producer of animation? All the execs say yes. Hot Drop’s Perez, for one, says that creatively the country is “exploding.” “Portuguese animators probably have more ambition than resources that allow them to act upon it, but that’s common in countries where the media sector is growing,” he says. According to Perez, the solution is foreign companies setting up production facilities in Portugal or striking more partnerships or coproductions with local producers. “At Mipcom, I was talking to somebody, who I will not name but from a very deep-pocketed global entity, who was considering Portugal as a place for investment and wanted to pick my brain about it,” he adds. Animanostra’s Santana says Portuguese animators are beginning to win awards at major international festivals, which is putting the country on the map. “It gives me a lot of hope and enthusiasm,” he says. “It also seems like there’s the possibility of branching out beyond short films. Our horizons are broadening.”
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CONTENT CO C CONFIDENTIAL: ON NF FID FI IDEN DE EN NTI TIAL AL: M Milkshake! ilkshake!
Channel21 C Cha nne n n l2 l2 211 In Inte International ter tte e nattiio ion on o na all | Spr S Spring pri pr p ri ring g2 2022 022
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Shaking things up Louise Bucknole, VP of kids programming at Paramount in the UK, d discusses the latest developments at Channel 5’s preschool block M Milkshake! and its content plans following its commitment to commission 50 hours of local original shows. By Gün Akyuz c
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n the back of UK broadcaster Channel 5’s 2020 pledge to double its investments in originals for its Milkshake! service, the daily preschool block is growing, bolstered by an increasingly diverse range of genres and subjects, including a return to drama. Following a wide-ranging review of children’s content by UK regulator Ofcom in 2019, Paramount Global-owned Channel 5’s own internal review led to the commitment to commission 50 hours of UK original content, with productions launching from 2021, says Louise Bucknole, VP of kids at Paramount in the UK. As well as a substantial increase on previous years, the move “meant we were very focused on working with the best creators and production companies in the UK, particularly regionally,” she says. Milkshake!, which turns 25 this year, is the only
MixMups
daily preschool block left on any UK free-to-air public service broadcasting terrestrial channel, which Bucknole argues gives it a unique place in the competitive local landscape. “We’ve always had a very solid audience base and Milkshake! has grown consistently since 2014,” she says. Moreover, at the height of the pandemic, Channel 5’s catch-up service, My5, also saw a significant rise in Milkshake! views, up by around 19% in 2021. In January of this year, Milkshake! posted its best month on record, with a 19.4% share of kids aged 4-15. While its core demo is 2-5s, the block is measured across the entire 4-15 kids demo, reflecting siblings and older kids’ co-viewing as well. It is also fairly evenly spread gender-wise, at 52/48 boys to girls. Milkshake’s! programming spans commissions, coproductions and acquisitions, some shared with its pay sibling Nick Jr. Also helping it connect with audiences on a daily basis is a team of nine on-air studio presenters. Its current line-up includes animation hits P eppa P ig and P aw P atrol plus B lues C lues & You, P ip & P osy, The A dventures of P addington, O do, C irc le S q uare and B rave B unnies. Over the past year, it has also added more live-action shows like The W orld A c c ording to Grandpa, Go Green W ith the Grim wades, S how M e How and M eet the E xperts, joining programmes such as M ilkshake! M onkey’s A m azing A dventures. Bucknole’s remit covers content strategy for the group’s entire UK kids portfolio including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Nick Jr Too and Nicktoons. “The beauty of Paramount is that we can commission and acquire British content, as well as some European and rest-ofworld, and we also have the best of Nickelodeon
Louise Bucknole
content, like P aw P atroland B lue’s C lues. We look at the best strategy for that content across all of our services,” she says. With oversight of Paramount Global’s entire kids portfolio in the UK, Bucknole and her team also work with colleagues worldwide in other territories, as well as within Nickelodeon International. “The global teams are all very well connected in how we look and find content globally and also locally,” she says. This also includes Nickelodeon’s SVoD preschool service Noggin, available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. “We’ve got platforms and touchpoints for kids everywhere,” says Bucknole, also flagging up the latest developments now underway to bring Milkshake! content to join Nickelodeon’s on the group’s global SVoD service Paramount+, which is expected in the UK later this year. Until this year, Channel 5 was tapping the British Film Institute (BFI)’s three-year Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF) pilot, which Bucknole says helped bring new content to Milkshake!. That fund has come to an end, much to the disappointment of both Bucknole and the UK kids’ TV production industry at large. It helped to expand Milkshake!’s range of formats across live action, factual entertainment and animation, several having launched over the past year. Due in May is M im i’s W orld (40x11’), marking a return to drama for Milkshake! for the first time in 15 years. “It’s probably one of the most unique dramas I’ve worked with. It combines animation and live action, and it’s very diverse and very inclusive,” says Bucknole.
CONTENT CONFIDENTIAL: Milkshake!
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
Produced by Adastra Development, Mimi’s World was created by Mellie Buse and jointly produced by Buse, Martin Franks and Vanessa Chapman, with financial support from the YACF and Northern Ireland Screen. Featuring a modern-day Mary Poppins character called Mimi, under whose care magical things happen for kids, the series includes a range of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as same-sex parents. “It deals with how kids are growing up and how they’re processing their feelings, their social and emotional development, how they connect with their family, friends and how they understand friendships,” says Bucknole. Another recent change to Milkshake!’s programming is more live action with kids on the screen, the exec adds. “That’s really important for diversity as well as just representing kids and what’s relatable to them, and what they’re interested in.” For Bucknole, making memories for kids is key. “You’re influencing children and how they feel, how they think, what they’re interested in, so you want to create that connection and that memory with them,” she says. On the factual entertainment formats front, notable new arrivals last year included environmental show Go Green With the Grimwades. Featuring the first on-screen ‘influencer’ family, an interracial family from London, it has been a success for Milkshake!. Another success was The World According to Grandpa (25x11’), blending live action, puppetry and animation. “This was a different way of doing storytelling,” comments Bucknole. Based on the books by Chris Heath, the scripted series was produced by Saffron Cherry TV, with the cast including Don Warrington as Grandpa and Sally Lindsay as puppet rabbit Halifax. The two shows demonstrate Milkshake! being “very ambitious and bold” in its productions, says Bucknole, and both have progressed to second seasons. Milkshake!’s broader content strategy is also attracting new audiences, according to the exec. “We saw a slight change in some demographics compared with what some of our shows did before, particularly with something like Go Green With the Grimwades, where the black audiences have increased.” Meanwhile, due this autumn is adventure crafts series Pop Paper City (52x11’). “It’s a new way of doing crafts,” says Bucknole. Blending live action and 3D, the series combines adventure with problem-solving by centring on a group of animated friends creating new parts of their paper-based world. Produced by Bournemouth’s LoveLove Films in association with Aardman and produced by Georgina Hurcombe, the series was also supported by the BFI’s YACF. A third newcomer for next year is stop-motion animated series MixMups (52x10’), now in production and also backed by the YACF. Aimed at 3-5s, the series focuses on preschool styles of playing and problem-solving. It is produced by Mixmups Entertainment, a joint venture between Toy Like Me (whose founder, Rebecca Atkinson, created MixMups), Manchester-based Mackinnon & Saunders and Raydar Media. The producers
are Rebecca Atkinson, Chris Bowden and Alison Rayson. Bucknole says it is the first animated series for Milkshake! to feature disabled characters and to be made by a team, including Atkinson, with a lived experience of disability, either themselves or through their children, which brings “real authenticity to the show.” Rather than focusing on disability, the show follows three characters – a guinea pig, a guide dog and a bird – on their adventures. The series is also key for the BFI, says Bucknole. “We think it
celebrates the individuality of the characters and of being unique. That’s the absolutely fundamental thread running through it, but it also represents disability in a different way, and bringing that to the screen is really important for us.” In terms of commissions over the next year, Bucknole is looking at slots from 2024 to continue meeting Milkshake!’s increased commitment of hours. Specific themes on Bucknole’s list of priorities are wellbeing and healthy living, encouraging confidence and “being the future citizens of the world and understanding the world beyond the UK.” Milkshake! is also interested in music and dance formats, and there’s a gap for a new take on animal care. Other themes of interest include nature and the outdoors, messyplay games, exploring, construction, STEM, space, holidays and language. Bucknole says she would like to see more physical slapstick comedy. To navigate the challenging funding environment and competition for preschool fare, the exec says the group maintains a flexible approach to working with producers and distributors across acquisitions, coproductions and commissions. “We’re very agile in that way because we just want the best content on screen, and actually, we will always find a way with the funding and the model, whether or not that’s something shared with another network as well.”
The World According to Grandpa blends live action, puppetry and animation
Environmental show Go Green With the Grimwades
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NEXT NE EXT T BIG BIG I THINGS: WunderBox
WunderBox supports multiple content types
World of Wonderz B
erlin-based start-up Wonderz was co-founded by on a subscription basis. Overall, there are four different CEO Sebastian Wehner, chief evangelist Daniel subscription models, something Wehner says “allows Acht and chief technology officer Daniel Matzke producers to try out the system to see if it has legs,” in 2017 with a mission to revolutionise the direct-to- describing the payment structure as a “performancebased model.” consumer (D2C) landscape. The most basic subscription level starts with no As apps on mobile phones and tablets began to transform how people completed daily tasks, from commitment and no monthly fee, with clients instead banking to grocery shopping, Wehner realised media paying €1.25 per subscriber to their app. The next level companies were not offering a similar product. “Back up costs clients €2,500 a month, which includes no fees then, all these firms shared this common problem that for 2,500 subscribers and then a €1 cost per additional all their consumers were suddenly in this completely subscriber over that threshold. This pricing model is different and alien place of mobile phones and tablets. designed to be a more affordable and fair system for companies that would have been charged anything from And there wasn’t a way to bridge that gap,” he says. Enter WunderBox, app template software that was €50,000 to €150,000 for a single app a few years ago, launched by Wonderz and was built into a platform with according to Wehner. Meanwhile, clients can set their own fees for subscribers the money raised from its first two clients, WarnerMedia and Canada’s Skyship Entertainment. The platform and decide how often they charge, whether it be a one-off allows firms to take their IP direct to consumer via an payment for a piece of content or an annual subscription app. Wehner explains: “Our clients, through WunderBox, fee. Alternatively, the app can operate as an ad-supported are given a template app they can completely customise or freemium platform. “Clients can also change the to their liking, a content-management system and, more price whenever they want – it only takes one or two days recently, analytics so they can learn on a basic level what is to make changes – and can create their own payment system,” Wehner notes. popular within their own app.” In addition to a flexible pricing system, the app template At present, WunderBox runs on any browser, as well as mobile and TV, and is supported by Android, iOS, Amazon is customisable, so each app is unique to the client. WarnerMedia, for example, has designed its WunderBoxFire Tablets and Apple TV. Along with WarnerMedia and Skyship, WunderBox’s created app around its animation and youth-skewing current clients are children’s book publisher Carlsen brand Boomerang. X Verlag; Janosch film & medien AG, which manages the rights to the works of German kids’ author Janosch; UK children’s production company Hoho Entertainment; and Epic Story Media in Canada. Clients include These companies are expected to be joined by WarnerMedia and many more in the coming months. Wehner says the Canada’s Skyship platform is likely to add around four new clients Entertainment in the next eight weeks, while the aim is to have 20 clients in total by the end of this year. Clients pay a one-off €6,000 (US$6,600) fee to set up WunderBox, with the service then continuing
Wonderz CEO Sebastian Wehner discusses how the German firm is aiming to revolutionise the direct-to-consumer se sector with a app template platform. B By Ruth Lawes
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NEXT BIG THINGS: WunderBox
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
“We’re also in the beta phase of developing the app so it looks completely different in different territories. For example, if a particular character is super popular in France but not so much in Germany, you can make that the feature character in the app in France. Or you can style the app in a ‘New Year’s Day’ fashion in December for the UK but do the same in February in China when it’s Chinese New Year. You can change around 90% of the interface of the app,” Wehner says. Describing WunderBox as being “built with producers in mind,” Wehner says companies can vary their content streams on the app from country to country. Producers can also plan releases in advance, meaning they can schedule a video for December to tie in with Christmas at the start of the year, for example. As well as videos, WunderBox can load games, interactive books and other content supported by HTML. While companies aren’t obliged to have multi-content streams, Wehner says having a “seamless interweaving of different content types” works well for kids content creators, as well as for producers creating programmes in other genres. “I’m talking to a documentarian who absolutely loves this multi-content capability on WunderBox,” he says. “He wants to use WunderBox for something based on World War Two, and he would use the platform to show snippets of his documentary along with original documents from the war, such as letters from the front line. The app gives subscribers a different experience from just watching a film – they go on a journey.” Pushing into other genres, beyond kids and family entertainment, is part of the long-term strategy for WunderBox. While that space will remain important, as it’s young people in particular who devour apps and new technology, Wehner recognises the need to branch out. “Our sales manager comes from a music and games background, so he’ll now approach those industries to join WunderBox,” the exec says. “We will also be in Italy for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and we’re looking into the audio space, as it’s a growing sector and one we’re really tapping into.” WunderBox’s growth has been turbocharged by a sevendigit funding round last August, with BB Ventures, JCMB, Scope Hanson and Janosch film & medien AG investing in the business. With the cash injection, WunderBox has expanded its team, hiring sales managers, designers and developers. Wehner predicts the D2C sector will continue to boom in the coming years, partly because of the pandemic, which saw more people turn to “trustworthy” digital platforms. “Viewers trust digital offerings, and studies show 88% of consumers prefer to buy directly from brands, following scandals at Facebook and so on,” he adds. Audiences’ connections to digital platforms are further deepened by the parasocial bonds they form with content creators. “It means people develop an invisible, but emotional, relationship to the creators they see on screen,” Wehner says. “Kids form a social bond to YouTube creators, for example, because they’re authentic and they want to give back to them and support them. It’s a bit like donating – you want the most money possible going to the people who are creating.” Meanwhile, D2C platforms are equally appealing to businesses. Big names to have shifted to a D2C model include The Walt Disney Company with its SVoD platform Disney+ and Discovery, which launched streamer Discovery+ in 2020. The move is proving successful for
Individual clients can customise the app template
many; at the end of 2021, for example, Discovery reported its SVoD platform had around 22 million subscribers worldwide. One of the main benefits of a D2C platform is that it allows businesses to be truly independent, according to Wehner. “Firms aren’t beholden to any gatekeepers, and that means producers, for example, don’t need to worry that a YouTube algorithm is changing next week and all of a sudden their content is making 80% less revenue as a result. There’s also no middleman, so a company can optimise the cost and prices,” he adds. But that doesn’t mean a D2C platform is without its drawbacks. Reach and visibility are among the sector’s biggest challenges, according to Wehner. “The hardest thing with running a D2C platform is shifting people’s perceptions,” he says. “A lot of content creators haven’t grown up on YouTube, they’ve produced programming rogramming for linear channels or Netflix or others, and they’re ey’re inherently B2B companies. They’re used to selling to editorial boards and selling to buyers, and they have to shift ift their mental model from B2B to B2C.” Despite this, Wehner points out that producers are quick to adapt to new models, adding that it wasn’t so long ago when now-commonplace internationall coproductions were a rarity. “I’m confident the industryy can overcome this challenge because producers are able to get together the financing for international coproductions,” tions,” he says. “My current interim CFO runs a nuclear fusion company and he told me, without joking, that financing cing a TV series is more complicated than nuclear fusion. So, o, if anyone can square the equation of how to be successful ful in D2C, it’s producers and content creators.”
My interim CFO runs a nuclear fusion company and he told me thatt financing a TV series is more complicated than nuclear fusion. So, if anyone can square the equation of how to be successful in D2C, it’s producers and content creators.
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Sebastian Wehner Wonderz
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Age-appropriate content
With a vast number of content platforms now available, kids are more likely to be exposed to unsuitable programming. What can be done to pre prevent this and ke keep children safe fro such content? from B By Karolina Kaminska
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
Age-old problem W
hen South Korean survival drama series Squid and Harry Potter. For 13-15s it ranked even higher, just Game launched in September last year, it behind South Korean pop group BTS in 22nd place, quickly became a global phenomenon, with a peaking in the UK where it was the third most talked about reported 87 million Netflix account holders having watched thing, ahead of video game Fortnite. The company’s research also found that while one-third the full series in the first three weeks after launch, making it of parents globally worry their child is not always safe the streamer’s most watched series ever. online, 21% said their kids don’t require The show, which is rated suitable for It used to be their permission to be on social media, viewers aged 15-plus in the UK and while over 30% have no restrictions holds an MA (mature audiences) rating there were three when it comes to playing video games. in the US, was a hot topic among adults broadcast networks in broa But are parents taking the blame here in the weeks following its debut. But the US and four or five for a much wider industry issue? surprisingly – or perhaps unsurprisingly channels child Dr Gemma Taylor, child psychologist – the series also became a hot topic children’s and member of The Insights Family among children, despite its clearly and that was the set of advisory board, says: “We really can’t inappropriate nature, with graphic viewing view choices. Now put all the pressure on parents to scenes of violence, sex and suicide. it’s a much According to Nick Richardson, founder wider world of protect children from content like Squid Game – it’s just an impossible task. and CEO of UK market intelligence firm options. We need a combined approach that The Insights Family, children as young involves educating children on how to as six have been found in playgrounds Sandy Wax understand the content on digital media acting out the games shown in the Nevision and policy needs to be implemented to series. “The games featured in Squid Game are this effect. “Content makers need to take responsibility for their recognised globally as childhood childhoo favourites and as such will attract the attention of content too. While it is good that shows have age ratings, a younger demographic. However, this doesn’t go far enough to protect children, particularly children don’t even need nee to have when the content filters down to younger ages.” In North America, Brenda Bisner, chief content officer watched the show to be s exposed to it in some at Canadian ‘safe-streaming’ AVoD platform Kidoodle.TV, way. With a presence knows all too well about kids watching programmes that on social media and are not age-appropriate for them, as well as a desire for within video games children to want to get involved in adult conversations. vi “I see it in my own house with my eight-year-old daughter. like Minecraft and Roblox, When Squid Game came out, everybody was talking about children childre can’t fail it and she desperately wanted to watch it,” Bisner says. “I to notice notic the hype was able to say, ‘OK, this is not appropriate,’ but it didn’t around the show,” help with when she went to the playground. Playground chit-chat is something we can’t ignore; kids are talking Richardson Richardso says. The Insights Family’s about the show and embellishing stories that their parents Insig data found that at the let them watch it. Some parents actually are [allowing their t end of last year Squid Game kids to watch the show].” S Bisner also highlights a danger in children accessing was the 30th most talked-about t subject globally among six- to platforms like Netflix through multiple profiles, exposing amo nine-year-olds, ahead o of Pokémon them to programme recommendations unsuitable for their
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YouTube channel Ryan’s World
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
age group. “My eight-year-old has created numerous accounts on Netflix to work the algorithm, something I didn’t teach her, but I saw first-hand she was able to do it. The recommendation engine was bringing up things like Bridgerton and Squid Game and things that really weren’t appropriate for her, so I have to double check when she’s on it.” According to a recent study by Kidoodle.TV and Wakefield Research, about 93% of the US parents surveyed said they have seen inappropriate auto-suggested content for their kids, including nearly 25% of respondents who claimed it happens all the time. Eighty-one percent said they have seen their child stream a video they did not approve of. “Kids watching inappropriate content is happening all day, every day,” Bisner says. “Covid was a great eye-opener for parents to see what their kids were doing because we were all in the same room. That really helped pull back the curtain on the fundamental issues we’re facing when kids are going online.” This revelation during the pandemic led to “aggressive” demand for Kidoodle.TV, Bisner adds, which provides a ‘safe-streaming’ environment for children via a catalogue of content that’s entirely vetted by real people to ensure viewers are not exposed to anything unsuitable or inappropriate. Included in the 30,000 episodes of content on the site are kids shows such as Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol and Blue’s Clues, as well as more recent hits like YouTube sensation Ryan’s World. In LA, industry veteran Sandy Wax says the issue of kids watching unsuitable programming has always been around. The reason it might be more of a problem now, however, is the proliferation of places kids can watch content and the increased amount available to them. “I’ve been in the kids business for a number of years and this has always been an issue. Years ago it was middle schoolers watching Dawson’s Creek or The Hills, but what’s changed is now there is more choice and so many more options to view,” says Wax, who late last year took up the role of president of London-based indie Nevision’s newly opened US office. Nevision is behind preschool series Floogals. “Kids start at YouTube and then they go to the streamers,” she says. “It used to be there were three broadcast networks in the US and four or five children’s channels and
AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Age-appropriate content
that was the set of viewing choices. Now it’s a much wider world of options where you’ll see a top-10 list with CoComelon sitting next to Squid Game. Also, years ago people just watched on a family television, whereas now kids are watching on tablets. It’s more personalised and almost more private, so they can do things without their parents knowing more easily than they could in the past. Individualised viewing is exacerbating this problem right now. “It’s a challenge because the platforms are largely driven by subscription models, which are about making sure the paying adult wants to continue to subscribe, so they want to make sure they’re spanning all the content areas. If a child wants to watch Squid Game, they’re going to find it. Back in the day, a show like that would have been on a premium tiered service that not all homes would have, which you’d have to then log into. Now it’s pretty easy; it’s half a click away.” Children wanting to watch programmes that are not ageappropriate for them reflects a desire to be more grownup and act older than they are – a fact most adults can probably relate to from their childhood and teenage years. And when it comes to making content for kids, the ‘tween’ and teen demographics can be the hardest to cater for. “Kids are aspirational,” Wax says. “Ten- and 11-year-olds want to be wearing clothing and styles that the 24-year-olds on Instagram are wearing. They’re always aspiring upward, even if their brains can’t necessarily process everything as they do so. That trend in style and fashion also includes viewing choices and there is some playground cred for a child to say they watch a show like Squid Game or Euphoria [which includes themes like drugs, trauma and sex]. There is a desire always to be peeking over the fence and seeing what’s ahead of them. “There’s a gap in great content for the 10-14s; that’s where they’re stretching into watching things more advanced than they are. That nails the obligation for us as producers to develop [interesting content for that age range] and also for the platforms to avoid thinking, ‘Well, this is for an 18-yearold, but we know it’s going to pull in the 24- and 14-yearolds too,’ but rather ‘Let’s make this for a 12-year-old and know we’re going to superserve that audience.’” David Michel, CEO and co-founder of France-based X
From top: Cottonwood Media period adventure series Theodosia, Nevision toon Floogals and Paw Patrol are avilable on Kidoodle.TV. Below: Nick Richardson of The Insights Family
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Age-appropriate content
Channel21 International | Spring 2022
prodco Cottonwood Media, echoes Wax’s view, arguing that “the lines are blurring” between the demographics, especially when it comes to teenagers. “Teens will watch adult content, they will watch sports, they will watch primetime features, they will watch horror movies – they just will not watch shows that are made for teenagers,” he says. “We work in an aspirational business where preschoolers want to be six- to 11-year-olds, sixto 11-year-olds want to be tweens, tweens want to be teenagers and teenagers want to be adults. In addition, to watching videos on TikTok, teens also watch very sophisticated adult content.” Cottonwood Media, which used to predominately produce animation, has shifted its focus towards kids’ liveaction in recent years. Its core audience is 6-14s and while it doesn’t target its content at teenagers at the top end of the teen scale, it is attempting to attract the elusive tween audience with series featuring teens aged 15 and over. “We produce content that stars teen protagonists that are 15 to 18 years old, but these shows are meant to be watched by tweens or those aged nine to 14,” Michel says. Two of these series are Hulu’s Find Me in Paris and Theodosia, about a young girl fascinated by Egyptology, which launched on HBO Max last month. Back in North America, Eric Berger, CEO and co-founder of LA-based Common Sense Networks, cites a study by Pew Research Center which found that 80% of kids in the US are watching shortform videos every day on open usergenerated platforms designed for adults. Common Sense Network’s own study concluded that 78% of parents are concerned their kids are on these platforms. Common Sense Networks operates AVoD service Sensical, which curates a catalogue of age-appropriate content for children that is screened by experts before landing on the platform. “Kids for a very long time used to watch on moderated platforms, with a lot of oversight and not a lot of choice. That was television and it was a different world. They have since migrated not just to streaming but to open user-generated platforms overwhelmingly, and these unmoderated platforms, which are designed for adults, have some very negative qualities like fake news, hate speech, privacy, cyber bullying, violence etc,” Berger says. “But the reason the kids migrated there and love it is because they’re exploring their interests, they’re exploring their passions and they’re re doing that through creators. Eighty percent of the content tent they’re watching on these platforms is from independent endent creators, not from studios. So we set out to build a streaming platform that’s designed around this his interest-based learning that taps into what kids love. ve. “Kids have always wanted nted to [watch content for older audiences] but didn’t n’t have the access in the past. You could sneak into an R [restricted]-rated movie or turn on a channel on the he TV that maybe wasn’t quite for you, but kids are e getting phones at eight years old now and have ave a lot more access to devices and services ervices than they used to.” In an industry with more ways of watching content than everr before, it is, indeed, more important nt than ever to protect children from the vast amount of unsuitable itable programming available on
platforms they regularly use. But as the execs in this article point out, it’s not that simple when kids are exposed to constantly talked-about and advertised series like Squid Game that eventually filter down to the playground. The Insights Family’s Richardson provides an interesting perspective on what brand owners, and essentially content owners, can do to help prevent kids from watching inappropriate content, while keeping them involved in the conversations they crave to be part of through “ageappropriate touchpoints.” He asks: “Should brands play a role in making children part of the cultural conversation by extending the touchpoints across the ages in a much more appropriate way? “Batman is a perfect example of a brand that has managed to do this, adapting to suit specified age groups and ranking as a top-10 favourite character across all ages from five to 18. When we look globally at our data, various iterations of the character, from Lego Batman to Batman Arkham, have all helped provide a safe reference point to the character for all age groups.” Kidoodle.TV’s Bisner, meanwhile, says kids producers can actually learn from Squid Game and how it caught the attention of a demographic that is far from its target audience. “The name ‘Squid Game’ was really interesting and the branding of it was really interesting. It was everywhere; there wasn’t a chance for a kid not to know about it. It cut through the clutter really quickly as a Netflix show. It was a viral opportunity for them and it grew straight away to to look at,” she success, which is something [for others] oth says. “If you’re developing a children’s property, what Squid Game did to how can you look at wha help elevate what you’re you’r trying to develop? everything.” There’s a lesson in ever
Teens will watch adult T content, tthey will watch sports, they th will watch primetime fe features, they will watch horror movies – they just will not watch wa shows that a are made for teena teenagers.
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David Michel Cottonwood Media Cotton
Children can achieve ‘playground cred’ by watching older-skewing dramas such as Euphoria
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René Rechtman CoComelon
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t’s been a busy few months for London- and LA-based kids’ content company Moonbug Entertainment, which was acquired by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media last year and has since expanded its library with the acquisition of YouTube brand Little Angel. Joining Candle Media, which following its launch last year also acquired Reese Witherspoon’s prodco Hello Sunshine, has provided a big opportunity for Moonbug, according to its co-founder and CEO René Rechtman, who says the two companies’ strategies are perfectly aligned. “Candle Media’s strategy fits exceptionally well with Moonbug’s, as it is also a next-generation entertainment company focussed on audience, IP, franchise building and social commerce,” says Rechtman, who is giving the opening keynote at MipTV with Mayer in April. “Our strategy at Moonbug has not changed; we just have owners who are even more ambitious, which is great. We will be as aggressive as we always have been. We’ll continue to invest a lot into content and talent, focussing on creator-first content, but now we’ll do it as Candle Media in a much broader universe, where we can look at all kinds of different audience groups which we would not have done as a standalone company.” Moonbug has also been acquisitive over the past few months, having picked up YouTube brand Little Angel in February, to join its existing slate of hit IP including Little Baby Bum, CoComelon and Blippi. “We identified Little Angel a while ago because it’s very consistent with our overall strategy to buy audience-led IP that is born in the digital world that we believe can become a global franchise. It ticks all the boxes and is very similar to everything else we have bought throughout the past three years, but it targets a slightly older audience and is a bit more humorous. It also teaches kids about life skills, which fits into our DNA as a company,” Rechtman says.
Development slate
Moonbug René Rechtman, co-founder and CEO of Moonbug Entertainment, discusses the latest developments at the kids’ content company since its US$3bn acquisition by Candle Media last year. By Karolina Kaminska As far as extending the brand goes, Moonbug will use data and audience analytics to create a higher frequency of episodes which it will distribute globally in a variety of languages. It will also invest in music and make seasonal specials and spin-off shows, before pushing its L&M strategy. Beyond Little Angel, Moonbug intends to keep a lookout for other potential acquisitions and already has its eye on certain “big brands that you and I know, and smaller brands that have big audiences,” Rechtman notes. “Little Angel will not be the last acquisition you’ll see over the coming period. We will acquire more,” he adds. Moonbug focuses on acquiring brands that are already established and have an existing awareness around them, but importantly, they must also align with the company’s values and mission to “empower children all over the world to develop their life skills.” “We try to infuse that with compassion, altruism, kindness and resilience, and if a brand contradicts these values, we will not touch it, even if it’s a great piece of content,” Rechtman says. “Education is secondary to this; education is important when you operate in the preschool space in general, so when we operate with life skills, education is one of the
many values we believe are important to develop holistic children. “There will always be ‘ABC’ and there’ll always be numbers involved, but also looking at relationships between peers and how you behave when a friend needs support, how you behave when there’s a new person joining your class at school, how you interact with grown-ups etc. “All these things are very important parts of everything we do. If you look across all our brands, you will see a common denominator around these things. We will not acquire things that have violence in them or bullying.” Over the course of the next few years, Moonbug hopes to have built five global franchises. Rechtman notes that this is “phenomenally ambitious,” but adds that it will be essential in order for the company to achieve its mission. “In the short term, we will become even more global. So our content will be more localised, it’ll be in more languages and we’ll have many more products in markets globally. We will probably go into new formats where kids are spending their time, beyond animation, investing a lot in music and other new areas.”
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Three-year plan Lighthouse Studios
Claire Finn, MD of Irish animation company Lighthouse Studios, discusses the prodco’s slate of projects, its foray into adult animation and its ambitions in the originals space. By Karolina Kaminska
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ilkenny-based animation company Lighthouse Studios celebrated its fifth birthday in February, having launched in 2017 as a joint venture between Canada’s Mercury Filmworks and Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon. Most recently, the studio produced El Deafo for Apple TV+, which premiered in January, and has created 2D animation for shows including Little Ellen for Warner Bros Animation, which debuted on HBO Max last September and The Cuphead Show for Netflix, which launched in February. Other past series include Give a Mouse a Cookie and Bug Diaries for Amazon Prime Video, which premiered in 2017 and 2019 respectively. In a move away from kids, Lighthouse has also partnered with Mercury Filmworks on adult animation The Bob’s Burgers Movie for Bento Box Entertainment, which drops in cinemas in May. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a feature animation so the level of quality is higher and more detailed [than in children’s animation] and it takes longer frame-by-frame,” says Lighthouse’s MD Claire Finn. “But the crew loves working on adult animation and we hope to do more in that space.” In order to fulfil that ambition, Lighthouse recently optioned the rights to a book that Finn says is set during Ireland’s boom years, at the turn of the 21st century when its economy grew rapidly. “It’s a very interesting period in Irish history and quite a gritty story, so once we dot those i’s on that contract, we will be sharing it more with the world,” she says. Elsewhere, Finn notes that Lighthouse is also in talks with commissioners including Disney and Sony about other adult animation projects. These new projects fall under a move by Lighthouse into original IP, for which it is hiring a development producer to run its originals slate,
Little Ellen
There is a war for talent right now, so having a talent person who is out there talking to not just the colleges but also to senior people in the industry who are interested in potentially moving, is so important.
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Claire Finn although Finn notes that the company will still act as a service studio. “Our strategy at the moment is firstly getting a development producer on board, who will take on the novel-based adult animation, as well as a short film pitched by one of our crew. From there, we have some other things we’re interested in or people have sent in, which we will see if we can create original IP from. Gilly Fogg, who is our head creative, is also working on a project and we will potentially be optioning some books that we find interesting,” Finn says. “We’ll take some time to decide what it’s worth investing our time on and will keep it broad. One of the things we’ve created our strategy around is having quite a broad slate, with no particular age range, style or genre. We want to explore everything within the 2D range or potentially ‘two-and-a-half D,’ as they say, with a bit of CG thrown in.” In line with this, Lighthouse appointed Michael
Downey as talent management director in January, whose role is to source out mid- to senior-level animation talent to work on the company’s original IP development and service project slates. “For me, creative is about having a real mixture of people with different points of view. You can sit down at a table and talk about bread, and if you have people from 10 different countries, you’ll get a really interesting discussion,” Finn says. “There is a war for talent right now, so having a talent person who is out there talking to not just the colleges but also to senior people in the industry who are interested in potentially moving, is so important.” With these latest developments, Lighthouse has a busy year ahead, and for Finn, the first thing is to get all the team back in the studio following on from the Covid-19 pandemic. “Once we have the development producer, we will have all the relevant team to create and pursue our strategies. We’re looking at developing five to seven projects, the core of which will be high-end commissions, and then some will be our own IP and options of books. We may consider a coproduction too; that’s also on the table,” Finn says. “In the next three years, we’re going to stabilise how we do things, work out what the Lighthouse approach is and then put that into practice across both our commissions and our original IP. I’m not sure about the next five years because, knowing us, things will change. So who knows what we’ll be doing then?”
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