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/ Kidoodle.TV’s Brenda Bisner / Cartoon Forum Preview
SEPTEMBER 2022 EDITION
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Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development
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The kids’ business, however, is remark ably adept at navigating change. No sur prise, given that the youngest viewers are early adopters, always keen to check out the next big thing as they dive deep into what they love.
The chief content officer at Kidoodle.TV discusses her programming wish lists and reflects on the platform’s success.
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As the streamers continue to upend the traditional models for financing shows, leading distributors weigh in on piecing together funding formulas today.
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Cartoon Forum returns for another installment in Toulouse, France.
Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director
TV Kids
What a difference a year makes. Just 12 months ago, the kids’ industry was heralding HBO Max’s arrival as a major new supporter of fresh content; today, that streamer’s position ing in the children’s and family segment is up in the air amid the impending combination with discovery+.
Several animated projects have been in flux at Netflix as that giant faces slowing subscriber growth. AVOD is still a signifi cant revenue opportunity—but, as many distributors have learned, also timeconsuming when it comes to deliverables and potentially a headache in your win dowing strategy. Oh, and now you probably need a metaverse strategy, and perhaps deals with TikTok influencers as you work on building your brand.
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There are some other constants in this ever-changing business. Kids will be loyal to beloved brands if you give them reasons to be. Shows that make children laugh and bring families together will find a way to cut through the clutter. Financing still requires creative solutions. And the endgame is still the same: delight, educate, shape and inform the content creators of tomorrow.
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“We are excited to ignite imaginationskids’ and sense of adventure.”
Leading ZDF Studios kids’ highlights, the preschool series Grisù follows the titular little dragon who wants to be a firefighter. For the 6-to-9 set, Törtle centers on the eponymous tortoise as he explores life in suburbia among other wild and domesticated animals after growing up in a pet shop. Also targeted at kids aged 6 to 9, Mimo & Leva— Back to the Bronze Age is “a great series about kids not living in faraway lands, but way back in history,” says Katharina Pietzsch, director in ZDF Studios’ junior department.
Gisele’s Mashup Adventures
ZDF Studios
Emma Memma: Sing. Dance. Sign. sees Emma Memma and her friends navigate challenges and adventures using sign language.
Headspinner Productions’ catalog features Gisele’s Mashup Adventures, which sees a child talk to Gisele, who selects three words from their conversation and mixes them up into a silly story. “Silly and fun appeals to everyone around the world,” says Michelle Melanson, president. Happy House of Frightenstein follows a group of mini monsters as they have fun and play together.
“We will be attending Cartoon lookMIPCOMMIPJuniorForum,andandreallyforwardtothese events.”
Grisù / Törtle / Mimo & Leva—Back to the Bronze Age
Headspinner Productions
Gisele’s Mashup Adventures / Happy House of Frightenstein Emma Memma: Sing. Dance. Sign.
—Michelle Melanson
—Katharina Pietzsch
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And it’s not just the streamers at a crossroads. Linear chan nels, both ad-funded and pubcasters, are facing their own chal lenges. Amid recessionary fears, there are questions about the sustainability of the ad market’s post-Covid bounce-back. And concerns about the future of consistent government financing of public broadcasting for kids remain; of note, CBBC, the BBC’s beloved channel for kids, is transitioning to an online service in the next few years.
“You used to be able to finance a $300,000 budget ten, 15 years ago with Canadian financing and maybe an acquisition from the U.S.; now you can’t do that,” says Caroline Tyre, VP of global sales and rights strategy at WildBrain. “As distributors, we would rather have something where we can finance it with two broadcasters, and we get the rest of the upside. It’s financed, and everything else is gravy, and that’s the dream. But I think budgets are so high now,
t’s been an excellent run for the kids’ business over the last few years, with the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Para mount+ and HBO Max, among others, making big deals to fully finance compelling children’s IP. Is the honeymoon over? The jury is out on that question, but the streamers clearly have a bit of reckoning to face amid slowing growth projections and consolidation (indeed, as HBO Max gears up to combine with discovery+ in an as-yet-unnamed service, several animation proj ects have already been axed).
As the streamers continue to upend the traditional models for financing shows, leading distributors weigh in on piecing together funding formulas today.
By Mansha Daswani
Cyber Group Studios’ Nefertine on the Nile is a French and Italian co-production.
and everything has become so much more premium that it becomes much harder.”
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Meanwhile, usage of SVOD services surged amid the pandemic, “so they have been able to invest more money, but it has had some tricky consequences,” observes Hanna Mouchez, the founder and CEO of MIAM! animation. “As a French producer and distributor, we used to be able to combine two different broadcasters in one territory, for instance, a free-TV channel and then a pay-TV channel. The SVOD platforms…need exclusive content. We come to a paradox where we have more potential clients and opportunities to finance our shows, and neverthe less, each one wants exclusive rights. So they exclude the possi bility of working together. Where we used to be able to finance our shows with two broadcasters and presales, today we’re fac ing the situation where an SVOD platform is interested, but in
“For linear, traditional broadcasters, it has become a bit trickier to invest and sometimes a bit delayed,” reports Raphaëlle Mathieu, executive VP of Cyber Group Studios.
France, we’re not able to find another broadcaster to complete [the financing] because often those linear broadcasters will not agree to come as a second window. So, in appearance, we have more clients, but it’s more tricky to finance our shows.”
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“Budgets are so high now, and everything has become much more premium.”
The trend of streamers taking all global rights on a property can be problematic, Mathieu notes. “It can be interesting financially speaking on a short-term basis, but it has conse quences in creating your own IP and developing your own brand and catalog. For independent producers, it has become trickier because there is a lot of money, theoretically, that can be invested or allocated, but it might not necessarily be the best way for us to grow. Making all this investment and
—WildBrain’s Caroline Tyre
Genevieve Dexter, the founder and CEO of Serious Kids and Eye Present, adds, “With the SVODs, we used to get significant presales with Amazon and Netflix; they are no longer prebuying. And in fact, Netflix is no longer co-commissioning animation. That’s a big hole for us. But, luckily, there are new entrants. Our skill as the distributor-producer, as it were, is in making those rights compatible with numbers of rotation or available episodes and trying to find a compromise on those points.”
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devel opment and then having it all taken away can be an issue and is hardly a complete business model.”
Dexter adds, “There’s always this period of new entrants in the market. They haven’t got any content, so they’re very flexible. And then, as time progresses, they become vertically integrated. The party’s over. If people have become very reliant on the Netflix model and everything they’re doing is exclusive or they won’t coproduce, then that’s quite a dangerous place to be.”
Andrew Fitzpatrick, the chairman and founder of Monster Entertainment, remarks, “I think these things are all some what cyclical. We’ve already seen the peak in the rights grab by the streamers. Up to fairly recently, Netflix wanted every thing exclusively, and they wanted to own everything. Ama zon was playing that game at one point. Neither of them is doing that anymore. It could be that the next streamers in line may start doing that too. But we’re seeing a little bit of a fragmentation of the streaming market, which is probably a very healthy thing. It leads to more competition and more opportunities for independents.”
Serious Kids brokered a deal with Cartoonito EMEA for Spookies from Germany’s Wolkenlenker.
Cyber Group Studios’ Raphaëlle Mathieu
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As for what this all means for funding models, Cyber Group’s Mathieu reports: “No project looks like the previous one. It’s a question of momentum. It’s a question of topic. It’s a question of money or a theme in the market. We need to customize our approach each time. Of course, the earlier we’re in, the better it can be done and adjusted. Every single detail does matter; sometimes, €20,000 in x, y or z territory can generate much more interest in the global financing. So you need to be inventive, and you need to adapt. And you need not be afraid to have a partner saying yes and then a partner saying no right after, which can still happen.”
“For linear broadcasters, it has become a bit trickier to invest and sometimes a bit delayed.”
Fitzpatrick also notes that it’s “essential” to be involved in an IP as early as possible in its life cycle. “We’re finding we’re having to get a lot more involved at an early stage in either advising the pro ducers on financing or helping them raise the financing, whether it be from presales, sales, finding equity investors, maybe sources of debt, gap financing and co-production funding. We’re often introducing producers to co-producers if they don’t have the con tacts to help get it over the line.”
Private-equity funding is also on the rise, Fitzpatrick says. “I think that’s a good thing. You could say that it’s because it’s hard to get the money elsewhere, but it’s also great to have that available as
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Serious Kids’ Dexter reflects a similar sentiment when she says, “You start with a clear idea about how you’re going to put it together. What ends up happening is quite another thing. It’s incredibly technical, especially an official co-production. Some times you suddenly realize a minor legal point that has quite catastrophic implications for the production. It can be quite scary.”
Creative Europe remains a “significant source of financing for production and development,” Fitzpatrick says. “They’re pushing totally in the direction of co-production. In the past, you could get development funding as a single producer for a project. Now, you need to be going as a co-development. That means that people are going to have to, if they want to get development funding from Creative Europe, start talking to co-producers at an earlier point. People who might not have even thought of co-production in the past will be think ing of it in the future. That will be the beginning of a signifi cant increase in co-production in Europe.”
Monster Entertainment distributes Fia ’s Fairies, an RTÉjr commission from Little Moon Animation.
Genevieve Dexter
a source of finance. These funds realize that IP has a longterm value and potentially an increasing value. There’s a very long tail on income from animation projects. I think we are going to see more of that. I don’t think it will become the only source of finance. But I think it’s a healthy thing that it’s becoming more available.”
MIAM! has not yet used private equity, but if it did, “we would be looking for an investment aligned with our values and what we want to do,” Mouchez says. Taking financing from companies not aligned with your values “can be dangerous in terms of independ ence and creativity of your projects, your company and what you do and why you do it.”
“We used to get significant presales with Amazon and Netflix; they are no longer prebuying.”
—Serious Kids’
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When you’re taking private equity, “you are then accountable to these people who’ve invested in your program in perpetuity,” Dexter explains. “So you have to continue to attend board meet ings for that special purpose vehicle that you’ve created for the program. It becomes quite an onerous long-term obligation because you’re having quarterly board meetings, and you’re preparing presentations and reports over a 10- to 20-year period for that one property. It comes with quite a price for project investment as opposed to company investment.”
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he kids’ AVOD landscape has been developing at a rap id clip. An early mover in this space, Kidoodle.TV is on a missio n to set the standard for Safe Streaming. It features curated content that is human-vetted, rather than driven by algorithms, across a catalog that boasts 40,000 episodes— and counting. Brenda Bisner, chief content officer at Kidoodle.TV, tells TV Kids what’s guiding the platform’s current strategy.
TV KIDS: What has been driving the recent gains for Kidoodle.TV?
Bisner Kidoodle.TV
BISNER: We have led the Safe Streaming movement in the AVOD space. We action those words on a daily basis and adhere to the highest letters of the law for kids, period. We have an award-winning user experience and a best-in-class team. We always say, “Welcome to the Kidoodle.TV family,” and we mean that. We also are the only AVOD platform to offer a back-end analytics portal, so providers have backstage access to the daily heartbeat on performance, as well as easy access for reporting and marketing wins.
By
TV KIDS: How is content curated on Kidoodle.TV?
BISNER: We have been known for our impeccable UX, and with that, our programming of not just Safe Streaming vetted content by actual humans but screened adverts systematically placed for a seamless content-viewing experience. We offer a curated and refreshed category-based service where kids can easily find their favorite content and discover something else they will love. Parents trust us, and kids love us; we hear it every day.
BISNER: There is a huge win for offscreen opportunities to tie into a service like ours, which is trusted by families. We were one of the first to dabble in kids’ podcasts and
“We have led the Safe Streaming movement in the AVOD space.”
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TV KIDS: In an increasingly crowded AVOD space, what must a platform do to win the approval of parents while satisfying kids’ entertainment requests?
TV KIDS: What opportunities do you see in the AVOD land scape for children’s content?
BISNER: It’s always about the content, but we are also about the parenting experience and meeting families where they are at. We are an anytime, anywhere platform with no barrier to entry that believes in co-viewing.
TV KIDS: What’s Kidoodle.TV’s current footprint, and what’s the strategy for expanding the service to more plat forms and territories?
currently offer an audioonly music stream. Also, the social media compo nent is hugely important— for brands and for us. We want to be part of the “rais ing a child” experience, and our social channels reflect that. As a company, I think transparency is important. We have grown a lot and have hundreds of valuable relationships that care about our success because, at the end of the day, we are a new revenue stream, and we believe in keeping kids safe online, which is something everyone should care about.
BISNER: Kidoodle.TV is available in over 160 countries and territories across our ecosystem of connected-TV devices and platforms to accommodate anytime, anywhere viewing for free, with no barrier to entry.
Kidoodle.TV is available in over 160 territories on connected-TV devices and platforms.
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Currently serving as a trusted channel for kids globally in millions of households, as a free app on supported iOS and Android devices, online as a browser at kidoodle.tv and as a channel in connected-TV environments, look for us on Roku,
BISNER: Currently, we have a large Spanish-language content offering, for which we are implementing ways families can select that language with us as their first point of entry. This will roll out across all languages.
Apple TV 4, Android TV, Hisense, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, LG smart TVs, Plex, Samsung and JioPhones, with more to come.
BISNER: As we serve kids under 12 and their families, Kidoodle.TV seeks out content made for those ages. Broken down categor ically by preschool, 6-plus and 9-plus, we are looking for brands that come with awareness and partners who are excited to participate in their brand’s success on our service and, most importantly, care about the important work we do to keep kids Safe Streaming.
TV KIDS: What’s the strategy for localizing content across the broad footprint?
Guru Studio’s True and the Rainbow Kingdom is among the shows on Kidoodle.TV.
TV KIDS: What’s on your acquisitions wish list?
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artoon Forum is slated to return for its 33rd edition from September 19 to 22 in Toulouse, bringing together producers, investors, broadcasters and other potential partners for co-production opportunities on European animated series.
ToonsToulouseIn
By Jamie Stalcup
After two years of disrupted editions, Cartoon Forum is back in person with networking opportunities. The success of the digital integrations from the past two years, such as the online catch-up sessions, however, will be continued at the request of the buyers, according to Annick Maes, general director of Cartoon.
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Toulouse,France
Cartoon Forum returns for another installment in Toulouse, France.
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As for the event itself, 80 new TV series, miniseries and TV specials representing 488 hours of animation were shortlisted from 137 submissions. France leads the selection with 37 projects, followed by Spain with 8 and Ireland and Germany with 6 each. Italy is represented with 5 projects, Poland with 3 and Belgium and Denmark with 2. Austria, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Serbia and Sweden are participating with 1 each.
With the catch-up sessions, participants will be able to watch or rewatch a pitch at their own pace after the event until October 9. “Our goal is to offer each project as much visibility as possible in order to increase its chances of finding investment and securing international distribution,” says Maes. However, “it is the producers’ choice to offer a catch-up session; it is not mandatory.”
“Our goal is to offer each project as much visibility as possible.”—AnnickMaes
This year, a spotlight is on Spain. “The rise of Spanish animation in recent years will not have escaped anyone,” Maes says.
The organizers have developed a notification system that will remind buyers to complete feedback forms for projects, and the forms will be sent immediately to participants after being filled out. The organizers are also working on implementing voting for the Tributes awards into the app. Winners will be announced on the last day of Cartoon Forum.
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