TV Kids NATPE 2011 by World Screen

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NATPE EDITION

Top Buyers Nickelodeon’s Cyma Zarghami www.tvkids.ws

THE MAGAZINE OF CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING

JANUARY 2011

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Bejuba! Entertainment www.bejuba.com • • • • •

IN THIS ISSUE

The Hive Mr. Moon Stella & Sam Fizzy’s Lunch Lab Sokator 442 movie

Shopping Odyssey Channels around the world are looking to acquired fare to refresh their schedules. 8

Interview Nickelodeon’s Cyma Zarghami

Ricardo Seguin Guise

Publisher Anna Carugati

Editor Mansha Daswani

Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

Managing Editor Matthew Rippetoe

The boutique Canadian outfit Bejuba! Entertainment has made its hallmark one of quality, fun, creator-driven programming. Its offerings for NATPE are no exception. “We are coming with three perfect preschool programs that are not competing with each other,” says Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos, the VP of program distribution at Bejuba! “Stella & Sam is a classic one, Mr. Moon is ‘out of this world,’ The Hive is an exquisite and very unique series about cute bees.” There’s also Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, which focuses on nutrition and cooking and is “very appealing for the 6- to 12-year-olds,” notes de Saint Sardos. “And the Sokator 442 movie will fulfill any soccer fan.” The 75-minute film, done in 2D with effects, is a multiplatform franchise for Bejuba!, with an online property currently available and a TV game show in development.

Mr. Moon

“I am going [to NATPE] to reach the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets. I don’t want to forget my Asian buyers, too.

”

—Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos

Production and Design Director Simon Weaver

Online Director Phyllis Q. Busell

Art Director Cesar Suero

Sales and Marketing Manager

Edebé Audiovisual Licensing www.edebeaudiovisual.com

Erica Antoine-Cole

Business Affairs Manager Alyssa Menard

Sales and Marketing Assistant

• • • • •

TaKaT the Dog Robot Chipa 4 Angies Let’s Play with Boomchiki Boom! Edebits

“ Our programs show a perfect balance between entertainment and education for children and youth. —Ivan Agenjo

”

Ricardo Seguin Guise

President Anna Carugati

Executive VP and Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani

www.tvkids.ws

One of the goals for Edebé in attending NATPE is to widen the reach of its animated series in Latin America, both for titles already in the market, such as Edebits, and for new shows. Highlighted offerings include TaKaT the Dog, Robot Chipa, 4 Angies and Let’s Play with Boomchiki Boom! “Licensing and co-production are additional business opportunities for us, too,” notes Ivan Agenjo, sales director at Edebé. Agenjo believes that Edebé can offer the kids’ market programming that is both entertaining and educational. He says, “In a world where kids spend lots of hours watching TV, we provide them with funny, interesting content that provides them values and laughs at the same time.” He also believes that NATPE provides a solid venue for presenting this content to new clients. “In general, NATPE is a good platform for our products to enter into the Latin and North American territories.” 54

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4 Angies

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Mondo TV Spain www.mondotvspain.es • • • • •

Puppy in My Pocket Playtime Buddies Power Buggz Angel’s Friends Virus Attack

Power Buggz

One of the top priorities for Mondo TV Spain at NATPE is the 52x13-minute animated series Puppy in My Pocket. “Our main target is to have agreements for Puppy in My Pocket with the main key players in Latin America,” says general manager Maria Bonaria Fois. Also on the slate are Playtime Buddies, which can help teach children about potential careers and interests, and Angel’s Friends, centered on themes of adventure, friendship and love. Skewing more toward boys are Power Buggz and Virus Attack. In the 26x26-minute Power Buggz, a mysterious explosion in the lab of renowned scientist Dr. Kristoff Dralda sets off a chain reaction that transforms the insect specimens he’s been studying into something more, as they become smarter, faster and stronger. The 52x13-minute Virus Attack tells of the adventures of a group of five teenagers who discover they have special powers they can use to save the Earth from a powerful alien virus.

Puppy in My Pocket

“ [These shows] come with a strong licensing and merchandising plan and are suitable for any TV channel.

”

—Maria Bonaria Fois

Sprout www.sproutonline.com/noodle-and-doodle • Noodle and Doodle

The highest-rated series on Sprout in the U.S. is Noodle and Doodle, which is already set for a second season, slated to launch in September 2011. The preschool series provides live action, animation and puppetry in each episode. It’s hosted by Sean, Sprout’s cohost of The Sunny Side Up Show, and features arts, crafts and healthy recipes inspired by real preschoolers’ experiences. The show is being offered through JBMW Media. “[Our goal is to] sell Noodle and Doodle to likeminded distribution partners all around the world and work together in making Noodle and Doodle a popular global brand,” says Jennifer Monier-Williams, the president of JBMW Media, noting the show’s “rich accompanying website for all broadcast partners.” A Spanish version of Noodle and Doodle is ready for launch, and Monier-Williams says another priority of hers for the market will be to seek out local format production partners for adaptations. JBMW Media is also on the lookout for ancillary rights partners on the property.

“ Noodle and Doodle promotes co-viewing and co-doing for children and their caretakers.

”

—Jennifer Monier-Williams

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Noodle and Doodle

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Shopping Odyssey Children’s channels around the world are looking to acquired fare to refresh their schedules.

By Kristin Brzoznowski

Slowly but surely, it appears that the children’s television business is pulling out of the recession. Channels are starting to commission again, and as distributors witnessed at a healthy MIP Junior, buyers are willing to open their pocketbooks, eager to get some new shows on their schedules. Acquisitions, in fact, have picked up in all genres, from animation to live action, for all age groups, from preschool to teens. There are new players buying from the market as well. One of the newest networks, The Hub, rebranded from Discovery Kids last fall, is available in some 61 million households across the U.S. A joint venture of Discovery Communications and Hasbro, the channel’s launch slate included The 99, Family Game Night, Dan Vs., G.I. Joe: Renegades and Pound Puppies. The Hub has been able to tap into the existing brand portfolio of its parent company Hasbro to line up original programming, which represents 25 percent of its overall schedule. The rest is culled from third-party product, with acquisitions that include In the Night Garden, picked up from BBC Worldwide; Cosmic Quantum Ray, produced by Moonscoop; Atomic Betty, from Skywriter Media & Entertainment Group; and The Jim Henson Company’s Fraggle Rock. To fill the schedule in the future, Donna Ebbs, the senior VP of programming for The Hub, says, the channel is “open to developing programs with any legitimate production entity.” And as for acquisitions, Ebbs says, “We are keenly interested in the boys’ animated action space and are always looking for great co-viewing programming opportunities in prime time.” STAYING IN TOON

It’s animated comedy, not action, that Canada’s TELETOON has its eye on as it aims for co-viewing in prime time, according to 58

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Moonscoop’s Cosmic Quantum Ray on The Hub.

Caroline Tyre, the channel’s director of programming.“We are focused on comedy for boys ages 6 to 11, but we don’t want to exclude girls and parents,” she says. “The perfect show for us would make a 10-year-old boy laugh and also be girl- and parent-inclusive. A perfect example of this would be the punchy, high-octane hit comedy series Johnny Test.” For TELETOON, 60 percent of the total schedule (6 p.m. to midnight) is made up of original Canadian programming, and so is 60 percent of the prime-time schedule (4 p.m. to 10 p.m.). The rest consists of acquisitions, Tyre explains, which have included Ben 10: Ultimate Alien; Star Wars:The Clone Wars; Batman: The Brave and the Bold; The Super Hero Squad Show; and Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. As for where she looks when buying for this part of the slate, Tyre says, “TELETOON has established great relationships with independent producers across Canada, as well as abroad. We work with studios as well as larger independent distribu1/11

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tors, from all over the globe. TELETOON also attends markets such as MIPCOM, MIPTV, the L.A. Screenings, Banff and Ottawa International Animation Festival.” The channel’s spending on programming steadily increases every year, Tyre notes. “We are putting a real emphasis on TELETOON at Night/TELETOON la Nuit, a programming block in English and French, respectively, for older teens and adults. It’s a competitive market out there, with [other channels] trying to buy the same programs that we target, such as The Simpsons, Futurama, etc. And with the addition of a second channel, TELETOON Retro, our programming needs are even higher.” This has led TELETOON to increase its 2011 acquisitions budget. “Kids’ and adult television is a very competitive landscape for eyeballs, and we want to be offering the best entertainment and value to our audience,” says Tyre. “This doesn’t come cheap.” With 25 years of experience and know how in the kids’ programming industry, France’s Canal J divides its grid fifty-fifty between acquisitions and commissions. Though the French network is restructuring its schedule, it does plan to keep the same buying budget for acquisitions as in years past, according to Julia Tenret, Canal J’s director of acquisitions. Tenret says she often looks to trade magazines dedicated to the kids’ industry, as well as markets such as NATPE, for finding out what’s new in the programming arena. Currently, Tenret is looking for more shows geared toward 8- to 12year-olds, both for boys and girls, but notably game-show formats for this age group. She’s also keen to pick up animated and live-action series in the categories of adventure and slapstick comedy. Tenret further points to TV movies as an area she’s actively buying from. A WIDE NET

The acquisitions budget at Turner Broadcasting in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) must satisfy the needs of a number of international channels. Boomerang caters to preschool audiences and their families, while Cartoon Network skews older, ages 6 to 12, and tends to attract more boys. Also aimed at the 6-to-12 set, Boing operates as a free-to-air channel in Italy and Spain and as a pay-TV channel and free-to-air block in France. Cartoonito, meanwhile, broadcasts as a preschool service in the U.K. The ratio of commissioned shows to in-house programming for each of these services varies widely, according to Cecilia Persson, the VP of acquisitions and co-productions for EMEA at Turner Broadcasting. On average, Persson says, 30 percent of the schedules consist of acquisitions. “We prebought Pink Panther and Pals from MGM for Boomerang a couple of years ago and it launched across EMEA [in 2010] and is doing very well for us,” she says of her recent buys. “Angelo Rules, from CAKE Entertainment, launched in October across our channels and is another strong performer.” Persson says she does most of her shopping at events such as Cartoon Forum, Annecy, MIPTV and MIPCOM, but also takes direct pitches from producers 1/11

and distributors. She points out that the budgets for Turner’s channels have increased over the last year, and that they should remain steady for 2011. “In the short term, we have a strong lineup of content coming up across all our channels, but we are actively looking for original comedy animation for Cartoon Network,” Persson says. Though the channel is well served by the pipeline of content from Cartoon Network U.S., Persson notes that she is always keen to add more animation with strong characterbased, story-driven comedy or action-adventure. “For Boomerang we’re looking for new ideas that complement Boomerang’s vast library of timeless animated classics. For Cartoonito…we’re looking for warm and entertaining ideas that will encourage 2- to 6-year-olds to laugh out loud.” Just as Persson must cast a wide net to fill the various channels’ needs, Germany’s KI.KA also has a broad buying remit to serve its wide target audience. “KI.KA offers programming for children up to 13 years old, and beyond that,” explains Sebastian Debertin, the head of fiction, acquisition and co-production for the ARD/ZDF children’s channel. “This is quite a heterogeneous target group, composed of small children, elementaryschool students, and teenagers, whose requirements can be absolutely divergent in terms of television use, [connecting with their peers] and, of course, content.” ROLE MODELS

The live-action programming on KI.KA features stories taken directly from the young viewers’ everyday lives, explains Debertin. “The shows deal with subjects of social relevance, feature problems and pleasures that reflect kids’ everyday lives and offer positive role models.” He adds, “Highly successful animation on KI.KA is often based on popular books, thus reflecting high aesthetic value and intelligent storytelling.” KI.KA has been producing

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Welcome, new pals: Canal Panda, a leader in the Portuguese preschool arena, has found a strong following for Pocoyo.

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Shaking things up: Fresh TV’s Total Drama Island, distributed by CAKE, has been sold around the world to a variety of different broadcasters, including ABC3 in Australia, where the series regularly tops the network’s most-watched programs.

more of its own programming than it has in the past, “but we still also acquire a lot!,” says Debertin. Recent acquisitions include My Life Me from Classic Media and Majority Rules from Entertainment One. While Debertin’s buying budget decreased last year, he hopes to up his spending for 2011. “We are looking for innovative and strong properties for the 6-to-9 demo.” He would like animation with a slightly younger skew and live-action programs for audiences 9-plus, to complement shows like ZDF’s H2O: Just Add Water, NDR’s The Peppercorns and the channel’s own KRIMI.DE. “We look for shows that also bring interactivity,” Debertin continues. “A property’s international feel plus its strong relevance for German kids are crucial points in finding appropriate content. Fresh story ideas and design that appeals to a mass audience are important, too.” Debertin also takes into account a program’s potential for sustainable brand-value and a long shelf life. “To sum it up: high quality is a must,” he says. “So internationally we will be mainly open to live action for the tweens and preteens, as well as to quality animation series for the 6to 9-year-old viewers.” Canal Panda of Portugal needs to find programming for a much narrower demographic. The preschool service offers content exclusively for the 2-to-7 demographic, with animated series dubbed into Portuguese. “We cater to boys and girls and also to parents,” states Isabel Mimoso, the channel director for Canal Panda and its sister service, Panda BIGGS. “Parents are key for us. As our content is nonviolent, parents get the guarantee that with Canal Panda their children are always watching programming that is appropriate for them. They feel safe.” The lion’s share is acquired content, with only 10 percent of the whole channel roster produced in-house. Mimoso mainly 60

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looks to the U.K., Canada and France for Canal Panda’s programming, but says that she’s open to exploring other territories. Currently on her shopping list are soft-learning series, edutainment programming and series with “adventure and fun” for those under 6. Mimoso stresses that because of the channel’s preschool target, educational content is always at the top of her mind. “We have the obligation to help children develop their talents and social skills and open up their world.” Mimoso also buys for the older-skewing service Panda BIGGS. The relatively young channel (launched in 2009) is aimed at boys 8 to 14. There are five different strands she shops for within this channel’s schedule: animation for kids up to 8; animation for kids up to 10; live-action series; magazine series and movies. NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

ABC3 hit the air in December 2009 and quickly became the number one destination for Australian school-aged children, according to Barbara Uecker, the channel’s head of programming and acquisitions. With an audience ranging from 6 to 15 years old, ABC3 is all about providing programming that “combines an Australian perspective with a world view,” says Uecker. “The channel speaks with a distinctly Australian voice,” she adds. This voice carries across varied genres such as documentary, reality, wildlife, news and current affairs, animation, comedy and drama. Within this diverse schedule, 25 percent of last year’s grid was newly commissioned productions, 15 percent represented acquired Australian programs and the rest was acquired from international suppliers. In its first year of operation,ABC3 picked up Fresh TV’s Total Drama franchise from CAKE, the CBBC wildlife show Deadly 60 from BBC Worldwide and Samka’s 1/11

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I.N.K.: Invisible Network of Kids from PGS Entertainment, among others. Australian acquisitions included Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist, Round the Twist, Mortified and Misery Guts. “In 2011, we expect Australian content to exceed 50 percent of total program hours,” Uecker notes. Also expected to increase for next year is the channel’s buying budget, which is set for a 10-percent gain, says Uecker. “We’re constantly looking all around the world for content and attend MIPTV, MIPCOM and [other markets].” NEW SOURCES

Uecker says she’s currently looking for animated series that will attract the upper end of the channel’s demographic, making note that “Asia is becoming a more important supply source for animated programs.” She continues, “Comedy is always high on our shopping list, as is boy-skewed actionadventure. And we are always interested in good factual shows like Deadly 60 (CBBC), Horrible Histories (CBBC) and the Kratt brothers’ Be the Creature.” Uecker says she often has a tough time acquiring factual fare. “We find it hard to secure sufficient outstanding content in the genres of wildlife, documentary and factual entertainment,” she notes. Meanwhile, at Nickelodeon Asia, it’s animation that’s in demand. Syahrizan Mansor, the director and head of creative and content for Nickelodeon at MTV Networks Southeast Asia, points to the action-adventure genre in particular. “We are also interested in TV movies and animation series that have been produced and developed in Asia, targeted at girls between 5 to 8 years old,” Mansor adds. Mansor regularly attends international markets throughout the year, which give her a chance to see what’s new in the kids’ arena. “MIPTV, MIPCOM and Asia Television Forum (ATF) are key trade shows for us. They allow us to identify

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Well crafted: CCI Entertainment’s arts-and-crafts show Artzooka! has traveled across India, Korea and Southeast Asia via Nickelodeon Asia.

trends and strengthen our network relationships. At ATF, we renew ties with international program sellers as well as content providers and developers in Asia.” For Mansor, keeping up on the latest trends in programming is essential for ensuring the channel’s continued success. “We are constantly fine-tuning our schedule to ensure Nickelodeon remains the leading entertainment destination for young viewers,” she says. “We also make it a point to reach kids on multiple platforms and make sure that all the content they love is easily accessible to view at their own time.”

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The cool crew: Classic Media’s My Life Me is among the top performing acquired titles on the German kids’ channel KI.KA.

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Nickelodeon’s Cyma Zarghami For 30 years, Nickelodeon has been connecting with kids, tracking their tastes and lifestyles and as a result offering educational shows for preschoolers, cutting-edge animation for school-age kids and live-action shows for tweens. In the process, it has created some of the most successful franchises in children’s television, including Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and iCarly. Under Cyma Zarghami, the president of Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group, the children’s channel has become a leading destination for young viewers around the world on TV and online. Zarghami talks about writing Nickelodeon’s next chapter, one that includes new genres and partnerships.

By Anna Carugati

TV KIDS: Nickelodeon is 30 years old now. What have you learned about which genres fit the brand, and what types of partnerships are you looking for? ZARGHAMI: Nickelodeon is 30, and it was about five years ago, when we were celebrating our 25th birthday, that we decided we needed to begin to write the next chapter of Nickelodeon’s history, which meant where to go next and how we keep it growing. We’ve always felt that Nickelodeon can keep getting bigger and better. We’ve done everything by ourselves for so many years, and we’ve had great success doing a lot by ourselves. But we really did think that now the time is right to get into new genres, some new markets, and work with different people [from whom] we could learn some of the things that we don’t intuitively know ourselves, as creative people. And it is sometimes better to partner than it is to invent from the ground up. Our journey really began with DreamWorks Animation when Jeffrey Katzenberg came to us and said, What if we took some characters from his very popular movies and turned them into TV series? So we went into the development process [on the series The Penguins of Madagascar] and realized that, Oh, there are 18 months of marketing we don’t have to do to get a show ramped up because the characters are already well known and beloved by our audience. And that is always the first thing we worry about: how do we connect with our audience, and does [a certain project] help us connect with the audience in a better way? And those penguins were really well-developed characters when the movie [Madagascar] came out, so the process was a lot of fun and we came out with a great show, and we’re going to be doing another one with Kung Fu Panda. TV KIDS: You have also partnered with Sony Music. ZARGHAMI: We wanted to get into music because music has

always been an important part of kids’ lives, certainly tweens’ lives. So we thought we needed a great partner to work with on music. We know how to put music into a show; we don’t necessarily know how to make the music to put in the show.We talked to a 62

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bunch of different people and we found in Sony a great partner who brought us great talent.They went on the talent search for Big Time Rush with us. We molded the project together and it came out really well. The music is fantastic. It’s charming, it’s funny, it’s spot on in terms of kids’ sensibility, and the music is really high quality and might possibly go beyond just the kids’ audience, and that’s really our hope. I love the music, myself! The second project with Sony is Victorious, starring Victoria Justice. She is what you call—not to be cliché—a triple threat. She can sing, she can act and she can dance. She has presence. She is a spectacular person, and hers is the other project that has music in the center. TV KIDS: Are you also finding projects that originated outside the U.S.? ZARGHAMI: Yes, House of Anubis is one that [has come] this way. We did it in Holland first, and it was a runaway success story. And then they re-created it for the German market and it was also a runaway success story. We thought we would go to Liverpool to make it with a Belgian company for the U.K. and for the U.S. and for any other market that wants to take it from there, so we are excited. TV KIDS: And the Power Rangers are back! ZARGHAMI: The Power Rangers and the legendary Haim

Saban! The Power Rangers was one of those programs that really resonated with the boy audience for many, many, many years. And it feels like at 30 years old, Nickelodeon is in a perfect position to take some of [those evergreen] properties that it could embrace and put under its umbrella. We’re doing the Power Rangers with Haim Saban and we bought The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and we will be re-creating that series from scratch. 1/11

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So the shows that resonated might resonate again, and the exciting thing about being 30 is that the first Nickelodeon audience is now parents of the [current] Nickelodeon audience. And there are a lot of things that will be nostalgic in the best possible way for those parents that we can re-create for their kids. And we can connect with families in ways we never expected to. TV KIDS: You will also have The Tales of Peter Rabbit, based

on Beatrix Potter’s characters. ZARGHAMI: I met Waheed Alli [the chairman of Chorion].

He invited me to the House of Lords for tea. I thought I was going to a restaurant called the House of Lords! Isn’t that clever! [Laughs] Then I went through security and I saw the throne and he gave us a fantastic tour. He really is a spectacular guy because he just wants the properties that he wants. He has a real quality meter about him. He worked on Olivia, which is gorgeous. He did Max & Ruby, which continues to be a big hit with the preschool audience, and he has been trying to get Beatrix Potter for a long time. When he and Frederick Warne & Co. came together on it, he said, “I want to do The Tales of Peter Rabbit with Nickelodeon.” So it is a three-way partnership, and I think our team will do a great job with it. It should be an exciting property that might resonate with future generations.

School days: Nickelodeon has stepped up its international partnerships, launching a U.S. version of the Studio100 format House of Anubis.

TV KIDS: Nickelodeon has always been known for connecting with children wherever they are. ZARGHAMI: Multiplatform is really important, and children are everywhere that you can imagine. Great content is at the heart of this. If you don’t have great content, it doesn’t matter what you do on the platforms, children aren’t going to connect with it. SpongeBob games are going to work anywhere that you put them. And the interactivity in iCarly is based on the fact that the characters are making their own web show, and kids really connect with that idea. So just asking kids to put their own content up online isn’t exciting. Putting it up online to be on iCarly is really exciting. We try to make sure that the content they love is finding its way onto all of the platforms, rather than try to figure out what to do with the platforms.

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We did Fred: The Movie. It was an interesting experiment because there have only been about two times now where something from the Internet has truly crossed over to another platform, and Justin Bieber is one of them and Fred might be the other. He had so many followers online, and Brian Robbins made the movie and brought it to us when it was finished. That was just a matter of, is it the right time and can the combination of Fred, the beloved Internet guy, and Nickelodeon together really make an impression? And it turned out to be great. Some 7.5 million people watched the movie, which was fantastic. [It was] released theatrically in the U.K. because Pixie Lott, the girl who plays his love interest, Judy, is a pop phenomenon there. TV KIDS: Nickelodeon has always considered pro-social ini-

tiatives to be very important. What are the most recent ones? ZARGHAMI: We actually just reinvigorated what The Big Help means to us. The Big Help was the first of our big pro-social initiatives and it has a history and a lot of equity. We’ve now turned The Big Help into the umbrella for four pillars: education, health and wellness, community service and the environment. Quarter by quarter, with our talent, we are taking on those pillars one at a time. In September, we did the Worldwide Day of Play again, and we did it globally. There were a lot of countries involved. We turned off Nickelodeon for three hours to let kids know how important it was to get outside and play. We had a lot of talent come and participate. We were live from New York City this year and we had a lot of fun. We did Beyond the Backpack, which is a fantastic initiative about school readiness. Marian Wright Edelman from the Children’s Defense Fund, as well as the PTA [Parent Teacher Association], are both huge supporters of the initiative. We are really trying to give parents the tools to get their kids ready to go to school, because if they aren’t ready to get there, they are going to fail. Marian Wright Edelman believes that illiteracy is one of the biggest crises of our [times]. She was actually quoted as saying that now that Dora is on the case, she feels much better!

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