TV Kids NATPE & Pre-Kidscreen 2020

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TVKIDS

WWW.TVKIDS.WS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

NATPE & PRE-KIDSCREEN EDITION

State of the Industry / High School Musical’s Tim Federle / DC Super Hero Girls’ Lauren Faust

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8 TV KIDS

CONTENTS

Signs of the Times

FEATURES 16 FLYING HIGH

Producers and distributors share their strategies for delivering shows that will stand out from the pack.

The $170 million fine levied on YouTube (and parent company Google) in September of last year reignited the debate around children’s content in the Wild West of online platforms.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Chelsea Regan Alison Skilton Associate Editors David Diehl Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Genovick Acevedo 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 ©2020 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws

Indeed, as the on-demand kids’ space gets more crowded, platform operators and content producers alike will have to come to grips with how to entertain kids online while keeping them safe.

The landscape as a whole is also grappling with rapid-fire consolidation, including Hasbro’s nearly $4 billion deal for Entertainment One; M6 acquiring Gulli, Canal J and Tiji, among other assets, from Lagardère Active; and Sony Pictures Television taking control of Octonauts producer Silvergate Media. Expect more M&A activity across the media ecosystem in the year ahead.

We can also anticipate more book, game and comic-book adaptations and reboots as producers seek out known IP. Nickelodeon has a deal with STUDIOCANAL for a brandnew Paddington series for preschoolers and is working with CBS Television Studios on a Star Trek series (with Garfield content also in the works after acquiring that IP).

BBC is reviving Crackerjack! Billy Crystal and John Goodman are reprising their Monsters, Inc. voice roles for Monsters at Work on Disney+. Belvision and Dupuis Edition & Audiovisuel are developing a new 3D series adapted from the Marsupilami universe. Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers is being adapted for CBBC and Family Channel. The Hardy Boys live-action series will debut on YTV in Canada and Hulu in the U.S. MRC has secured the rights to the celebrated children’s IP Eloise. Netflix and Mattel Television are reimagining He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Taking inspiration from well-known, iconic brands is just one avenue for delivering a breakout property; the main feature in this edition hears from a range of executives about how they are developing shows that will cut through the clutter. Serious Lunch and Eye Present’s Genevieve Dexter, Genius Brands International’s Andy Heyward and WildBrain’s Josh Scherba weighed in on the major challenges and opportunities for kids’ production and distribution companies in a MIPJunior panel recapped in this edition. We also hear from two kids’ hitmakers: Tim Federle, creator and showrunner of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and Lauren Faust, who developed DC Super Hero Girls.

—Mansha Daswani

16 24 DISTRIBUTION SHIFTS

Genius Brands International’s Andy Heyward, WildBrain’s Josh Scherba and Serious Lunch and Eye Present’s Genevieve Dexter weighed in on how their companies are navigating the kids’ market today in a MIPJunior superpanel moderated by World Screen’s Anna Carugati.

INTERVIEWS

27

High School Musical’s

Tim Federle

30

DC Super Hero Girls’

Lauren Faust

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AnimalFanPedia 10 TV KIDS

Cisneros Media AnimalFanPedia / Dino Bites / Wowzu!

Mobius Lab Kids, launched last year, is the children’s content division of Cisneros Media, and there’s a wealth of new content to come from the unit in 2020. “We are story developers, producers and creators of a range of genres—from live-action to animation,” says Ailing Zubizarreta, Cisneros’ VP of creative services. “Our current focus is to disrupt the market with innovative content that hyper-focuses on the Alpha generation.”

Leading the NATPE slate is Wowzu!, an animated and liveaction series that lets kids “wow” viewers with their reactions to animal behaviors via challenges, memes, dance-offs, lipsyncing and more. Dino Bites, meanwhile, features short-form dinosaur-themed adventures that are meant to both entertain and educate audiences. There’s also AnimalFanPedia, which teaches kids about animals.

“We believe creating content that’s hyper-focused on the Alpha generation is the task at hand for years to come.”

—Ailing Zubizarreta

Filmax Turu’s Musical Farm / The Lunnis and the Great Fairy Tale Adventures / Elcano & Magellan Based on the recently released feature film Turu, the Wacky Hen, Filmax’s Turu’s Musical Farm follows a hen that is described in the classic children’s song “La Gallina Turuleca.” “Buyers will be able to watch some footage from Turu’s Musical Farm at NATPE,” says Iván Díaz, head of international sales. “A pilot will be ready at the end of February and the first 13 episodes will be completed at the end of the year.” Adding to its animated lineup, Filmax is also offering a trio of films: The Lunnis and the Great Fairy Tale Adventures, the first movie ever produced with the popular RTVE puppets; Elcano & Magellan, which was released in 2019 to mark the 500th anniversary of the first trip around the world; and Bikes, an environmentallythemed film for the preschool set.

“We wanted something really big, commercial and special for our animation comeback.”

Turu’s Musical Farm

—Iván Díaz

Game Crashers

Gloob B.B.D.—Blue Building Detectives / Game Crashers / Power Players Among Gloob’s priorities for 2020 is the launch of Power Players, a new animated series. The year ahead will also see the season three premiere of Game Crashers, which already reaches almost 90 territories. According to Tatiana Costa, general director of Globo Group’s kids’ unit, the series “promises to entertain kids from different cultures with a narrative that combines the real and virtual worlds,” as it sees three video game characters embark on a great adventure in real life with the help of two gamers.

Gloob’s B.B.D.—Blue Building Detectives is currently going into its 13th season. “Despite being locally produced, our original content delivers a global look and [can] generate a connection with the audience through emotion,” says Costa.

“We want to invest in stories that empower kids, present good values and have strong potential to engage kids on different platforms.”

—Tatiana Costa 44 WORLD SCREEN 1/20

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True and the Rainbow Kingdom

Guru Studio Pikwik Pack / True and the Rainbow Kingdom / Big Blue Pikwik Pack’s Suki the hedgehog, Axel the raccoon, Tibor the hippo and Hazel the cat deliver magical packages to the citizens of Pikwik in the Guru Studio adventure comedy, which is soon to be available on Disney Junior and Hulu in the U.S., as well as Treehouse in Canada. True and the Rainbow Kingdom, meanwhile, follows True, who uses her kindness, confidence and selfless nature to care for the world around her. Also on offer is Big Blue, a series for kids ages 5 to 9 that follows sibling underwater adventurers Lettie and Lemo, who lead a quirky submarine crew. “The series is packed with comedy and high-stakes adventure and will inspire kids to make their world a better place as they dive deep into the mysteries of the ocean,” says Jonathan Abraham, VP of sales and business development.

“True is everything you’d want in a hero: she’s brave, smart and compassionate.”

—Jonathan Abraham

Mondo TV Iberoamérica MeteoHeroes / YooHoo to the Rescue / Bat Pat Comedy, humor and strange adventures are the ingredients that made the first run of Bat Pat a hit and will continue to entertain in the second season, on offer from Mondo TV Iberoamérica. MeteoHeroes features six children who discover that they have superpowers that affect the weather, with each of them being able to control different climate phenomena.

YooHoo to the Rescue features similar environmental themes.

Fun, friendship and fantasy coexist in the show, which has a large supporting cast of rare or endangered species. The series debuted worldwide last March exclusively on Netflix and has since premiered on free-to-air channels across Europe.

“Awareness of this engaging and magical show is set to be greater than ever in 2020,” says Maria Bonaria Fois, CEO of Mondo TV Iberoamérica.

“We are paying close attention to creative voices coming from Spain, Italy and Latin America.”

—Maria Bonaria Fois

Sinking Ship Entertainment Dino Dana / Endlings / Odd Squad The preschool series Dino Dana from Sinking Ship Entertainment follows the titular feisty 10-year-old “paleontologist-in-training” who eats, sleeps and breathes dinosaurs, even going so far as to imagine them alive today.

When the last elephant on Earth mysteriously vanishes, Endlings sees four kids in foster care discover they’re not alone in the universe, even though sometimes it can feel like they are. Odd Squad is a live-action comedy about a high-tech organization run by kids that investigates whenever something strange or unusual happens. “We’ve had a lot of success with 8-to-12 programming lately, but there is also a healthy appetite for programming in all genres, provided it is smart, diverse and topical,” says Kate Sanagan, the company’s head of sales and distribution.

“There has been a renewed interest and boom in the children’s programming distribution business over the past year in particular.”

—Kate Sanagan

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Bat Pat

Endlings

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Heidi

Studio 100 Media 100% Wolf—Legend of the Moonstone / Heidi / Tip the Mouse On offer from Studio 100 Media, 100% Wolf—Legend of the Moonstone is a comedy-adventure series that follows Freddy Lupin, heir to a proud family line of werewolves. He is in shock when on his 13th birthday, his first “warfing” goes awry, and he turns into a poodle instead of a werewolf.

Heidi, meanwhile, follows the old and new adventures of the happy and communicative orphan girl known around the world. “We presented a second season of Heidi at MIPCOM and received very good feedback from broadcasters,” says Martin Krieger, CEO of Studio 100 Media.

Rounding out the company’s slate highlights is Tip the Mouse, a preschool comedy based on the best-selling children’s book series that tells the story of the titular mouse.

Season three is now available.

“We believe that as long as a show is unique, people are thrilled and interested.”

—Martin Krieger

Toei Animation One Piece: Stampede / Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution–Kizuna / Dragon Ball Super The movie One Piece: Stampede is a highlight of Toei Animation’s catalog as the company plans to roll out the first two seasons of the uncut One Piece TV series with new Spanish and Portuguese dubbing at NATPE. “There’s been a lot of requests for the One Piece TV series and movies from fans and networks,” says Daniel Castaneda, director of film licensing and production at Toei Animation. “One Piece: Stampede’s theatrical release will be a good complement to create and expand awareness of the title.” As the company relaunches Digimon, the feature film Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution– Kizuna is only one of the projects set to be released and will be followed up with related surprises and announcements.

There’s also the TV series Dragon Ball Super, which has worked well for Toei Animation’s clients, according to Castaneda.

“We are relaunching Digimon next year.”

—Daniel Castaneda

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Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution–Kizuna

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h g i H Flying Guru Studio’s Big Blue.

Producers and distributors are rising to the challenge of delivering shows that stand out from the pack. By Chelsea Regan

A

black hole. That’s how one kids’ television executive described the effect of ondemand services’ proliferation in the industry, within which new platforms are launching at an unprecedented rate.

The thing with a black hole—or at least how those of us laymen understand it colloquially—is that you don’t know exactly what possibilities lie within it, whether they be a net positive or negative.

Which, of course, tends to make one desperately curious to find out. Another thing about black holes? They suck up everything within reach.

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The major streamers are hungry for content and are gobbling up all types of programming to offer their subscribers. And their gravitational pull, with all of the opportunities they can provide with their seemingly magically expanding wallets and the enormous breadth of their appetites, collects content from producers and distributors that are not unaware of the risks but optimistic about the potential. To survive in this black hole is to stand out from all of the others in there with you. Another exec referred to the massive amount of content as a flood. A show can either catch the wave above the crowd—or sink.

Intergalactic phenomena and natural disasters could seem to foretell a doomsday of sorts, but the industry is more accurately

© Flying Bark Pty Ltd

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BRAND NEW SERIES

x

MEET US @ KIDSCREEN SUMMIT distribution@studio100media.com I www.studio100media.com

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Studio 100’s Doctor Space targets a younger audience and includes an educational curriculum.

in the midst of a dawn. That of a new age with new opportunities. The industry is healthy. Supply is good, and demand is even better.

“2020 is already shaping up to be an interesting year in kids’ programming, with on-demand increasingly dominating the conversation,” says Maria Bonaria Fois, CEO of Mondo TV Iberoamérica. “However, whatever the platform, it’s clear that worldwide demand for content, in general, is growing fast—and demand for children’s programming, in particular, is strong.”

With all of these platforms and their corresponding demands for more content, Mondo TV is open to the opportunities they present and mindful of the importance of being aware of their unique needs. “We, as creators and producers, must bear in mind that there are many more channels and mediums for our output,” says Fois.

Kate Sanagan, head of sales and distribution at Sinking Ship Entertainment, believes that there has been a “renewed interest and boom in the children’s programming distribution business over the past year in particular,” owed in part to the explosion of SVOD platforms. “The proliferation of on-demand platforms has breathed new life into kids’ programming, offering up more spaces for kids to view programs.”

CROWD CONTROL Frank Falcone, president and executive creative director at Guru Studio, sees the appeal of on-demand platforms, but he also recognizes the appeal’s inherent danger. It’s that fear of getting pulled into the black hole and getting lost. “You’ve got to be careful about the amount of draw there is toward those services,” says Falcone. “Throwing a show into the VOD universe is not unlike launching an app without any support in the iOS system. It’s futile. You need to really think hard about how you approach your business if you intend to sell a show into the expansive, unlimited landscape of VOD distribution.”

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Essential to finding success in the landscape of VOD is marketing. On linear TV, there is a finite number of shows to fill a finite number of slots. If a child is up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, any show that’s on at that time on the channel bouquet in their household has a fighting chance of being watched just by virtue of being on air. When it comes to streamers, the risk of being a drop in the bucket is significantly greater. “If you don’t have a plan for marketing your show, you might as well not make it,” says Falcone. “You’re just kind of rolling the dice that somebody might discover it and viral buzz might happen.”

The amount of content and the difficulty in discovering new shows on platforms is compounded by the frequency with which shows launch, according to Falcone. A long-running theory of his about traditional broadcasters is now part and parcel of the practice of on-demand platforms. “I always joked that traditional broadcasters would launch a new episode every week, if they were lucky, to reignite excitement over a show. Some of these services are launching a new show every week, which is unheard of in the history of content production for kids’ TV.” For Konami Cross Media NY, home to such household-name heritage brands as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Frogger and Bomberman, the VOD boom has been an unmitigated boon. “The biggest and fastest-growing opportunities for us are the OTT and SVOD platforms,” says Jennifer Buzzelli, co-production and distribution consultant for Konami. “All of our free- and pay-TV clients are launching their own SVOD platforms. So we’ve been able to expand our business digitally in that sense.”

NO LIMITS Another overall benefit of the broadening VOD landscape, according to Buzzelli, is that producers feel empowered to bust boundaries and push the envelope creatively. More niche segments of the industry like anime and education now have an easier time finding a home. “Creatively, it’s going to be wonderful to see where some of these producers can go,” says Buzzelli, who, like Falcone, is conscious of the imperative for content to differentiate itself. “If you’re on Netflix, but you’re not a Netflix original, how do you get to be on the homepage? That’s the challenge, to stand apart.”

The challenge to stand apart is something streamers indubitably present, but it’s also one for which they provide a space to confront. They welcome diverse programming with new ideas and formats and styles, opening their arms to nontraditional original content from those willing to take the chance of getting lost on their services. “More sophisticated storytelling is possible for series presented on streaming services,” says Martin Krieger, CEO of Studio 100 Media.

“Streaming allows a larger narrative arc. Classic TV airing requires a consistent duration and with rather autonomous episodes in order to guarantee broadcasters freedom in programming in regard to the order of episodes.”

As far as genre is concerned when it comes to sellable kids’ content, comedy remains popular. As do action and adventure series. The great equalizer, however, execs seem

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Sinking Ship’s Endlings is an original IP aimed at 8- to 12-year-olds.

to agree, is quality. If a show is inarguably good, it will sell and perform well, no matter the genre boxes it ticks. With that being said, those who put content into the world meant for the youngest among us can assume a responsibility to provide programming that’s not only good but good for its audience.

“There’s a renewed push toward educational content,” says Guru’s Falcone. “The commercialization of children’s content is obviously necessary to sustain the business, but at the end of the day, we have a duty and a responsibility to children to ensure they eat healthy.”

ECO ADVENTURES Mondo TV’s Fois would argue that shows introducing children to environmental concerns serve an essential role in today’s kids’ content, as climate change has duly become more central to the global conversation. It bears noting that Greta Thunberg is an environmental activist at only 16. “When it comes to emerging themes, we are increasingly aware of the importance of the environment to young audiences,” says Fois. “If there’s a type of content that will be more and more in demand in the future, this is undoubtedly the one.” Mondo TV is on top of this trend with eco-adventure series on its slate such as the forthcoming MeteoHeroes and YooHoo to the Rescue.

The former, a co-production with MOPI (the weather forecasting group Meteo Operations Italia), follows six kids who discover that they can each control a different weather phenomenon. It addresses issues like climate change, ecology and respect for nature within an action-packed adventure designed to engage its young audience.

“There is more than ever a need to reflect cultural issues and world events because our young audience wants to be part of that conversation,” says Fois. “Thus, given the volume of content being produced, a point of differentiation now is not just how engaged the audience is, but the depth of engagement of the content produced.”

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Studio 100 Media is likewise looking at how it can incorporate learning into its series, including with Doctor Space, an animated comedy series set in an alien ER aimed at the 4- to 7-year-old set that has a “soft” educational curriculum. “Looking at preschool content, we see that at least a soft curriculum is recommended,” says Krieger. “Generally, for all age groups, gender-neutral comedy is the most soughtafter. Nevertheless, if a concept is unique and convincing, broadcasters are also open to jumping in at the deep end and considering it for their network.”

If genre is a lesser concern, one might suspect that the real debate is between known brands and original concepts, but as we kick off a new decade, the industry isn’t convinced one has too meaningful of an advantage over the other. Known brands are easier to market, sure, but buyers and those on the hunt for a co-production are scanning for new ideas as well. That black hole? It’s eating up everything.

“The known brands are often slam dunks in many ways, but there is definitely an appetite for other types of content and angles and boundarypushing,” says Konami’s Buzzelli, who adds that those who are looking for the next big thing “want it to be different, to stand out above the crowd.” She points out that Konami benefits from having established brands and that it’s also developing new IP. “We are trying to find the gaps in the market and fill those gaps with the new IP that we’re managing.”

Sinking Ship’s Sanagan agrees that while known IP’s popularity endures, original ideas are catching buyers’ eyes these days as well. “Our current series Endlings is a good example of that with nine broadcast partners involved in the financing,” she says. “Broadcasters also look for original stories that appeal to kids of today, both topically and thematically.” Sanagan adds that there’s been “more focus on telling stories with diverse characters and from creators who have not been heard previously.”

ORIGINAL SPIN One conjecture about the future of the industry is that the tide will organically turn toward more original material out of necessity—how many established brands are there left that are worth adapting or rebooting? As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. So if established ideas are no longer going to cut it, the onus is on kids’ content creators to figure out what will and get to work creating it.

“The conservative mindset to go with what you know has emerged again with people taking titles from famous books and publishing brands,” observes Guru’s Falcone. “There’s the reboot phenomenon, which has maybe run its course now that we’ve rebooted just about everything we can.

There’s going to be a need for original content and finding the white spaces, finding the places that are untapped and finding that the demand will always be there.”

Another marked change in the kids’ TV market is how programs are financed. There are more complex methods

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The Frogger brand, represented by Konami Cross Media NY, has more than 30 years of IP awareness in the marketplace.

of cobbling together the funding for projects than ever; it can be complicated, but it also brings about new opportunities that may not have presented themselves in the past.

“Each property has a unique and different finance structure from the last one,” Sanagan of Sinking Ship says. “When we examine a new property, we devise a strategy we think will best serve the content.

That could be one SVOD partner, and it could be a contingent of several partners. If you start from looking at what the series needs, you’ll find the right partner.”

Mondo TV’s MeteoHeroes addresses environmental issues such as climate change.

At Guru, Falcone notes, “We had “We’re seeing more co-productions as commercial cothree really diverse and inventive models of funding two shows productions, where you have a brand owner or a commercial that we got off the ground involving majors and local producers interest with little or no content development experience lookand tax credits and even foreign investors with Chinese roots,” ing to produce [with a company with] a track record for creathe says. “The traditional Canadian model of a license fee from a ing successful shows,” says Falcone. “And they look to us as a U.S. broadcaster and tax credits, and a Canadian broadcaster content partner to help create stories around brand concepts.” taking a lead—that seems like an archaic model at this point.”

Within the industry, anyone can initiate the conversation about a property from any part of the world. Keeping that in mind, Guru, which counts among its titles Pikwik Konami’s Buzzelli finds that the co-production world is robust Pack, True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Big Blue, isn’t and that people are eager to join forces on a project, creating restricting itself to leads in Canada—or narrow definitions varied avenues for financing. While the company has yet to of co-production. enter into actual negotiations for its titles just yet, “most of the production partners we’ve engaged with have expressed their openness and flexibility,” says Buzzelli. “In terms of just different division of labor—who writes the scripts, who does this, who does that? I find a real openness with regard to that, which is pleasing.”

“We’re very engaged with potential production partners and co-production partners on all three of the new IPs that we’re developing,” she says. “We’re really looking to partner with strong, strategic production partners, both domestically and abroad, and we’ve made progress, but we still have a ways to go.”

Mondo TV has partnered with content producers from around the world for co-productions and co-financing, which helps to manage rising budget levels, according to Fois. “Raising production finance has become a complicated business,” she says. “There is no one formula for financing; every production comes with a different model.”

Studio 100’s Krieger observes, “Traditionally, two commissioning broadcasters combined with interesting funding possibilities—for example in France or in Australia—are the aim for financing a project, together with presales to close potential gaps in funding. This still works, but streaming platforms are also open to co-commissioning together with a broadcaster.” The company is currently working on 100% Wolf– Legend of the Moonstone, a co-pro between its Flying Bark Productions and ABC Australia and Super RTL. The influence of digital—on genre, marketing, creative concepts, formats and financing—is touching every corner of the industry. “There is no longer a simply defined traditional free-to-air/pay-TV path,” says Mondo TV’s Fois.

“Content creators, producers and distributors now need to establish a ‘holistic’ strategy. That is where we expect to find real synergies—and great opportunities!”

TEAM SPIRIT

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Distribution

A

By Mansha Daswani

From left: Genevieve Dexter, Andy Heyward, Josh Scherba and Anna Carugati.

mid rapid-fire changes in kids’ consumption habits, distributors are evolving their business models. At MIPJunior last October, Genius Brands International’s Andy Heyward, WildBrain’s Josh Scherba and Serious Lunch and Eye Present’s Genevieve Dexter weighed in on how their companies are navigating the kids’ market today, in conversation with World Screen’s Anna Carugati.

Carugati, group editorial director at World Screen, opened the session by asking the panelists how streaming platforms have changed the kids’ business.

Heyward, chairman and CEO of Genius Brands International, noted, “All the new and emerging technologies coming forth, like streaming, are increasingly important. Every kid is an early adopter of these new technologies.”

Scherba, president of WildBrain (the recently rebranded DHX Media), added, “Streaming services taking kids seriously has been a really important factor in the industry. They’re putting more resources into kids than we’ve ever seen in the history of kids’ content. It’s more opportunities to make great content. There are challenges that go along with that, but [nevertheless] the industry is healthier than it’s ever been.”

Dexter, founder and CEO of the distribution outfit Serious Lunch and production company Eye Present, noted that whenever new players arrive in the business, “it’s a period of

bonanza. As those services settle in, then the business does become more and more difficult to work with—certainly as a distributor.”

Carugati asked the execs if the needs of streamers are different from those of linear broadcasters. “There are differences,” Scherba said. “It all starts from a great story and characters, but streaming services have been taking more chances around serialization, knowing that their viewers tend to binge. Linear networks are trying to hold onto ratings, so they want to be as broad as they possibly can. So they tend to want to see more gender-neutral, not too boy- or girl-skewed—those are chances that are easier for the streamers to take.”

SCREEN TIME Serious Lunch’s Dexter pointed out that on streaming platforms like Netflix, a show’s promo image “needs to immediately arrest you. That little square travels across the screen and you’ve got to want to grab it. That’s quite different from some of the national broadcasters.”

Heyward added that more and more kids are watching content on their handheld devices: “That’s a very important area that we need to be mindful of today.”

“Kids don’t decipher between platforms,” Scherba added.

“They can go between platforms seamlessly. That’s why we’re big believers that when you’re looking to establish a brand, you have to be on all these platforms. It’s great that you’re making

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n Shifts premium content for a streaming service, but if a kid is watching Netflix and is then going to go to YouTube, if you don’t have something there that has a connection to that brand, you’re missing an opportunity, and they move on to something else.”

The conversation then moved to how distribution companies make the decision to take a global streaming deal or opt to roll a show out market by market. Dexter used as an example Best & Bester, where “the licensing and merchandising potential and particularly the gaming potential were paramount. We wouldn’t necessarily achieve that on a streamer. So we’ve targeted a global pay-TV network, and we can do the streaming deals and free TV after that. The terms being demanded by Netflix now and the incompatibility with the other networks means that if you’ve got L&M, it’s going to be hard if you’re just on a streamer.”

Heyward agreed, adding, “If you have a need for the licensing and merchandising to make the property viable today, it’s much harder to do so on a streaming service.”

BRAND MATTERS Scherba said, “I think there will continue to be innovative ways to work with streaming services in terms of building brands, but it’s situational. The opportunity that Apple TV+ presented to us with Peanuts content is we knew it was going to be a major service launch, we’d be part of the global marketing, so that made perfect sense. Each situation has its own merits.”

Dexter added that digital platforms often don’t want to commission third, fourth or fifth seasons of shows, “they want new stuff which will drive subscriptions. That is also a challenge. It’s yet to be seen if, for kids, they’ll commit to a brand over the long term.”

The discussion then moved to windowing. Dexter spoke about her experience introducing the Netflix original The New Legends of Monkey to linear broadcasters. “I had a meeting with a German broadcaster who said, ‘If it [falls under the] European content quota, then we put up with just having catch-up on a rolling five basis—five episodes up at any one time.

But if it’s not European, we won’t put up with it.’ Other broadcasters say, ‘SVOD is fine but not Netflix! We see them as our biggest competitor. When HBO Max and others launch, we’ll be more relaxed because the situation won’t be so polarized.’”

Heyward added, “The sequencing and chronology are in part dependent on how much a particular buyer wants that show. If they want it, they’ll let the rules go away. In the past, it was very clear: over the air broadcast, cable and satellite, syndication, whatever it was. That was a very strict way of rolling out shows. Today there are no rules.”

“You could argue,” Scherba added, “that in kids’ television, always-on is actually the best approach. Platforms that are more willing to experiment with always-on strategies are going to win.”

In the U.S., Serious Lunch is licensing Operation Ouch! to all of the AVOD platforms “in order to drive the brand,” said Dexter.

The slew of new platforms launching in the on-demand space present “more opportunities for great original content,” Scherba said. “It continues to speak to fragmentation in the market. And how you get around that is by having known IP, taking creative risks and then working with more than one

platform, finding innovative ways to support your show on YouTube and not just put it up on an SVOD service and hope it gets discovered.”

“The pie is divided into so many slivers,” Heyward added.

“The ability of one service to really get a big audience is so hard today. You have to be on multiple platforms. You have to be advertising your brand, promoting it in all kinds of ways, you have to have a YouTube presence.”

Dexter added that she’s heard from linear broadcasters that they are concentrating on “experiential connections with their programming—they can be on the ground with roadshows.

Experiential is also a real driver behind sales of publishing and toys. That is something the streamers can’t do. They can’t be on the ground in the kids’ lives.”

Scherba noted that kids don’t have great memory skills: “Linear television always did an amazing job of reminding kids what they love. And as linear gets more fragmented, that’s harder to do. SVOD hasn’t figured out a way to do that yet, because they drop ten episodes and then wait a year to get more episodes. Our job as producers and distributors is to find innovative ways to remind kids and bring them back to the shows they’ve fallen in love with.”

GOT TALENT? The conversation then moved to talent relationships. “The most important A-list talent you can have is the writer,” Heyward said.

“Those words, when spoken, have to be better than words that are on the other channels. I always look for the writers—I look at what they read, what their history is. At the end of the day, the technologies evolve, but we’re still telling stories. It goes back forever. We have to have better stories, better words, better characters, complexity, crisis, jeopardy, stakes, all of those tools.”

For Dexter, a big concern is Brexit, as many of those employed at her production studio are from outside of the U.K. In North America, meanwhile, Scherba said that Disney and Netflix “have done more overall deals with creatives than the kids’ industry has ever seen. But if you present the right opportunity and give the right amount of freedom and great IP to work on, that’s a big calling card.”

On financing, the panelists noted that partnerships remain paramount. Heyward said, “It’s almost impossible to find one broadcaster or party that will pay for the entire cost of production. You need to find multiple sources. It might not be a co-production, it might be a combination of a licensing partner in some form, a publisher, but you have to. Otherwise, you absorb too much risk.”

“For me, if it’s not a co-pro, I’m not happy,” Dexter quipped.

“I’m launching a show here which was a co-pro between Netflix and ABC originally. On the second season, ABC couldn’t come in. Now on the third season, we’re looking for new partners to marry the streamer and linear rights requirements.”

Scherba added, “Co-production is important, but there is this other model where streaming services are paying full freight and taking global rights. That comes with pros and cons because you’re left with fewer rights on the distribution side and less control.”

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TV KIDS: How did you become involved in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series?

FEDERLE: Disney knew they had this [wildly successful] franchise, and with Disney+ launching, they knew they wanted to reinvent it and bring it to a new audience but didn’t quite know how to do that. I went in and pitched this take, which was to follow a group of kids who are putting on a production of High School Musical as a musical at East High. They bought the pitch, and we started from there.

TV KIDS: How does it pay homage to the original while also delivering something fresh?

FEDERLE: With ten episodes, the opportunity you have is to introduce new characters and go deeper into their backstories. High School Musical had this amazing soundtrack with songs like “We’re All in This Together,” “When There Was Me and You” and “Bop to the Top”—it was the soundtrack of a generation! One of the ways we differentiate ourselves [in this series] is that every episode has a song from the movie sung in a new way and then a brand-new song—whether it’s a character like Nini posting a song on Instagram or a duet between two characters that might surprisingly take place outside of a bowling alley.

TV KIDS: Given the success of the franchise, why do you think it took this long to have a spin-off series, and why is now the right time?

FEDERLE: Those three original movies were so huge that the intuitive thing would be to do a fourth. At a certain

Tim Federle High School Musical

By Kristin Brzoznowski

he first tween franchise to become a multibilliondollar property, High School Musical skyrocketed into the cultural zeitgeist with its Disney Channel debut more than 13 years ago. The TV movie had more than 290 million global viewers, while High School Musical 2 drew 297 million viewers globally, and High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which was released theatrically, made more than $250 million at the global box office. Created for Disney+, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series offers a fresh take, with all-new original songs and characters. The mockumentary-style show follows a group of teenage theater enthusiasts who participate in a staging of High School Musical: The Musical. Tim Federle, creator and showrunner of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, talks to TV Kids about paying homage to the original franchise while delivering a new spin.

T

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point, it had been so many years, beyond a decade, that I don’t think the likelihood of getting the entire original cast back was very high. We wanted to reinvent the format. For anyone who has a Glee-sized hole in their heart, it fills the niche of a musical show, which there aren’t a lot of on right now.

TV KIDS: How did you try to balance attracting a new demographic of viewers with satisfying fans of the original?

FEDERLE: I see the audience as being anyone who wants a half-hour escape once a week and anyone who loves musicals and knows that as corny as musicals can be, they can also take you to a place that nothing else can because of the power of music. Looking at a nostalgia factor, I absolutely expect that a certain number of people who love the original will tune in just to see what the

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TV KIDS: Did it come as a vote of confidence that the series was picked up for a second season before it even debuted?

FEDERLE: It’s really exciting! We’re already back in the writers’ room. It’s the best job ever to never catch my breath. The only reason shows have long lives is because of characters whose journeys you ultimately want to go on. Beyond the initial hook, which is this meta mockumentary that’s selfreferential, I think people will fall for all of the characters. I truly believe that in a couple of years, the characters (and the actors!) will be household names. I have a ton of ideas up my sleeve for season two. I also have seasons three, four and five planned. [Laughs]

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series was part of the launch slate of the brand-new Disney+ streaming service.

heck we did with it. At a certain point, though, nostalgia runs low; you can run out of gas quickly. So inventing an entirely new set of characters, having new songs and diverging away from the original High School Musical is the way that we stay on the air for multiple seasons.

TV KIDS: The first episode debuted on linear TV along with Disney+. What did it mean to you that this would be part of the launch slate for the brand-new streaming service?

FEDERLE: As a writer and creator, there’s nothing quite like the power of the Disney brand. To have the opportunity to reach the ABC household, the Freeform household and the Disney household, as well as the Disney+ household, is remarkable. This may be the only time in my entire career that I get to launch a platform. It’s us and The Mandalorian and [some other] really exciting shows! It’s an honor, but it’s also a little daunting. One of the great things about shooting in a place like Salt Lake City is that while it’s a town full of very talented people and a great crew, it’s not a Hollywood town. We got to go into the trenches, make this thing, forget about the outside world and now we get to show it off on Disney+. It’s really exciting—and only 25 percent terrifying.

TV KIDS: Did you find a certain level of freedom in writing for a streaming platform?

FEDERLE: What’s remarkable about streaming is that I have a half-hour comedy show and it can go from 22 minutes to 35 minutes. Most of my episodes are 28 to 31 minutes.

With streaming, you’re allowed to tell the best story you can tell without worrying about a cut to commercial. There are other advantages too, like Instagram is name-checked in the show and because we don’t have specific sponsors, we can actually show that interface. As a storyteller, it means that I’m telling more authentic stories. It’s been a dream. It’s a huge platform for me to launch my TV career; I feel incredibly lucky.

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TV KIDS: Why was it important to use original songs?

FEDERLE: Music is everything! I grew up as a musicaltheater kid. I was chosen last for dodge ball and everything that got me picked on in middle school gets me paid now. Music allows you to put headphones on and transport; suddenly you are Beyoncé in that music video, thinking, If Beyoncé can run the world, maybe I can at least walk down this hallway in school and run it. Music allows people to try on a persona that they’re not ready to be yet. It’s the same thing that theater does; it allows you to play a character who knows how to use their voice because the lines are already written. That is the magic of theater.

We have nine original songs in the first season. One of them was written by our 16-year-old star Olivia Rodrigo.

She wrote a duet with Joshua Bassett, who’s now 19. I only had to look as far as the person two feet to my right who was posting songs on Instagram she wrote in her own life to realize that talent is everywhere. The most important thing an adult can do with a young person is to teach them not to have any limits. If you don’t teach them that there are limits, they act unlimited.

TV KIDS: How hands-on are you with the writing, producing and overall behind-the-scenes work on the series?

FEDERLE: Showrunning is not about having all the answers; it’s about hiring a group that you trust and then allowing them to thrive. The job is everything from approving a costume to approving a hairstyle to casting the show to collaborating and prepping episodes with directors to sitting with the editor to say, “If you cut three frames off of that, the joke will land harder” to envisioning the entire season. While I ultimately get to take the final bow, there are 150 people from hair and makeup who set the tone with the cast every single day.

They are just as important to me as the writers’ room that I have full of incredibly talented storytellers who can tell stories more diversely than I can as a white male who’s born with an inherent privilege that I have to own. I have to lift up voices around me that aren’t always heard. It’s a job where you have to trust your own gut but remain incredibly flexible to everything from network notes from Disney+ to studio notes from Disney Channel to notes from my young actors who have opinions on every line I write. It’s the dream job! You never get to sleep, but why would you want to?

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superhero. A lot of shows about teenage superheroes go with the typical superhero story—who’s the bad guy, what are they doing wrong, what do you need to save the day— and then look at how a teenager would do it. This show is a bit the opposite; we start with, what’s a story typical of teenagers, life lessons and coming-of-age stories, and then put a super spin on that.

TV KIDS: How did the series come about?

FAUST: In 2012, I produced and directed a series for Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block called Super Best Friends Forever, which featured Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Girl.

Those shorts performed pretty well, and we tried to develop it as a TV show, but couldn’t quite find any footing for it at that time. DC went on to make a show called DC Super Hero Girls. It came swinging back at me several years later that they were interested in a reboot of DC Super Hero Girls and wanted to go back to the tone, humor and characterizations that I had set up in Super Best Friends Forever.

TV KIDS: How did you approach this as a ground-up reboot?

FAUST: The first version of DC Super Hero Girls was about teenage characters going to a high school to learn how to be superheroes. They didn’t have secret identities, and even the characters we know as villains—like Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn—were good guys. I felt like that was taking some of the fun out of what we all love about superheroes. So, for this version, one thing I wanted to bring back was the idea of secret identities. The girls have a regular teenage life, they go to a regular school, and they are superheroes at night when they need to fight crimes. And they really do fight crimes!

Lauren Faust DC Super Hero Girls

By Kristin Brzoznowski

F

eaturing iconic characters such as Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl, DC Super Hero Girls presents an ultra-modern and empowering take on the high school experience through the lens of its young female superheroes.

The animated series, developed by Lauren Faust and produced

by Warner Bros. Animation for Cartoon Network, is packed with action and comedy, and its stories emphasize the message of girl power. Faust tells TV Kids about crafting a show that resonates with girls but is also inclusive of boys.

TV KIDS: Give us the pitch for DC Super Hero Girls. What’s at the core of the series?

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TV KIDS: How do you balance the show being empowering for girls but also appealing to boys?

FAUST: What resonates with girls is the relatability. We worked really hard to make these characters have something about them that a girl can see in themselves. When I worked on The Powerpuff Girls, we had an even greater boy audience than girl audience because we had fighting.

So, in this show, our teenage superheroes have teenage villains that they fight as well. And we do not hold back!

The action and having real stakes when it comes to the fights and hero situations that they’re in draws boys in a way similar to Powerpuff Girls.

Along with the action and relatable characters, we have humor. It invites boys in and makes them comfortable watching a “girls’ show.”

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