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TVKIDS
WWW.TVKIDS.WS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
NATPE & PRE-KIDSCREEN EDITION
State of the Industry / DreamWorks Animation TV’s Margie Cohn / Gaumont’s Nicolas Atlan
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CONTENTS
A Market in Flux The kids’ industry braced for the worst early last year as Toys"R"Us revealed it would be shuttering its U.S. stores, while report after report indicated that kids were spending more time on their devices and less in front of TV screens.
Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Chelsea Regan Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Kids © 2019 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws
And yet, as the year wore on, we saw data that toy sales and character licensing revenues were actually up and plenty of deals proving the value of good IP, from Hasbro buying Saban Brands’ Power Rangers to 9 Story Media Group acquiring Out of the Blue Enterprises and Boat Rocker Media picking up Fremantle’s Kids & Family division. Meanwhile, digital continued to exert significant influence on the business. Netflix made a slew of investments throughout the year, including inking a deal with The Roald Dahl Story Company and aligning with key creators like Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins) and Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls). Amazon Studios, too, made several key commissions, among them Gaumont’s Do, Re & Mi, featuring Frozen’s Kristen Bell. Apple committed a significant sum for new Peanuts content from DHX Media. Hopster continued its expansion, and OTT services like iQiyi and iflix upped their kids’ investments. And the major kids’ broadcasters stepped up their digital activities, including new apps, SVOD services and more. With children spending more time on nonlinear platforms, episode durations are in flux, with increasing activity in the short-form content space. Another significant content trend that has picked up over the last year or so is diversity and inclusion, with broadcasters and producers eager to develop shows that reflect the reality of children’s lives today. In this issue of TV Kids, we hear from producers and distributors about how they’re approaching the changes in the children’s programming business. DreamWorks Animation Television’s Margie Cohn touched on the topic of what kids are looking for today against a backdrop of infinite entertainment options in a MIPJunior session with World Screen’s Anna Carugati; that conversation can be found later in this issue. There’s also a recap of the MIPJunior creators’ superpanel, in which Jonathan Shiff, Angela Santomero, Tom McGillis and Ben Bocquelet weighed in on the keys to creating successful shows for young ones before each received a Kids Trendsetter Award. Meanwhile, Gaumont’s Nicolas Atlan talks about delivering the type of children’s content that rings true to the company’s heritage. —Mansha Daswani
FEATURES 14 PLAY WITH US! Kristin Brzoznowski checks in with producers and distributors about the state of the kids’ media industry.
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24 CREATIVE MINDS The fourth annual World Screen Kids Trendsetter Awards were presented to Jonathan Shiff, Angela Santomero, Tom McGillis and Ben Bocquelet.
INTERVIEWS
26 DreamWorks Animation TV’s
Margie Cohn The president of DreamWorks Animation Television discusses binge-worthy content.
28 Gaumont’s
Nicolas Atlan The president of animation and family at Gaumont talks about new projects in the works.
GET DAILY NEWS ON KIDS’ PROGRAMMING
SUBSCRIBE HERE: SUBSCRIPTIONS.WS
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41 Entertainment Super Monsters / Superhero Summer Camp / Superhero Pets Aimed at young viewers between the ages of 3 and 7, Superhero Summer Camp and Superhero Pets are part of a brand-new franchise in the 41 Entertainment catalog. For the same demo, the company is also offering up Super Monsters, and there is a new property “to be announced very soon,” says Nancy Koff, the VP of sales and marketing. Geared toward the 7-to-11 age group are Kong—King of the Apes, PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures, Tarzan and Jane and Skylanders Academy. “Skylanders Academy follows on the success of PACMAN, and both of our Superhero shows follow on the success of Super Monsters,” says Koff. “We have both breadth in characters and depth in storytelling contained in our offerings.”
Super Monsters
“Knowing there is value in brilliant stories, creatively told and in high-quality animation, we are able to add to those ingredients a strong sense of global appeal with built-in longevity.” —Nancy Koff BabyRiki
FUN Union BabyRiki / Panda and Krash / KikoRiki The popular series BabyRiki has launched in a slew of territories around the globe, including in the U.K. on ITV and in North America with Kabillion and PlayKids. Christine Brendle, the CEO of FUN Union, notes the company is also working on a companion show that is tentatively titled BabyRiki Growing Up. Another highlight is Panda and Krash, a new co-pro between CCTV Animation, Riki Group and FUN Union. There is also KikoRiki and, by extension, its sister series PinCode. “We know these titles will resonate with buyers in this market as all four series are fun and story-driven, spark a child’s imagination and love for learning, and showcase diversity, teamwork and empathy,” says Brendle. “The multiple deals we have already signed in Latin America are testament to this.”
“FUN Union will be at NATPE through Imira Entertainment, our exclusive distribution agent for Spanish-, Italian- and Portuguesespeaking territories.” —Christine Brendle Rainbow Rangers
Genius Brands International Rainbow Rangers / Llama Llama Late last year saw the premiere of Rainbow Rangers on Nick Jr. in the U.S. “The international marketplace tends to favor programming that provides messaging to all kids,” says Deb Pierson, the senior VP of global content distribution at Genius Brands International and the president of Genius Brands Network. “Rainbow Rangers is a preschool series that incorporates positive messaging and empowerment with widely diverse characters responding to Earth’s environmental needs, which, in turn, offers relatability to practically every young viewer!” Also on offer is the preschool show Llama Llama, which is currently in production on its second installment for Netflix. “The storylines are all about first childhood experiences and adventures, which many kids—and parents— will relate to,” adds Pierson.
“We are in development on some new series concepts, which we hope to unveil in the coming year.” —Deb Pierson 58 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
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Gloob
Anittinha’s Club
Anittinha’s Club / Valentins / Brainiacs The animated show Anittinha’s Club presents topics that are important to children in both an educational and entertaining manner. “It has great songs that can easily become hits among kids,” says Beatriz Tompson, sales executive at Globosat’s Gloob. Valentins, meanwhile, is a live-action series that promotes family values while following the adventures of four siblings on a quest to protect their parents from an evil villain. Then there is Brainiacs, which features ten main characters from diverse origins and backgrounds, and promotes friendship, tolerance and social transformation. “It shows how technology can play a fundamental and innovative role in education,” says Tompson. “We have sold Brainiacs to more than 30 countries in its first year, and we are looking for new partnerships in Latin America.”
“NATPE is a strategic market for Gloob since we are one of the main kids’ channels in Latin America.” —Beatriz Tompson
Guru Studio
Pikwik
True and the Rainbow Kingdom / Pikwik / Big Blue Guru Studio’s flagship preschool series True and the Rainbow Kingdom is now available for linear free- and pay-TV channels worldwide for the first time. According to Jonathan Abraham, the senior director of sales at Guru Studio, the series is doing extremely well on CBC Kids in Canada and has a growing fan base on Netflix, which has greenlit the show for a fourth season. “Together with Pikwik and Big Blue, we have an incredibly strong lineup of originals that we can’t wait to introduce to buyers,” says Abraham. Preschool series Pikwik follows a hedgehog named Suki who delivers surprise-filled packages to the town’s residents, while 2D animated series Big Blue centers on siblings Lettie and Lemo as they explore and protect the population of an ocean-covered planet with the help of their quirky submarine crew.
“Pikwik’s stories are packed with silly hijinks, big adventure and heartfelt charm.” —Jonathan Abraham
Hasbro Studios Transformers: Cyberverse / Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy / Power Rangers Beast Morphers Power Rangers Beast Morphers For its 26th season, the Power Rangers universe is expanding with Power Rangers Beast Morphers, starring an all-new cast of heroes, villains and “Beast Bot” sidekicks. Hasbro also has a pair of Transformers series among its highlights— Transformers: Cyberverse and Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy. The former follows Bumblebee on a mission to recover his memory and save the world, while the latter centers on a group of recruits receiving instruction on heroism, teamwork and friendship from veteran transformers. “The Transformers franchise has never been stronger,” says Finn Arnesen, the senior VP of global distribution and development at Hasbro Studios. “Fans all over the world are hungry for more Transformers content, and we have developed amazing shows that kids everywhere will identify with.”
“We are continuing to lean into our omnichannel storytelling strategy in 2019.” —Finn Arnesen 60 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
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Invention Story
Mondo TV Iberoamerica Heidi Bienvenida / Invention Story / MeteoHeroes Among the titles that Mondo TV is bringing to its fifth NATPE is the new roster addition MeteoHeroes, which tackles issues like climate change and respect for nature through the adventures of six kids who can control the weather when they turn into superheroes. “There’s very strong potential for this new series, not just in the broadcast arena but in licensing of both consumer products and school- and learningrelated items,” says Maria Bonaria Fois, CEO of Mondo TV Iberoamerica. Mondo TV also will be highlighting Heidi Bienvenida, a live-action series about a girl who leaves her mountain home for the big city, and Invention Story, which features a creative fox named Kit. “These titles underline the diversity and creativity that Mondo TV and its partners bring to our productions and co-productions,” says Fois.
“We are always striving to offer broadcasters shows that are new and different, but that also have a wide appeal across audiences and regions.” —Maria Bonaria Fois
Studio 100 Media & m4e Arthur and the Minimoys / Heidi / 100% Wolf Late last year saw Studio 100 Media and m4e launch Studio Isar Animation in Munich. According to Ulli Stoef, CEO of Studio 100 Media and m4e, the studio “will become the new home for up to 40 artists and it will be responsible for CGI work such as modeling, texturing, shading, lighting, FX, compositing and rendering for our own film productions,” offering services for commissioned works by third parties and coproductions. “Together with our sister animation studios Flying Bark Productions in Australia, Studio 100 Animation in France and Little Airplane Productions in the U.S., we can now provide every segment of upcoming film production completely in-house, bringing us into the position to offer our partners all steps—from the idea to development, production and international distribution—from a single source.”
Heidi
“Studio Isar Animation is the next logical step for the strategic development of the Studio 100 group.” —Ulli Stoef
Toei Animation Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho / Dragon Ball Super / One Piece The women in a team of armored warriors powered by the Zodiac use cunning, strength and compassion to defend their worlds in the midst of a space-wide war in Toei Animation’s Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho series, which is currently in production. The company is also making more episodes of Dragon Ball Super, a Japanese fantasy martial arts action series in the Dragon Ball media franchise that follows Goku in the aftermath of Majin Buu’s defeat and as God of Destruction Beerus awakens. In One Piece, the tale of a wealthy, famous and powerful pirate named Gol D. Roger’s long-lost treasure is explored. Other highlighted titles from Toei Animation include Sailor Moon Crystal, Digimon Adventure Tri and Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro.
Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho
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Guru Studio’s True and the Rainbow Kingdom. 64 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
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TV KIDS
Kristin Brzoznowski checks in with producers and distributors about the state of the kids’ media industry. hile OTT players have been dipping their toes into the children’s content pool for a few years now, there’s good reason to believe that some of the streamers are now ready to dive into the deep end. Making a splash, Netflix recently acquired the rights to adapt the works of Roald Dahl, the author of beloved children’s stories such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—shelling out a rumored nine-figure sum to do so. In what was billed as a “highly competitive situation,” Apple scored a deal with DHX Media for exclusive new Peanuts content, featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang, as the tech giant builds out its upcoming streaming platform. The market is also bracing for the impact of the forthcoming Disney+, which will feature not only the studio’s venerable animated movie catalog but also a bevy of fresh originals. Indeed, 2019 is already shaping up to be an interesting year in the kids’ programming landscape, which has been experiencing its fair share of ups and downs as producers and distributors adjust to the new realities of doing business in an increasingly on-demand world. “We’re transitioning from a world of programming with a finite amount of shelf space, linear, ad-based, to a world that, at least for now, is over-the-top-driven, subscription-based and has an infinite amount of shelf space,” says Vince Commisso, co-founding partner, president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group. “What you put on those infinite number of shelves is a function of what the OTT players find keeps audiences, both in terms of subscriptions and reducing churn. There is no better genre that does that than kids. That makes the overall demand for kids’ [content] robust.”
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Andy Heyward, chairman and CEO of Genius Brands International, agrees that, by and large, demand for children’s programming is strong as there’s a plethora of platforms to place it on. “There are endless outlets!” he declares. “The marketplace has lots and lots of opportunities, but they don’t pay as much. You have to be more creative and find ways to use consumer products, and everything else, to make the calculus work. But there are probably 25 or so good outlets today that are all doing kids’ programming.” “There are certainly enough outlets, but there’s still not enough money for all that content,” echoes Ulli Stoef, CEO of Studio 100 Media and m4e. “Netflix and all these digital players are coming to the market talking about the huge amount of originals they are producing, but the reality is that with Netflix, the majority of it is together with U.S. companies. They are producing some original content in Asia and other markets but not that much in Europe at the moment, especially not on the animation side.”
SHAKING THINGS UP Allen Bohbot, founder and managing director of 41 Entertainment, has also taken note of how the proliferation of on-demand platforms has shaken up the kids’ content business. “We are now in phase two of this development,” he says, “just like we saw when the U.S. linear players went global. In both cases, phase one was to commission animation from outside groups, independents and studio animation divisions, leading to diversity and much success, followed by a financially-driven desire to convert to 100 percent in-house productions to own all IPs. The U.S. linear networks did that, and there are indications now across the board that they are revisiting that strategy due to steep declines in ratings. The U.S.-based digital groups today have separate strategies, but the financial temptation is to produce in-house so as to own, and, in time, perhaps they will 1/19 WORLD SCREEN 65
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It’s different from a production point of view, adds Dexter, who is also founder and CEO of the animation studio Eye Present. “As a young production company, the SVOD onestop shop has provided us with a lot of opportunities, so we hope by straddling both production and distribution we can benefit from the cyclical changes in the market.” The sizable funds that the on-demand players have been putting into their originals have made companies like Cyber Group Studios, which also enjoys a view of the market as both a producer and distributor, up their game. “What’s happening with the big SVOD platforms and their budgets is that there are millions and millions of dollars that did not exist before that are now being poured into productions, and consequently the production quality is increasing massively,” says Pierre Sissmann, Cyber Group’s chairman and CEO.
QUALITY COUNTS Cyber Group teamed up with Turner to create Taffy, inspired by the classic HannaBarbera cartoons.
see that historically this has been proven as not the best way to succeed in the kids’ space.” This has also had implications from a distribution perspective, says Genevieve Dexter, founder and CEO of Serious Lunch. “We have found that there is a drop in the amount of content available to distributors,” she notes. “That does tend to be cyclical. I remember in the ’90s, people were paying big minimum guarantees for kids’ content—though it excluded boutique kids’ startups at that time. When I set up CAKE in 2001, that was no longer the case. We couldn’t find significant minimum guarantees from distributors to close financing but were able to find the gap elsewhere and in so doing, retained the distribution rights—and hence the birth of CAKE Distribution. “Skip forward ten years and the birth of Serious Lunch coincides with the rise of Netflix and Amazon providing us with large license fees in individual territories,” she continues. “But, skip forward another five years and the same clients are moving to new business models that provide producers with a one-stop shop, and it makes life difficult for a distributor to find new content. That’s a big shift.”
Remaining competitive, the company has been putting more money toward image quality and technology, Sissmann says. The budget for the first season of Zou, for example, was around €5.5 million to €6 million. The first season of Gigantosaurus, which hits Disney Channel this month, was about €8 million, while the budget of the upcoming Sadie Sparks is in the ballpark of €11 million to €12 million. “The goal is to see this additional money in the final image on the screen,” says Sissmann. For Guru Studio, focusing on quality (over quantity) has been top of mind, according to Frank Falcone, founder, president and executive creative director. “Because of the volume of content being produced, the point of differentiation now is the depth of engagement—that’s what kids are going to begin looking for more and more. They are looking for things that help them connect in a stronger way.” The strategy, he says, is to have many touchpoints around a show—“a range of them, if only to discover what the meaningful ones are. I don’t think we can ever be all things to all people, and certainly a show shouldn’t be all things to children, but it can be meaningful in the ways that it provides the most value for them. It’s our job as producers to find out what
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those touchpoints are and respond to them. We need to listen to our audience insofar as the various platforms allow us to. We’re all aware that the VODs—and, in particular, Netflix—do not share audience insights, and it’s hard to listen to your audience when there’s a filter there. So, it behooves us as producers to reach out to our audience with other touchpoints, if only to understand what they are enjoying about our shows so that we can bring them more of what they like.” Among those touchpoints, con41 Entertainment has in its catalog Superhero Pets, which features 7-minute episodes. sumer products have become a bit trickier to exploit in this age of on-demand programming. For Serious Lunch, too, the majority of sales remain with tra“The kids’ content business has always attracted many parditional broadcasters. “We tend to deal mostly with pay- and ticipants because of the revenue upside in licensing and merfree-TV; we’re not doing so many local SVOD deals at a districhandising,” says 41 Entertainment’s Bohbot. “Recently, we bution level much anymore,” says Dexter. “That’s largely driven have not been able to capitalize as much on the L&M, as we by a change in the SVODs, in that they used to be happy to pick chose digital-first strategies or SVOD originals. We are now up individual territories and now that position has changed looking far more aggressively at linear-first strategies based on quite substantially. They are getting much tougher on what the traditional co-production model, although perhaps with they require, and that is often hard to marry with our interest in new market partners, so as to maximize the L&M potential and IP and distribution rights. Multi-territory SVOD commissioning then monetize the SVOD rights after—soon thereafter but terms now mirror studio deals, and co-commissions require a thereafter nonetheless. Perhaps, in fact, the more things change, lot of the finance to come from elsewhere and also to be comthe more they stay the same?” he posits. patible with your finance plan, which is often hard. As a second-window acquisition, it is a requirement that your show be a number one-rated program in key territories. The vertical integration of the SVOD platforms is already happening with For the majority of the companies surveyed, linear television in-house licensing and merchandising teams and homegrown remains the bedrock of their sales—at least for now. Mediatoon animation studios.” Distribution, for one, reports that two-thirds of its business is Dexter adds that although the major SVOD platforms are with linear players and one-third is with nonlinear. “The nonnot picking up second windows for many properties, there is linear side is still growing a lot,” says Jérôme Alby, managing an emergence of new worldwide special-interest channels director. “What is not performing well is TVOD. We had that are, “often without the requirement to deliver in multithought that DVDs would be progressively replaced by TVOD ple languages, and those deals have been lucrative for us.” consumption, but it’s not working that well. We can sometimes Rights negotiations with the various nonlinear players add to see that what we lose with linear we gain on SVOD, but what the complexity of the current deal-making marketplace and we lose on DVD and home video we don’t gain on TVOD.” can be rather tricky to navigate. “The level of exclusivity and holdbacks required by some partners makes it quite difficult and almost pushes you to try to work in a more traditional way, like first having it on free-to-air television, where the holdbacks and exclusivity restrictions are smoother,” says Mediatoon’s Alby. “Some of the SVOD players, both local and international, are now buying a bit more like how pay-TV broadcasters were buying a couple of years back, with massive holdbacks and exclusivities—that’s tricky. You really have to take a close look at your P&L and make sure that you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” 9 Story’s Commisso adds, “The streamers generally want content for worldwide; sometimes you can carve out territories and sometimes you Superights’ Osmond is an original concept written by the creators of Pat the Dog that is in development.
PLATFORM POTENTIAL
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Mediatoon Distribution has already sold The Fox-Badger Family, which launched at MIPCOM 2018, to more than ten broadcasters.
can get holdbacks, but that’s not the way it’s trending. It’s trending toward, you sell this to a big OTT player and that’s it, it’s sold. There is no value to be garnered in the content thereafter. That is changing the paradigm for [producers and distributors] like us. Of course we want to be in that business, but we can’t be in that business with every piece of content. So, we have to look at what is the marketplace when our shows aren’t being commissioned by our good friends and partners in the streaming world, and how is the content construct different, both in terms of format lengths and number of episodes ordered. There is starting to be two sides of that coin; you’re either on one side of it or the other. In our case, we have to be on both.”
THE RIGHTS STUFF
becomes much harder for independent producers to compete for rights when large international multibillion-dollarvalued companies are also acquiring rights,” Falcone says. “As an independent producer making shows in Canada, it’s definitely a David and Goliath situation. The digital players need to foster creative upstarts and smaller studios that have a different culture than their own. They are aware that everyone has got to play together at some point. It’s increasingly challenging when you’re trying to find content and you know that you’re in competition with Apple, Netflix, Amazon. They are doing the same thing that we are but with far more resources and capital.” Nathalie Pinguet, deputy managing director of sales and acquisitions at Superights, observes that while production values and budgets are increasing, broadcaster spending is still tight. “In this context, we do need to have more partners than before and also to close presales as soon as possible to help our producers lock their budget,” she notes. Pinguet says that co-productions remain “an efficient way to combine key partners and countries.” “Nobody on the independent scene wants to take the risk alone,” says Studio 100 and m4e’s Stoef. “Before you greenlight a show, you need to have your key broadcasters, and then you have at least one or two additional broadcasters with studio services in the region so that they can contribute with tax credits and subsidies to the financing model in order to fill those budgets. The reality is that the price per minute is going up, while the budgets of the key linear broadcasters around the world are not growing. They can spend less money per minute. That requires safer financing and a more diversified co-production portfolio.” 41 Entertainment’s Bohbot says that broadcasters today are as interested in co-producing and co-owning as they are in making straight acquisitions. “We are seeing co-production opportunities in new markets, and this is extremely exciting in our financial model because if a market that historically was valued at 5 percent now can generate 33 percent of the budget as a coproduction, that is a huge trend line.”
Negotiations also get complicated when everyone is asking for the same set of rights. “The linear broadcasters are now looking for extended catch-up rights, which then cuts into the rights of the streaming services,” says Studio 100 and m4e’s Stoef. “For example, the broadcasters here in Germany—if it’s an acquisition, not a German co-production—are looking for 30 to 60 days, sometimes up to 90 days, of catch-up. That is something that Netflix or Amazon wouldn’t accept. On the other side, a German linear broadcaster, which contributes a good amount of money to a co-production, doesn’t accept that we cut out a long window for a streaming service in the key territories.” Guru’s Falcone likens the rights situation with the digital and linear platforms today to what was happening in the cable and free-to-air space in the ’90s. “If rights are available after their premiere on the digital platforms, they start to make their way into the channels space. I do think that there’s great value in that,” he says. “The volume of content on the VODs means that some of it does not see the light of day. So, there is value in some of the shows created for the digital platforms that isn’t being properly exploited.” This means there are opportunities for linear broadcasters to give new life to content that hasn’t been fully marketed or may not have found its audience yet. Looking ahead, he adds that having control of rights, or at least a degree of control, is going to be increasingly difficult as the digital platforms strengthen. “It Genius Brands International’s animated series Llama Llama was developed as a Netflix original. 70 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
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9 Story’s animated adventure comedy Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum was greenlit by U.S. pubcaster PBS Kids.
Sissmann says that Cyber Group is doing more co-pros nowadays than it was before. “There are three reasons why you do a co-production: technical capacity, financial means and creative,” he says. “The first thing that drives me to coproduce is the creative, then it would be technical or financial.” Serious Lunch’s Dexter, meanwhile, is seeing fewer copros in the kids’ landscape these days. “People want to find a way of financing their shows that doesn’t involve official co-production—they seem to be shy of it,” she says. “We’re exploring U.K.-Ireland-France co-production and U.K.Ireland-Germany co-production. But, generally speaking, there doesn’t seem to be a willingness to go into that scenario.”
TEAM SPIRIT
get the financial return necessary to compete in today’s marketplace. “Hypothetically, let’s say you have a half-hour program costing $250,000 to $300,000 to produce—who is paying those license fees? There may be one or two broadcasters doing that for an exceptional product, but by and large they are paying less than that. So, is everybody going to go into deficit financing and hope for a hit? There is no syndication aftermarket anymore. People have to figure out how to pay for this stuff; where does the money come from?” The bulk of it, he says, is coming from consumer products. “You have to look at it in a holistic way; it’s not just a piece of content anymore,” Heyward adds. “The content is part of an overall business.” For Mediatoon’s Alby, budgets and rights are two of the key areas he’s keeping a close eye on as the company navigates the challenges facing the kids’ business. “Ten years back, you could have a broadcaster that would finance a very significant part of your show and would get a small level of exclusivity and holdback. Today, we’re in a marketplace where there are lots of different players and in which you have to fight to get exclusivity and holdbacks that are easier to work with and less severe. At the same time, all the prices have gone down. So, you have to sell to a lot more people. You have to really maximize each sale with an augmented number of broadcasters so as to have the same kind of income as ten years ago.” For now, producers and distributors must continue to ride the highs and lows that come with these waves of change—but shouldn’t lose sight of the traditional businesses that have been delivering all along. “I think that we are at a point of respecting the growth of SVOD and its financial contribution to our production costs, but that the biggest successes in the kids’ space in the last five years have all had something in common: they have maintained their linear-first strategies, expanded their licensing and merchandising presence all while monetizing their SVOD rights,” says 41 Entertainment’s Bohbot. “We should not forget what attracted so many of us to the animation space in the first place.”
“I really enjoy European co-production,” Dexter adds. “It is hard, but the tendency to want to simplify everything and not really integrate with other cultures is quite sad. You can make really good and long-lasting relationships, which can lead to bigger things at a corporate level. If you can do a co-production together, you can pretty much do anything together.” “There used to be a lot of co-pros that were going on with France and Canada, but candidly, those are not as attractive as they used to be,” says Genius Brands’ Heyward. “The co-productions that are meaningful are the ones that are being done in Asia. If you look at the numbers for ones that have historically been done in France and Canada, the obligations that you have to take on in terms of spending a certain amount of money in those territories and spending a certain amount on local talent offset the benefits that can be garnered from the tax credits or subsidies in those places. We’ve been doing co-productions in Ireland quite a bit in the last couple of years because we’ve been able to take advantage of certain subsidies and tax credits there—but I don’t know if those will continue. So, you’ve got to constantly stay on your toes.” Heyward says that producers and distributors also need to stay vigilant about maximizing the 360-degree potential of a property in order to There’s a strong L&M business being built up around Studio 100 and m4e’s Wissper. 72 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
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From left: Angela Santomero, Ben Bocquelet, Jonathan Shiff, Tom McGillis and Anna Carugati. onathan Shiff, Angela Santomero, Tom McGillis and Ben Bocquelet weighed in on the keys to creating successful shows for kids at a MIPJunior session moderated by World Screen’s Anna Carugati before each received a Kids Trendsetter Award. The fourth annual World Screen Kids Trendsetter Awards were presented to these leading creators in recognition of their contributions to the children’s programming business. Santomero, the creator of Blue’s Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and chief creative officer at 9 Story Media Group, came to television after gaining a Master’s degree in child development and psychology and instructional technology and media. “I studied for this job,” she said. “I really wanted to take what was wonderful about children’s education and curriculum, because I wasn’t a fan of much of what was on TV at the time, and put that point of view into storytelling.” Bocquelet, the creator of the Cartoon Network hit The Amazing World of Gumball, said his background was more “run of the mill,” having gone to animation school and working his way up to being a showrunner and director. “I just had to wing it!” Shiff is behind the tween live-action hits H2O: Just Add Water and Mako Mermaids, among others. “I was actually running away from something!” Shiff quipped about how he entered the content business. The birth of his daughter, 30 years ago, prompted the former property lawyer to notice that there wasn’t much for her to
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watch. This led him into a post as a legal advisor on a prime-time show “on the basis that they would train me as a producer.” McGillis founded Fresh TV with Jennifer Pertsch after working at Nelvana, and together the duo created the hit Total Drama Island franchise, among several other series. Carugati asked the panelists about the elusive sparks of creativity that birthed their shows. For Santomero’s first series, Blue’s Clues, it was about answering the question of what a preschool game show would look like. “A lot of times I approach things as, Why this show, why now? For Blue’s Clues it was, could preschoolers be contestants? That started the idea. For Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, it was about bringing Fred Rogers’ legacy to the forefront. And then in Super WHY! we wanted to marry reading with superheroes, the power that you have when you learn to read.”
CREATIVE SPARK For Bocquelet, the creative spark mostly comes from “everyday experiences. I have a weirdly dysfunctional but very happy family. I have had a whole bunch of weird stuff happen to me and keeps happening to me! I’m basically making money off their pain and misery!” “It’s not an easy process,” said Shiff. Ideas can come from looking at gaps in the market, but ultimately “stories come from within, an emotional connectivity to the story, a passion for the story. In the case of H2O, I had done Ocean Girl, so I had a passion for
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By Mansha Daswani underwater. I work very closely with Nicole Keeb at ZDF and often she’s whispering in my ear about something that might spark [an idea]. But generally, it comes from within. These are your babies for a couple of years, so you want that passion, you want to be connected to it.” McGillis also pointed to the importance of “talking with broadcasters. Total Drama, for instance, came as a request from Teletoon. They said, We want an animated reality show. [Jennifer and I] collaborate a lot. The spark is always weird and different and surprising. She and I will bat things back and forth and either kill them or suddenly they come to life right in front of us. Definitely, the broadcaster aspect is crucial.” The conversation then moved to the importance of comedy in kids’ TV. “It’s a bonding tool,” Santomero said. “We can all laugh together. That can bring more viewers in. For little ones, it’s more about surprises and silliness. As they get older it’s more about joint embarrassment or a situation that makes everybody laugh together, rather than laughing at [someone].”
GETTING A GIGGLE Bocquelet said that slapstick is key for kids’ comedy. “Also, we wanted the show to be something that a kid brother and a big brother could bond over. Or something they could watch with Mum or Dad and have a laugh. The same way I was watching The Simpsons with my parents. We try to have something funny for everyone. Humor is comfort food for the soul.” It’s a slightly different situation for Shiff’s live-action tween shows. “I’ve always found it better if the characters are facing dark adversity with a little bit of sass. It’s not about slapstick but more about wry or empowering humor—particularly as a counterpoint to what they might be dealing with.” Total Drama in many ways has set the gold standard for kids’ comedy. “As a rule of thumb, fart jokes always work,” McGillis quipped. “Jennifer reaches into pop culture for the references. A lot of you have said that you like a joke that a young child and an older child or a parent can enjoy together. We don’t tend to do that. We tend to be very specific about demographics. We like jokes where the parents will say, ‘What was that?’ and the kids can say, ‘Mom and Dad, you won’t get it.’ That’s when we feel we’ve succeeded. And we never speak down to them.” Next up for discussion was ensuring that shows have a raft of multiplatform extensions. “We always think [about a show] as a brand,” Santomero said. “Could this be a theme park, a live experience? The characters have to be ones kids want to hang out with and be part of. For the smaller screen or bigger screen, we’re always trying to make sure the intent and soul of the project is there, and how we maximize it. The most important thing is we are everywhere kids are.” Shiff noted, “I don’t generally think multiscreen use when I’m coming up with stories. However, you’ve got to be aware that kids are rarely watching on the television, so the framing for live action has changed dramatically. The design of the stories has to work because sometimes kids are watching in smaller bites. Social media is important for young teens. Doing behind-thescenes [content] and involving kids in how we’re making shows has become almost a job function for the crew we have.”
Carugati asked each of the creators to discuss their shows in greater detail, querying Santomero on how much she drew from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. “There are little nods of love that, if you’re a super fan of Mister Rogers, you will see within the show. For instance, Daniel Tiger wears a red sweater. All of the characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe of the original show have grown up and all have preschoolers of their own. We incorporated the Main Street that Fred had, so we can go and talk to adults about problems Daniel has. It’s a preschoolers’ fantasy world.” Bocquelet talked about the technical challenges of Gumball, which features a mix of different styles. “It was a mistake!” he quipped. “It’s really hard to maintain for a long run. I was working in commercials, very unsuccessfully. I was experimenting with a lot of techniques and styles, and then I rage-quit commercials because I was utterly unsuccessful. When Cartoon Network hired me and asked me to present a show, I pulled these characters out of my drawers and sold them again. To unify this bunch of styles I put them on photographs. And the concept of these characters having a second chance and living in the world felt quite exciting. But it’s a hard, complex pipeline to put together.” The effort was worth it though, as the range of styles “helped the show stand out,” he said.
GIRL POWER Shiff’s shows—“fearless stories for fearless girls” is his mantra—also present a range of challenges given their use of CGI and underwater filming. “I keep pushing the envelope, that’s what drives me. We use CGI and shooting underwater is extremely difficult—and at times extremely dangerous. We have 22 stuntmen and stuntwomen from James Bond [movies] to help us. There are real sharks. We use electric prods from the Navy. Sometimes I think, This is nuts! But it takes us into the imagination, into a frontier that is a wonderful canvas. The stories themselves are often driven by empowering particularly young women. I think young women today face as much if not more of a need for empowering stories in a world that is so set on disempowering them, constantly. There’s a never-ending search for stronger and stronger female roles.” McGillis talked about the relaunch of Total Drama with the new series Total Dramarama. The original, Total Drama Island, was aimed at tweens. The request for a reboot came from Cartoon Network, which had huge success with the show around the world. “Kids assumed it was a Cartoon Network original, which it wasn’t. [The channel] came to us many years after the show had run its natural course and said, Let’s try something new. At first, Jennifer and I tried to age the show down a little. [The characters] were 16, so we said, we’ll make them 12 and maybe that will appeal to 6 to 9s as opposed to a tween audience. It didn’t work at all. And then one of us said, Let’s age them from 16 down to 4 and put them in a daycare and have them behave incredibly badly. We were betting on the fact that kids wouldn’t be turned off. When you’re 7, 8, 9, do you want to see a preschool again? We banked on the fact that they would look back on that period and say, ‘When I was a kid, those things mattered, I can laugh at that now.’ The numbers are bearing that out. We had to go to a much sillier, ridiculous place. The writers’ room is ridiculous. It’s a sillier, crazier place than we’ve ever been before for that younger age group.”
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Margie Cohn and Anna Carugati.
By Mansha Daswani
argie Cohn, the president of DreamWorks Animation Television, discussed bingeworthy content and girl-centric shows in her MIPJunior keynote, which was followed by a Q&A with World Screen’s Anna Carugati. Cohn’s keynote speech was titled “Creating Timeless Content in Ever-Changing Times,” but she stressed at the opening of her address that “there never has been, nor will there ever be, a formula for creating timeless content. Indeed, whenever content gets formulaic, you can be pretty sure it’s not going to be timeless.” DreamWorks Animation Television was founded in 2013 with a business plan that initially consisted of “a piece of paper with a bunch of names on it: titles from DreamWorks IP and the Classic Media library, which mostly consisted of older cartoons and comic-book titles.” From that initial outline, DreamWorks Animation Television clinched a
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landmark deal with Netflix for 300 hours of animated content. “We had a staff of about five people at the time,” Cohn said. While that deal was daunting, Cohn recalled, she knew the business had some clear advantages, notably, “we had overall series commitments for multiple seasons, not seasonby-season orders. This not only gave us a pipeline but also meant there’d be no renewal anxiety. It also enabled us to tell complete, layered, immersive stories with narrative threads that pull through from beginning to end.” The second major advantage, she added, was the trove of IP. “When you’re trying to break through the clutter, having known, globally beloved IP is a huge advantage for creating awareness and paves a path for building franchises. DreamWorks wanted to expand from a featurefilm studio with two movies a year to a broad entertainment company. And Netflix not only wanted a deep dive into originals for kids but to expand globally.”
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The Netflix deal, Cohn continued, allowed the studio to “keep our brand box big and not be squeezed into a narrow personality. Having no brand style allows our television series to go even further and reinvent what’s already been seen on the big screen.” It also meant the company did not have to “target the narrow ad-sales demo, and there would be no commercial breaks in our epic stories. Instead, we could focus on the specific audience we felt was best suited for a given series, from boys to girls to genre lovers and, best of all, we’d make shows for people of all ages who just love animation.” On linear, animation has been pigeonholed into two groups, Cohn said—edgy adult series or kids’ shows. “We wanted to make sure that some of our programming existed outside of those boxes. We wanted to create good shows, period.”
TIME TO BINGE The overarching strategy, she noted, was, “How do we get them to binge?” Kids have been binge-watching for years, Cohn explained, but in the past it was all repeat viewing. “Instead of watching a 90-minute movie again and again, they are being taken on extended journeys of new and surprising storytelling.” Embarking on the output required for the Netflix pact, DreamWorks Animation Television knew it needed to innovate its own production models. As it built its team, the company sought out qualified showrunners “who could adapt to the brave new world of streaming. We found creators who wanted to make what they love.” One of the biggest challenges in the streaming world, Cohn noted, is creating awareness. “We use every tool at our disposal to build awareness. There’s the DreamWorks Animation YouTube channel, the reach of our NBCUniversal parent company, the DreamWorks Animation fan base, the social channels we create for each of our shows, our sister channel Universal Kids, the Comcast Xfinity ecosystem and much more.” The company has series on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Universal Kids, and a presence on free-to-air broadcasters worldwide, with a slate of new series in production and development. “After five years exclusively in the streaming world, we’re now bringing shows to linear. Kids don’t care about the delivery platform, they just like good programming they can watch on the screen of their choice.” Cohn used her keynote to announce three new originals for Netflix in 2019 and 2020: Archibald’s Next Big Thing, Gabby’s Dollhouse and Rhyme Time Town. After her address, Cohn sat down for a Q&A with World Screen’s group editorial director, Anna Carugati. The interview kicked off with a discussion about what kids are looking for today against a backdrop of infinite entertainment options. “Their tastes haven’t morphed that much, but they’re looking for what they want, and they’re going to find it.” Cohn talked about the current trend toward shows focused on girl power. “We thought, we should talk to girls about adventure and who
their heroes are. What they want is very different from just taking a boys action show and slapping a girl in the middle. We made a list of attributes: doing the right thing, being a good friend, being smart and sassy—and having good hair is still incredibly important!” (Beyoncé emerged as a clear favorite among young girls describing their idea of a superhero, Cohn said.) Discussing gender-neutral content, Cohn said there’s always been a demand for that kind of programming from linear networks—“it attracts a 50-50 audience and then you get your biggest ratings. And boys and girls often have similar experiences, through a different filter. We try to offer a variety of types of people, boys and girls. You can have a really active girl, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a super physical boy as well. We’re not just reversing [roles]. We’re representing the huge variety of personality types, body types, ethnicities.” Carugati asked Cohn about messaging around appropriate behavior and respect. “Social-emotional issues and learning are where we spend most of our curriculum. And then just quality of life. We have some shows that talk about how failure helps you learn and become better. We have a lot of really good modeling. And most of all, we like to show people supporting each other and not tearing each other down.”
LIVING THE DREAM On mining the deep portfolio at DreamWorks and NBCUniversal, Cohn noted, “We have an amazing franchise group. NBCU is known for Symphony, which is their marketing cooperation where every arm of the company comes in and supports something. So there is a franchise team that oversees everything. There are some obvious suspects, like Fast & Furious. When NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks, I couldn’t get into an elevator or our studio without [someone] asking if we were going to develop Jurassic World, for example. People are pitching me [potential franchises] all the time. For a franchise, you have to find something that is relevant for the younger end of the audience. It can’t be watered down—it should feel just as vibrant and fulfill all the qualities of the original.” Talking about building the television animation studio from scratch, Cohn noted, “The ability to create everything from the ground up, and to do it the right way, was a gift.” Carugati then asked about the challenges of marketing a show that is on a streaming service. If something is good, it will generally be found, she said, but “they may find it and forget about it.” Building L&M campaigns has been particularly challenging for streaming shows. “Linear networks have always been able to make something important. It’s not the same environment” as SVOD. The major challenge going forward, according to Cohn, “is keeping the volume under control and the quality level as high.” The opportunities lie in greater synergies with the wider NBCUniversal group. “We feel that can open up new IP and relationships and partnerships that will make everything bigger.”
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TV KIDS: What’s been the strategy for growing Gaumont’s kids’ business? ATLAN: Our goal is to create a whole range of compelling and engaging children’s projects that will become part of the Gaumont heritage. We look for great partners and creative talent, from writers to designers to directors. In 2018, we added ten new projects, for a total of 25 currently in development between our Los Angeles and Paris offices, each at different stages of production. These are a mix of original content that we created in-house, original ideas that were presented to us and properties that are based on books or comic books. In 2019, we will continue to add projects to our development slate. TV KIDS: What are some of the issues impacting the animation marketplace at present? ATLAN: With the continued growth of the SVOD platforms, we are seeing a trend toward more globalized properties; animation has always been global, but now it’s even more so. These new players push producers and creators to be more creative and find projects that will be appealing to audiences worldwide. And I’d also say that finding the right talent to come on board a project is getting harder because there are so many more projects being made now. However, this means that it’s a great time to be an animator, writer or storyboard artist. There are so many opportunities for them, and we’ll see new stars breaking out in these areas as the demand for talent grows. TV KIDS: What new projects are you working on? ATLAN: We are in production with our partners Jackie Tohn, Michael Scharf, Ivan Askwith and Kristen Bell on our new
By Kristin Brzoznowski
When Nicolas Atlan joined Gaumont three years ago, expansion for the animation division was top of mind—and he’s delivered. The company’s roster of kids and family content now features some 800 half-hours of programming, mixed between original inhouse creations, projects being developed in partnership with topflight creatives and properties inspired by books or comics. This includes the musical preschool show Do, Re & Mi, which has been greenlit as a global Amazon Original and counts among its creative team Kristen Bell (who played Princess Anna in Disney’s Frozen). Atlan, the president of animation and family at Gaumont, talks to TV Kids about delivering the type of children’s content that rings true to the company’s heritage. 78 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
animated lyrical series for preschoolers Do, Re & Mi, an Amazon Original. The series was created by Jackie (Glow, American Idol) and Michael (The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation). Every episode starts with an adventure and ends in a song. We are also looking forward to starting production in February on Bionic Max, with France’s Gulli. It’s a 2Danimated series for kids 6 to 11, created by Gaumont’s Thomas Digard and Manu Klotz. It’s a buddy comedy about two very different but lovable friends: Max, the first and only prototype for a bionic guinea pig born in a laboratory, and his best friend, Jean-Claude, a goldfish,
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and their adventures as express delivery boys in the middle of Central Park. The pair consistently end up in absurd and hysterical situations, and kids everywhere will escape into the chaotic madness, laugh out loud and do what kids should do: have fun!
Gaumont’s catalog of kids and family content includes, from the top: Bionic Max, an animated buddy comedy; Furiki Wheels, a slapstick comedy about a hyperactive sloth; and Hetty Feather, a live-action drama. 80 WORLD SCREEN 1/19
TV KIDS: What goes into crafting the ideal development slate? ATLAN: We are always searching for great ideas, of course, seeking out new and creative writers and animators, and at the same time, connecting with program buyers all over the world to keep abreast of what they are looking for, what has been working for them and what hasn’t. If an IP already has recognition, that can really help us in the development process, and it also helps when we start to look for partners. The slate covers every age group, from preschool and 6-to-11s to tweens and teens. Among the preschool shows are an adventure series based on the books Touch the Earth and Heal the Earth from Julian Lennon and Bart Davis, and The Pet Pack, about a dog and his best pet pals who tangle daily with the troublemaking robotic pets next door—a concept created by Alexander Bar (Mike the Knight, Ranger Rob, Kody Kapow) that is slated to be co-produced with Bar’s production company, Milkcow Media. For the 6- to 11-year-old audience is Molly and the Cryptos, in development with France Télévisions. It’s an adventurous tale of 10-year-old Molly and her best friend, who is actually a mythological creature. [We also have] the multiaward-winning comic book series Usagi Yojimbo from celebrated creator, writer and illustrator Stan Sakai, which has amassed numerous awards and recognition over the past three decades. For 9- to 14-year-old kids is The Mice Templar, based on a series of graphic novels created by Bryan J. L. Glass and Michael Avon Oeming. And for teens and tweens, The Star Shards Chronicles is an animated drama based on the New York Times best-selling author Neal Shusterman’s young adult novels. Projects in development for theatrical release include the animated feature High in the Clouds, based on the book authored by Sir Paul McCartney and Philip Ardagh and illustrated by Geoff Dunbar, and Plunder, a family treasurehunting adventure from award-winning writers Leo Chu and Eric Garcia.
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