KID_411_STATE_OF_KIDS-4_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 3/15/11 5:49 PM Page 2
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TV KIDS
tion. Our distribution arm skyrocketed. The success of Ozie Boo! being sold in 160 markets helped us do this. For years we put a lot of effort into development, maybe even developing too many shows. Even if only two or three go on the air it will pay for all the development. And being French, we are protected from the world crisis.” HELPFUL HANDOUTS
Bare necessities: CAKE, which represents a portfolio that includes the hit Eliot Kid, is seeing strong demand for high-quality animation.
Lionel Marty, the president of worldwide distribution for Moonscoop, calls the market “tough” and attributes much of the toughness to European terrestrial broadcasters moving kids’ programming to their digital channels. DIGITAL MAZE
It’s not surprising that many of the companies with reason for optimism are based in countries that offer subsidies and tax credits, or are involved in co-productions with such companies. “Ultimately, if you add up all the license fees around the world that are being paid for animation, you do not cover a budget,” CAKE’s van Waveren says, pointing to the leg up that producers can get in Canada, France, and, to a lesser extent, Australia and Ireland. “They can bring 30 to 40 percent of the budget to the table. You need those kinds of funding mechanisms.” Cathy Payne, the CEO of Endemol Worldwide Distribution, says there wouldn’t be an Australian kids’ business without subsidies and quotas. “In Australia we’ve always had content laws that required broadcasters to carry local kids’ content,” she says. “The networks wouldn’t have children’s programming if they weren’t forced to. It’s not a commercial business for them. The market that’s really suffered in kids’ programming in recent years is the U.K. There just hasn’t been money available from the broadcasters for commissions.”
“The [time slots] on digital terrestrial channels dedicated to kids don’t have the same budgets as those on analogue television,” Marty says. “We saw that in many major Western European countries, which in the past had always been the most lucrative markets.” Nevertheless, he sees improvement coming. “We are making every effort we can to get licensing revenues higher. The analogue switch-off is coming soon and those [digital] channels will get more revenues. I expect license fees to increase again.” Pierre Sissmann, the chairman and CEO of Cyber Group Studios, bemoans the complex, difficult kids’ market, but notes that his company grew by more than 60 percent in 2010 and it more than doubled its international television sales. “We’re doing extremely well,” he says. “But it’s very complicated.You have to move fast.You have to [be active] in different parts of the planet. We have between seven and ten shows in development. We have a pure action show, a couple of adventurecomedy shows, a couple of edutainment shows and a pure entertainment preschool show. They’re all different. In the past you didn’t need to do this.The market is more complex because you have to address more targets. At the same time it’s more difficult because people have less money.” Cyber Group is doing well for three reasons, Sissmann says. First, its strong distribution arm is increasingly drawing business from producers who have seen local market license fees dwindle and who need more international sales. Second, it invests heavily in the development of shows designed to serve specific channel needs in the children’s market. And, third, as a French company, Cyber Group benefits from the quotas requiring French broadcasters to carry French content and from the subsidies granted to French producers. Sissmann elaborates on those points: “We Taking off: One of the strongest sellers in Breakthrough’s animated increased our volume of great series in distribu- catalogue has been the comedy Jimmy Two-Shoes. 238
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