TV Kids NATPE Budapest & Licensing Expo 2016

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TVKIDS

WWW.TVKIDS.WS

JUNE /JULY 2016

LICENSING EXPO & NATPE BUDAPEST EDITION

L&M Trends / Mattel’s Richard Dickson / m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef Mondo TV’s Matteo Corradi / Studio 100 Media’s Patrick Elmendorff

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CONTENTS

Meaningful Connections

FEATURES 10 I WANT THAT! Leading content rights owners share their strategies for building kids’ brands in a crowded and fragmented market.

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The internet erupted with #LOLs over a viral video of a woman giddy with her newly purchased Star Wars Chewbacca mask, and the licensors are laughing all the way to the bank.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Managing Editor Sara Alessi Joel Marino Associate Editors Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh Sales & Marketing Manager Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Kids © 2016 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws

The clip, streamed live from her car outside a department store, has racked up more than 140 million views, making it the most watched Facebook Live video ever.

More impressive, though, is what the post did for interest in the licensed product. The Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens Chewbacca Electronic Mask by Hasbro quickly sold out at major U.S. retailers such as Kohl’s, Target, Walmart and Toys“R”Us. Eager shoppers also went looking on online outlets such as Amazon and eBay, where some are now selling the mask (which retails for around $20 to $30) for as much as $299.95.

Perhaps what ignited the firestorm of interest was the genuine, heartfelt delight the video showed (the post was titled “It’s the simple joys in life...”). This connection that a person feels with a product associated with one of their favorite movies, TV shows or entertainment brands is something that many others can (and did) relate to. Those working in the children’s licensing and merchandising (L&M) business are well aware of the importance of this meaningful relationship.

The extension of beloved brands for little ones with plush toys, action figures, games, apparel and more will be top of mind for many of the attendees at this year’s Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. Last year’s event saw more than 5,000 brands and properties represented, with a good number of them hailing from the kids’ television sector.

It’s no secret that once a child has a favorite show, they want to continue to connect and engage with those characters, even when they’re not watching TV. In this issue of TV Kids, Mansha Daswani explores the strategies for turning kids’ shows into successful L&M properties. The edition also contains an interview with Richard Dickson, the president and COO of Mattel, which is home to a slew of iconic brands, including the beloved Barbie. In addition to a profile of ZDF Enterprises’s kids’ and family highlights, m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef, Mondo TV’s Matteo Corradi and Studio 100 Media’s Patrick Elmendorff share with us the latest news about their respective companies. Common among these producers and distributors is the ethos that creating good content is key, and so is ensuring that IP will connect with viewers far beyond the TV screen.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

16 KIDDING AROUND Fred Burcksen, the executive VP and COO of ZDF Enterprises, talks about the company’s children’s and family highlights.

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INTERVIEWS 15

Mattel’s Richard Dickson

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m4e’s Hans Ulrich Stoef

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Mondo TV’s Matteo Corradi

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Studio 100 Media’s Patrick Elmendorff

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m4e Mia and me / Wissper / Sherazade: The Untold Stories As Mia and me’s linear presence continues to grow, m4e is also looking to expand the property in the L&M space. “This brand has already proven its marketability, and we are looking into extending the licensing program into the North and South American markets,” says Peter Kleinschmidt, m4e’s senior VP of group marketing and brand management. Also a priority in the licensing arena is Wissper. “The foundation is already laid; after signing with Nick Jr. for the U.S. broadcast, we are coming to Licensing Expo to talk to possible agents for the North American market, as well as LatAm—and, of course, to meet with possible toy partners and potential licensees for those markets,” Kleinschmidt says. It’s still early days for Sherazade: The Untold Stories, which is in production, but conversations about licensing are under way.

“The successful original series Mia and me was extended with 26 new episodes in season two in 2015, flanked by many new products on shelves.”

—Peter Kleinschmidt Mia and me

Mercis BV Miffy Mercis BV owns the global rights for the book-based property Miffy, which inspired the new CGI animated series Miffy’s Adventures Big and Small. Regarding how the company has updated its L&M strategy for the show’s launch, Marja Kerkhof, Mercis’s managing director, says, “We still continue with the 2D style for some products. For other products, we have a whole new style guide for the TV series.” In the digital space, Kerkhof says the company is pursuing opportunities with games and apps. “The world is very large, and though we are active in quite a lot of countries, there are still countries where we’re not as active—obviously, we’re looking at that,” Kerkhof adds about the company’s goals for Licensing Expo. The Miffy brand has 250-plus licensees worldwide, covering books, theme parks, musicals, exhibitions and much more.

“For Licensing Expo, [we] find it very inspiring to see all our agents again and to learn from each other about what we do in different countries.”

—Marja Kerkhof Miffy’s Adventures Big and Small

Mondo TV YooHoo & Friends / Cuby Zoo / Sissi, the Young Empress Mondo TV is working with co-production partner Aurora World to introduce YooHoo & Friends and Cuby Zoo to the international market at Licensing Expo. Another focus will be Sissi, the Young Empress, which already has a presence in Europe.

“Mondo TV is proud to take this success overseas and is working with local agent Lawless Entertainment to strengthen the consumer-products program,” says Guido Bertè, the general manager of Mondo TV Consumer Products. A number of licensing categories are already in place, including stationery and apparel. “Our aim is to continue to build the Italian and international consumer-product program, and we will also be liaising with key partners to drive the brand further in 2017 and 2018 through events and activities,” adds Valentina La Macchia, the director of Mondo TV Consumer Products.

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Sissi, the Young Empress

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Serious Lunch Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter / Horrible Science /Art Ninja The book-based property Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter is one of Serious Lunch’s highlights. “Ronja has a big publishing program planned for 2017 and a limited range of product in Japan and Sweden, which our client the Astrid Lindgren Company would like to extend into other territories,” says Genevieve Dexter, the founder and CEO of Serious Lunch. The 26-part series from Studio Ghibli and the Astrid Lindgren Company won an International Emmy Kids Award this year for best animation. Another book-based property from Serious Lunch is the scripted comedy Horrible Science, starring Ben Miller. There is also Art Ninja, which encourages kids to experiment with modern art techniques. The company’s catalog features new seasons of both Horrible Science and Art Ninja.

“These are very well-known brands in many territories.”

—Genevieve Dexter Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter

Studio 100 Media Maya the Bee / Heidi / K3 Toys and publishing are currently the top categories for Maya the Bee and Heidi, both of which are being presented by Studio 100 Media at Licensing Expo. “Maya and Heidi are properties tailored for L&M exploitation,” says Christophe Drevet, the company’s international consumer products director. “Broadcast in more than 140 countries, both brands are known worldwide. Not only do kids show a strong affection for those brands, they also benefit from a full endorsement [from parents].” Drevet notes his desire to bolster the textile and liveentertainment categories for Maya and says Heidi would benefit from increased activity in the textile and fast-moving consumer goods spaces. Studio 100 is also showcasing the girlskewing property K3. The company will also be at NATPE Budapest talking to CEE buyers about these properties.

“Studio 100 will take advantage of Licensing Expo to highlight the preschool property Maya the Bee, Heidi and its girls’ brand K3.”

—Christophe Drevet Heidi

ZDF Enterprises Scream Street / Wolfblood Among the kids’ highlights on ZDF Enterprises’s (ZDFE) slate is the stop-motion-animation series Scream Street.

The book-based program follows Luke Watson, a regular kid who happens to have the werewolf gene. Wolfblood, meanwhile, is a live-action series about a teen who is neither fully wolf nor completely human and must learn to live with her super speed, strength and senses. Another title from the ZDFE.junior catalog is Dance Academy, which targets teen and tween audiences. “It is very difficult to touch that group, but Dance Academy has worked very well for us,” says Fred Burcksen, the executive VP and COO of ZDFE. For the younger set, there are preschool shows such as Coconut, the Little Dragon. ZDFE is heading to NATPE Budapest and Licensing Expo.

“We’ve done amazing things on a global scale, and everybody knows our brands.”

—Fred Burcksen Wolfblood 58 WORLD SCREEN 6/16

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Mansha Daswani surveys brands in a crowded and mericans spent almost $20 billion on toys last year, a nearly 7-percent increase on how much they shelled out in 2014. The key driver for that boost? Content. Whether movies, TV shows, apps or YouTube channels, content-based properties continue to propel the market.

The list of last year’s top-selling traditional toy items, compiled by NPD Group, reflects an interesting new development in the licensing space, at least as far as TV rights owners are concerned. The biggest seller wasn’t something inspired by PAW Patrol or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (although both are in the top ten), or even the mega franchise Star Wars (also on the list). It was a set of collectibles for Shopkins, a brand that just hit the market in 2014; as of January of this year, more than 240 million characters had been sold worldwide.

There’s no Shopkins film or TV series (yet?)—but there are videos, lots of them, on YouTube and fan sites, and they had logged more than 900 million views as of this January.

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MAKING A HIT The good news is, in an ultra-crowded and competitive market, it is still possible to come out of nowhere with a brand and set off a buying frenzy. Less comforting? The market is shifting dramatically, and changes in kids’ consumption habits and the media landscape could present a whole new set of opportunities, or woes, for the industry.

“Consumers still demand great stories and when they find one they like they will consume it ferociously—the rise in binge-watching is a testament to this,” observes Rick Glankler, the president and general manager of FremantleMedia Kids & Family (FMK). “But with so much platform fragmentation and content saturation, the stories have to be really good and highly original if they are going to stand out and drive deeper brand engagement, which is what drives successful consumer-products programs. In addition, the plethora of blockbuster theatrical releases that have become sustainable franchises has further saturated an already congested market and, with their massive investment, eaten into an area that was traditionally dominated by broadcast—even in preschool. This broad choice is great for consumers, but continues to pose massive challenges for IP owners and licensors competing to reach kid audiences.”

As Glankler notes, engagement is the key word—if a child doesn’t feel an attachment to your characters, they won’t be interested in urging Mom and Dad to buy the toys, apparel and more. Television (or OTT) success is just stage one, however, in building a long-term brand. And retailers are looking for a lot more than strong viewing figures when they’re determining what to put on their shelves.

Products from Mercis’s Miffy.

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some leading content rights owners about building kids’ fragmented marketplace.

“While still critically important, ratings are no longer the single most important driver for securing shelf space,” Glankler says. “Retailers are looking to see how brands engage with kids off- and on-screen and are relying more and more on IP owners and licensors to invest heavily in marketing their brands.”

Cristiana Buzzelli, the senior VP of licensing and acquisitions at Italy’s Rainbow, has a similar perspective. “The scenario for girls’ IP is very competitive, so good broadcasting is crucial but no longer enough to ensure the success of the franchise.

You need to appeal to the audience and hit them with strong identification power that can really tie kids to the brand in a unique way. Then, product-wise, the creative assets to be provided to licensees have to be great.”

For the veteran brand Miffy, which originated in children’s books by Dutch author Dick Bruna more than 60 years ago, the key has been keeping the product line fresh. “We’ve had licensees for 50, 60 years—some have been with us the entire time, which is amazing!” says Marja Kerkhof, the managing director of Miffy’s brand-owner, Mercis. “Also, there are always new parties to work with, especially in apparel. We are primarily a preschool character, but we have a big program with Uniqlo for tween and teen t-shirts.”

Mercis has product lines built around the original 2D images of the little rabbit, as well as a style guide for the 3D Miffy from the new series, Miffy’s Adventures Big and Small.

“We make a trend book every year and we keep it updated,” Kerkhof says. “Also, we have projects that are very different.

In some countries we have programs with athletics clubs for young kids to exercise. We have art projects. We have exhibitions in museums. There are always new initiatives.”

Zorro the Chronicles, meanwhile, is just beginning its global rollout following its international launch at MIPJunior 2015.

Partners on board include Hachette for publishing in France and French-speaking countries and Swatch for a Flik Flak watch. Discussions with toy licensees are under way.

At Licensing Expo, Rainbow will be focusing on its new animated series Regal Academy, aimed at girls 4 to 7, and the liveaction kids’ and tween show Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends.

Buzzelli says that “Regal Academy is a very toyetic show, where great storytelling is developed alongside appealing play patterns based on role-play concepts, collectability (thanks to the main and secondary characters) and different outfits for the characters.” Key categories include toys, back to school, stationery, gifts, fashion accessories and publishing. Giochi Preziosi has signed a pan-European master toy deal.

“Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends is driven by two of the most appealing elements for the audience: music and fashion,” Buzzelli continues. “Simba, which is already the European master toy partner, is exploiting the great potential of the show with a product line based on arts and crafts, musical toys, role play [and] fashion accessories.”

For FMK, three shows will take center stage at Licensing Expo: Kate & Mim-Mim, Danger Mouse and Tree Fu Tom. For Kate & Mim-Mim, FMK has toys, publishing, digital and apparel covered in the U.S. “We are looking at signing additional secondary categories, including bedding and bath, seasonal, activity and party goods,” Glankler says. Danger Mouse toys rolled out in the brand’s launch market of the U.K. this spring. Other key categories will be launching this fall. For Tree Fu Tom, meanwhile, toys are on shelves in Australia and are rolling out in the U.K. and other markets this year.

SKEWING THE SKUS The key for brand owners is having a diverse mix of products.

Cyber Group Studios, for example, has already amassed some 50 licensees for its flagship preschool brand Zou, which is broadcast in 150 territories.

Alexandra Algard, the international licensing and marketing director at the Paris-based company, says that books and DVDs have been the strongest performers so far. “In France, we have a huge partnership with Larousse for books,” she says.

“We have also developed a program in Italy with key publishers.” In the U.S., meanwhile, the company partnered with fastfood outlet Chick-fil-A on a promotion where Zou books were featured as part of kids’ meals.

With a third season currently in production, Zou is a well-established property, although Algard notes that the brand’s market awareness is not at the same level in every territory. “For example, we’re just starting to launch a licensing program in the U.K. and in Spain.”

CLASSIC COMEBACK DHX Brands’s main focus for Licensing Expo is the new Teletubbies. “The original was an absolute phenomenon for L&M,” states Tom Roe, the commercial director at DHX Brands.

“The characters are very appealing—cuddly, bright and colorful—and resonate strongly with a young preschool audience. So when DHX Media acquired Teletubbies, it was decided our focus for the new series would always be about not losing their core appeal: it’s evolution rather than revolution, updating them and modernizing them for a 21st century audience. ” Initial merchandise results have been strong so far in the U.K., and Roe is keen to replicate that success in other markets, particularly in the U.S., where the company is working with CPLG North America. Partnerships have already been signed with Spin Master for toys, VTech for interactive electronic toys and Hybrid for apparel, “as well as stacks of other best-in-class licensees,” Roe says. “We’re still working on other categories, up to and 6/16 WORLD SCREEN 61

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during the Licensing Expo, and there are very few we won’t look at for Teletubbies, given the wide appeal.”

Roe says that for DHX, building Teletubbies as a “long-term proposition” is paramount. “Teletubbies is a unique property in that it’s new but it also has a heritage. As a result, the opportunity is there to accelerate the time frame if we choose. Normally we’d like to get the broadcast launch, building the popularity and awareness first. We have a new audience, so it’s about making sure we introduce the property to a new generation and really seed it well, making sure people pick up on it and fall in love with it, and then we launch toys. Going too quickly in terms of launching products and categories after broadcast is definitely a way to increase the risk of having a shorter-term piece of business overall.”

Developing a mutually beneficial relationship with retailers —especially the big ones—is crucial. “They’re going to make a significant difference to the awareness and revenue performance” of your property, Roe says. “One of the major frustrations for a lot of retailers is that they’re going into a competitor’s store and seeing pretty much exactly the same product being offered.” The key, he explains, is “coming up with tailor-made solutions for these retailers, rather than simply offering the same or similar solutions to everyone.”

FMK’s Glankler notes the development of opportunities outside of the big-box retailers. “The independent toy chains in the U.K. continue to grow year on year and are becoming an essential part of the retail mix,” he says. “Retailers are also becoming more savvy about the need to drive footfall by offering more immersive in-store retail experiences, which provide great opportunities for us with character costume tours and similar initiatives that help expand brand engagement.”

Another expanding area is the digital space, where e-books, games and apps are providing a wealth of opportunities.

“For our preschool properties, the world of apps and mobile games is huge,” DHX’s Roe notes.

DIGITAL DOMAIN FMK’s Glankler says that “online is the single most important destination for moms to find out more about the content their kids love, and kids are the first to adopt new technology. Once we have that digital engagement in place, and it’s still early days for some of our brands, we can then look at ways to drive commercial revenue. In terms of commercial revenue, apps are a key focus area, but platforms like YouTube also provide us with an opportunity to seed our own content and to generate revenue.”

Of course, the games and apps landscape is crowded, so gaining awareness for your properties can be a significant challenge.

“We launched Zou in the digital market and made an app and two e-books,” Cyber Group’s Algard says. “We supported the launch with a lot of marketing aspects. We partnered with broadcasters in order to promote the app. We made a lot of deals with distributors. It’s a challenge to be on the top of that market, but we succeeded.”

Mercis, too, found innovative ways to promote its digital assets. “There are various ways to present them and incorporate them, for example in preschool activities with kindergartens,” Kerkhof says.

For DHX’s Roe, “It comes down to consumer feedback: people look at the ratings. If you come out with a quality product and it gets picked up early and you start to get those ratings, then it can snowball. It’s the consumer-driven endorsement that really helps.”

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Mattel’s Richard Dickson with World Screen’s Anna Carugati.

Mattel is home to a slew of beloved and iconic brands, from Barbie and Hot Wheels to Thomas & Friends and Polly Pocket. The challenge for Mattel is to continue to create toys that kids will love while also extending characters and stories to all the digital platforms children are flocking to today. Richard Dickson, Mattel’s president and COO, gave a keynote speech at MIPTV this year and then sat down for a conversation with World Screen’s group editorial director, Anna Carugati, to talk about reaching young ones wherever they are and about Barbie’s exciting new evolution.

TV KIDS: How is Mattel providing beloved brands and characters on digital platforms and portable devices?

DICKSON: Kids are the early adopters. They’re incredibly savvy in the context of today’s world and technology. It’s important for a company like ours, which is about traditional play, to integrate our content into storytelling on digital [media]. Any brand today needs to be where their consumers are. And the consumers are everywhere; they are platform-agnostic. Parents know there’s the beauty and the beast of technology: it’s incredibly engaging, exciting and creative, and at the same time it’s also concerning. We’re at an interesting place where we have to value open-ended play and spark kids’ imaginations with our toys— and at the same time, we’ve got to be on [multiple] screens, we’ve got to be telling compelling stories. We think about it as one holistic approach to engaging our consumer.

TV KIDS: What was the thinking behind creating different body shapes for Barbie?

DICKSON: There’s a lot of secret sauce behind the Barbie brand, and it’s an incredibly exciting time for us with the brand as well.

But make no doubt about it: it’s very difficult to keep an 11-anda-half-inch fashion doll relevant for 57 years. Part of Barbie’s history is she was always a perfect reflection of what was happening in fashion and pop culture. Barbie was the first astronaut and the first president. We tried to [inspire] girls to [believe that] through their imagination and drive they could be anything.

What we’ve done today isn’t necessarily so brilliant, it’s just embracing the DNA of the brand and looking at the history of it and saying, What makes Barbie relevant today? Today girls are growing up believing that they can be anything. And Barbie needs to start to look like women look today. Kids are looking at multicultural ethnicities and [women of different] sizes. Part of Barbie’s evolution was in terms of what girls look at and aspire to today. I think as we move forward with the brand, it’s not only going to be about inspiring girls—and boys, by the way—to imagine that they can be anything. We’ll start to think about, What can they do with the power of their imaginations?

How can they change the world in the context of engaging social media? Does Barbie become a conduit in terms of messaging and help kids not only imagine what they can be but ultimately help them accomplish what they can do? That’s an exciting new chapter I think you’ll hear about as the brand moves forward.

TV KIDS: Do you have a message for international content creators who may want to work with Mattel?

DICKSON: We’re not shy, and we certainly can’t do what we do on our own. I think those days are long gone at Mattel. We are embracing creativity not only in our house but with open arms out in the community. One of our most important strategic goals is to be best-in-class partners, and that doesn’t mean just the output, it also means the input. So we’re wildly welcoming new ideas, new thought-processes, and leveraging talent out there to continue to build our legendary portfolio. It may be working on one of our brands, or it might be inventing a whole new brand. The capabilities that we have as a company are largely untapped. What we can do at Mattel with the resources that we have and the instant connection from a global perspective with distribution and content, marketing and media and product development—it’s astounding. So the message that I would have [for international content creators] is: we’re in business, and we’ve got some amazing talent.

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ZDF Enterprises’s Coconut, the Little Dragon.

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Fred Burcksen, the executive VP and COO of ZDF Enterprises, tells TV Kids about the company’s children’s and family highlights. By Anna Carugati omething for everyone is very much the motto behind ZDF Enterprises’s ZDFE.junior catalogue.

The commercial arm of the German public broadcaster ZDF believes in having children’s and youth programming for all different kinds of television outlets and all ages and tastes.

ZDFE.junior, in fact, offers animation and live-action series for everyone from preschoolers to teens, and children’s programming remains a fundamental component of the larger ZDFE catalogue. “It is important and has been important over the last decades,” says Fred Burcksen, the executive VP and COO of ZDF Enterprises.

ZDF has invested in several aspects of the children’s business.

“We have a very strong editorial department within the network,” continues Burcksen. “We have a children’s channel called KiKA in which we are a fifty-fifty partner with ARD, and with our expertise at ZDF Enterprises we have done amazing things on a global scale.

“Everybody knows our brands,” he adds. He cites the liveaction series H2O: Just Add Water and Mako Mermaids. From Jonathan M. Shiff Productions in Australia, both are about teenage girls who are mermaids. Mako Mermaids was picked up by Netflix for its global footprint, as was the animated spinoff H2O: Mermaid Adventures, from Les Cartooneurs Associés and Fantasia Animation.

Another well-known brand is Wolfblood, a live-action series about a teen girl who is neither completely human nor completely wolf, but has super speed, strength and senses and must learn to deal with these powers. “We have just finished the

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fourth season of Wolfblood, and other big things are coming up,” says Burcksen.

ZDFE has had success with its programming aimed at teenagers, a group that’s hard to please. One such series is Dance Academy, of which three seasons have been produced in Australia with Joanna Werner of Werner Film Productions.

The series focuses on a 15-year-old Australian girl, raised on a farm, who dreams of becoming a dancer. But when she is accepted at the National Academy of Dance, she quickly realizes how challenging training and surviving the academy will be.

“They are coming-of-age stories, but they deal with issues that are really in between generations, so to speak, not for kids, not for adults, but just in between. It’s very difficult to touch that group, but Dance Academy worked very well for us.”

ZDF Enterprises has an equally rich offering for younger children. One recent series is the animated preschool show Coconut, the Little Dragon, from Caligari Film, based on bestselling books with more than 6 million sold worldwide. Encouraging problem-solving and emphasizing the importance of friendship and tolerance, the series focuses on Coconut and his friends Oscar and Matilda, who find that life doesn’t always prove to be easy on Dragon Island. Another new show for preschoolers is JoNaLu, from Scopas Medien in cooperation with ZDF and ZDF Enterprises.

ZDF Enterprises has a reputation among international broadcasters and production companies as a reliable partner. “We like that, and we need it,” says Burcksen. “We are always open to good ideas and useful cooperation.” And always looking to have something in the catalog for everyone.

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financing. This is our first trial on the live-action side. From time to time there will be more, but it’s not our core discipline.

Our core will remain animation.

TV KIDS: Is there a certain volume you try to maintain for production and development each year?

STOEF: We are not a volume producer. It sounds like we have a large volume because we have so many series in development and shows going on simultaneously. We have 150 episodes in production, but it’s mostly second or third seasons of our existing brands.

We never had a very large development slate before. It takes a long time from [starting with an] idea until you can get it financed and produced, so we need to have a number of quality projects in development to make a long-term plan for the next six to eight years. That’s what’s happening for us right now. We believe more in quality than in quantity.

TV KIDS: What qualities does a property have to have to secure shelf space in the crowded L&M market?

STOEF: Retailers are looking for big brands. It helps if you have a series that’s been adapted from a very well-known book; that at least can open some doors. Retailers are also looking

By Kristin Brzoznowski

Since its inception, m4e has focused on turning children’s and family entertainment IP into fully developed brands, with extensions that go far beyond the TV screen. This includes a robust licensing and merchandising (L&M) business, in addition to the creation, production and distribution of original animated and live-action programming. Hans Ulrich Stoef, the CEO of m4e, tells TV Kids about the company’s current production and development pipeline and shares insight into what retailers are looking for in the competitive L&M space.

TV KIDS: What are some of the current drivers of m4e’s business?

STOEF: Our major brand is Mia and me. We are in the third season, which will be delivered by the end of 2016 or start of 2017. We are already in development on season four and a feature film on top of that.

We came to MIPCOM 2015 with the new preschool show Wissper, which has sold really well for us. We’re very happy to have Nick Jr. in the U.S. on board. We have Discovery Kids as our partner in Latin America, ZDF and KiKA for Germany, CANAL+ in Poland and many others throughout Europe. The commissioning broadcaster on that show is [Channel 5’s] Milkshake!

The latest ratings showed that it’s performing 75-percent above the channel average, which is a phenomenal success.

We are going into a second season on Tip the Mouse, so we’re quite busy!

TV KIDS: Tell us about m4e’s foray into live action.

STOEF: We have a series in development called Me, Mum & Mystery. It’s a family-oriented co-viewing show based on a book that we optioned from Atlantyca IP Agency. During the development process, Atlantyca signed on as a co-producer as well. MIPTV was the first market where we introduced Me, Mum & Mystery to our broadcast partners in order to close the 68 WORLD SCREEN 6/16

for famous brands that are coming from toy companies. On the other side, though, broadcasters don’t like this as much.

They don’t want to just be a gatekeeper for the toys.

The key is to have a good balance between story, brand and digital these days. It’s not enough to just create a TV series based on a book. You need to add more to it in order to really attract [retailers] and the toy aspect needs to come in right from the beginning.

It’s so difficult. Sometimes retailers will say, We want to see something fresh and have a new toy concept. Then you come with something new and fresh and the next day they tell you, We need a pre-promoted brand in order to put you on the shelf. Everybody believes that the [licensing] of existing brands is the safest business, and I would agree. It’s not a guarantee for success, but it is the safest [strategy].

TV KIDS: What areas of the business will you be focusing on in the year ahead?

STOEF: For Mia and me we have many more markets that we’d like to crack. So far it’s doing really well in Italy, Germany, France and some Eastern European territories. Next, we’d like to go into Asia; this is a big priority.

We want to have a successful launch for Wissper. It has only started broadcasting in two territories so far, and we have another 45 territories where it’s been sold and still needs to launch. We will then be coming out with the first licensing and merchandising products in about 12 to 16 months.

We also need to fill the pipeline of projects for the coming years. We need to close the financing [on a number of them].

Coming from Germany, it’s not an easy task! We are not a country with a lot of subsidies and don’t get the necessary tax breaks in order to have a fair competition against other countries. So it takes a little longer [to put the financing together].

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channels from Qatar; and Aurora World Corp., the famous Korean toy company. And we are working with three American companies: Toon Goggles for Eddie Is a Yeti, Lawless Entertainment for Adventures in Duckport and Animagic for Bug Rangers. We are also working with Russian Mobile Television for Cat Leo. So we have an extraordinary world of co-producers, and our business model is very simple: we co-produce with them, we share the costs and the revenues. It is nice because they are happy with our TV distribution and we are happy with their toy distribution.

The business risk is very low because we participate in 27 projects, so we have 27 eggs in our basket—some eggs will be cooked well; some eggs will not! But this is part of the game, and with 27, the risk of big problems for the company is very small.

TV KIDS: And this has worked very well for the company’s market cap?

CORRADI: Exactly. Three years ago our share price was €0.37 ($0.41) and the market cap was around €15 million ($16.7 million). At this moment our share price is around €4.50 ($5) and our market cap, including the two controlled companies that we were able to list in the last three years in France and Switzerland, is around €165 million ($184 million).

By Anna Carugati

Mondo TV is one of Europe’s leading producers and distributors of animated feature films and TV series. The group consists of four companies located in Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland. It owns a library of 1,600 half-hours of TV episodes and 90 TV movies.

Established in 1964 with the aim of importing animation into the Italian market, Mondo TV has branched out through the decades into production and co-production and today is home to such evergreen properties as Puppy in My Pocket, Angel’s Friends and Sissi, the Young Empress. CEO Matteo Corradi tells TV Kids about the benefits of putting co-productions and well-known brands at the heart of the company’s business strategy.

TV KIDS: How have you reorganized the company?

CORRADI: Four years ago we decided to change Mondo TV’s business model and strategy. We decided to move away from the business model that is typical in this industry—idea, animation, toys. We went to the toy makers worldwide, the publishing companies and the online game companies and proposed joint ventures with them: fifty-fifty operations on their famous brands in order to do an animated TV show. This strategy brought the group 27 co-productions currently in place with 15 different co-producers on five continents. That has allowed us to be the most active producer of animated TV shows in the world at the moment, in terms of quantity, because we are going to have 650 half-hour episodes ready in 18 months. Our main clients are York, which is a big public Chinese group; Abu Dhabi Media, which is a major media branch of the Abu Dhabi government; the Baraem and Jeem 70 WORLD SCREEN 6/16

TV KIDS: Unfortunately many companies working in the children’s business have struggled in the last few years. Has your international strategy helped you?

CORRADI: Now we are doing only 10 percent of our turnover in Italy and 35 percent in Europe, so 65 percent is coming from outside Italy and Europe, mainly from China, North America and from the Gulf area. I think the problems that our competitors are having are due to the fact that they are still focusing on TV license fees. Of our turnover, which in 2016 will be €32 million ($36 million), only 10 to 15 percent is coming from TV fees. The rest is coming from L&M and toys. And the nice thing about our company—and we published the Q1 preliminary results on April 1—is that we have EBITDA that is 75 percent of the revenues and EBIT that is 40 percent of the revenues. This is the main point of our company. We have an enormous marginality because our business is very simple and secure. We have zero debt and total equity of the group is €41 million ($46 million). So we are in a very good position. And with the show Heidi, Welcome Home we are entering the teen soap-opera business. That is also another part of the business that we think will be very important for the future: we serve kids from 2 years old, with the preschool shows, up to 18 years old with Heidi.

TV KIDS: You mentioned China. How important is it to have partners there now?

CORRADI: China will become in a few years the new United States for media. China’s box office is sometimes three times what it is in the U.S. It’s amazing. So we made a big agreement with York, which is a publicly listed company in Shenzhen and Shanghai. I travel to China four times a year. We are co-producing in China. We are selling our library in China and our toys, and all the co-productions we are doing are airing in prime time on CCTV. China today is 45 percent of our revenues, and in the future this will increase dramatically

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Anubis and a number of other properties that were very successful, including Hotel 13. We have a very interesting lineup.

We can offer people the existing dubbed version, and we’re talking to partners about the possibility of doing format deals.

TV KIDS: What are some of the new animated properties you’re most excited about?

ELMENDORFF: We’re very excited about Nils Holgersson. There was an animated series [inspired by the book-based brand] coproduced by Nippon Animation and ZDF in the 1970s. We were approached by Bayerischer Rundfunk, one of the big regional broadcasters in Germany, who was interested in doing a new version of Nils for themselves and for KiKA. It’s based on a well-known novel from Selma Lagerlöf, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. We completely changed the concept. We did a version where it’s not an ongoing story—every episode is closed within itself. We changed the character and we introduced new characters. It has become a very cool action comedy and we see the responses we’re getting are very positive.

The presales are also very positive.

The next thing we have is Arthur and the Minimoys, which we’re producing with Luc Besson. He wrote the books that sold successfully and there were three movies that did very well on an international scale. It’s a great brand. And being able to team up with [Besson and his team at EuropaCorp Television] and create a series is very exciting. We’re very enthusiastic about this project.

By Mansha Daswani

With the announcement earlier this year of its alliance with beIN Media Group to launch a kids’ channel in the Middle East and North Africa, Studio 100 Media continues to find new ways to exploit and expand its extensive catalog of animated and live-action properties. CEO Patrick Elmendorff offers TV Kids an update on the latest developments at the company.

TV KIDS: How has the emergence of new digital platforms for kids’ content impacted your distribution business?

ELMENDORFF: It’s all about windowing. You need to understand your local markets better than before because the windowing is different in every country. It’s important to have a clear understanding of what is possible. On one side you need to be able to service the needs of your traditional partners. Most of our co-productions are financed via broadcasters. On the nonlinear side, it’s exciting to work with global players like Netflix or Amazon and with other VOD platforms on a territoryby-territory level. I find it especially interesting that they are producing content exclusively for their own platforms.

TV KIDS: You recently partnered with beIN to launch a cobranded kids’ channel in the Middle East and North Africa.

How did that deal come about?

ELMENDORFF: We were approached by beIN. Their setup is amazing on the sports side. They asked us if we’d be interested in making a kids’ channel for them, similar to the channel we have in Germany [Junior, available on Sky Deutschland]. We were thrilled by the idea. It’s a very exciting deal for us. They are great partners.

TV KIDS: How is your live-action slate doing?

ELMENDORFF: Our Belgian parent company has the largest live-action studio within the Benelux. We did House of 72 WORLD SCREEN 6/16

TV KIDS: A lot of the shows we’ve discussed are based on existing properties. How difficult is it to introduce a new, unknown brand in the market today?

ELMENDORFF: There is a lot of content on the market, so there’s a lot of competition in the market. We’ve always had more of a brand focus rather than a project focus. You can see it with Maya the Bee. We’re doing a second season of 52x13 minutes. We had a very successful feature film for Maya the Bee, which we sold into 160 territories. We will now produce two more movies for Maya.

We’ve always believed that to keep a brand interesting, you have to continually invest in the content. Everything is content driven.

Kids buy merchandising and licensing products because they’re fans of the brand. It’s not that they buy something and then become fans of the brand. Everything starts with great content.

We try to find completely new things. On the live-action side we have a number of new projects—Night Watch and Kosmoo are shows we created ourselves from scratch. In general it is easier to work with a brand that is already established than to create something from scratch. But both have their ups and downs.

TV KIDS: You mentioned the Maya movies. Are you replicating that strategy with other shows, expanding the brand with theatrical releases?

ELMENDORFF: Definitely, yes. With Maya, we sold the series in over 170 territories. In certain territories it wasn’t so well known by the kids, but it was definitely known by the parents and grandparents. There is also the aspect of family viewing. I personally find this two- or three-generation phenomenon quite exciting. The parents or grandparents can sit together with their kids to watch these properties, and there’s an emotional connection. We established Maya in many territories and after that it was a lot easier to work on the theatrical side because it was so present in the minds of families. That is a concept that works very well for us.

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