TV Kids June/July 2009

Licensing Trends Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Dave Filoni www.tvkids.ws

DISCOP EDITION THE MAGAZINE OF CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING

JUNE/JULY 2009

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TV KIDS

Canada’s Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) turns 35.

Devoted to Kids

By Mansha Daswani For 35 years, the Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) in

Canada has been working to make sure that Canadian children are receiving the best entertainment possible. That mandate was on display on June 3, with the organization’s 2009 Awards of Excellence Gala at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

The event presented a total of 13 awards, including a grand prize for the most outstanding production to hit the small screen in the past two years, along with awards for emerging talent, lifetime achievement and best original cross-platform content tied to a children’s television program. The winners were selected by a jury of Canadian and international experts, including Maya Götz from Prix Jeunesse and David Kleeman from the American Center for Children and Media.

The Gala also presented a special Emerging Talent Award to Christin Simms of Sinking Ship Entertainment, and an Outstanding Achievement Award to Patricia Ellingson, the creative head of children’s media content and programming at TV Ontario.

“We always recognize the special contribution of people who have been so important in the kids’ programming industry,” says Caroline Fortier, the executive director of ACT. “Patricia Ellingson has been very active and instrumental in building the TVO kids’ brand and making sure that kids in English Canada will get the best educational programs possible.”

YOUTH MATTERS

While recognizing the achievements in Canadian content is certainly an important mandate at ACT, there are several other areas the organization is involved in. “We aim to positively affect Canadian children’s lives by using three main things: advocacy, recognition and training, to enrich the screen-based media,” Fortier explains.“I would add to that research, which is one thing we’re doing a little bit more of.”

Indeed, ACT is about to embark on the largest study to date of Canadian youth programming, with the financial assistance of CTVglobemedia, through the tangible benefits from CTVglobemedia’s acquisition of CHUM. “It’s a two-phase analysis,” Fortier says. “We’re going to be looking at the key 44

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components of kids’ programming—the context, the characters and actions—and relating this to societal issues like ecology and the environment. We’re also going to be looking at the importance of new media, new delivery platforms.”

The first phase of the report will be linked to a broader worldwide study, being conducted by the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television in Germany, called Children’s Television Worldwide: Gender Representation. The second phase, Fortier says, will explore the “impact that Canadian programming has on the values and identity of Canadian children.

The first phase will be released in November 2009 in Toronto for our Children,Youth and Media Conference.The final results will be known in the spring of 2010.Then we will engage in phase two.This will bring us to 2012.”

In addition to research efforts, ACT has increased its lobbying activities, Fortier says. “We’re trying to raise the profile of kids’ programming, making sure that with all the changes going on in this field, kids will not be forgotten. This is something we’re going to pursue even more in the next few years.”

The times certainly call for it, given the fiscal and financial constraints on kids’ programming in Canada and around the world. “In the last five, six, seven years, as the 2007 edition of The Case for Kids Programming study on children and youth audio-visual production in Canada has shown, there has been falling production volume in kids’ programming, falling budgets, falling level of public funding within the Canadian Television Fund. And now we’re seeing falling ad revenues.

This is becoming a big concern for us. It does impact our capacity to be able to create those programs that will reflect our values and our sense of being Canadian.”

A second edition of this study was prepared for the Canadian Film & Television Production Association (CFTPA) in association with ACT and the Shaw Rocket Fund and was released during the Banff World Television Festival on June 9.

Fortier continues:“We’ve been [making kids’ programming] in Canada for over 50 years.We’ve had international recognition.We’re seen as being able to produce great programming, possibly because of our specific Canadian values like tolerance, openness, inclusiveness, and possibly a somewhat less commercially driven approach.Also, we do have a diversity of community, of cultures. There are new kids coming to Canada from all over the world.We believe that one of our greatest tools for educating them is television. Broadcast and online combined have huge reach into these communities and can help instill cultural values and what it is to be Canadian.This is why it’s so important for us to remain able to provide the most diversity, a variety of relevant, meaningful and educational shows for all ages and platforms.”

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TV KIDS

Amid a tough economy, kids’ content owners are searching for innovative ways to get the most out of their brands.

Cookie Jar’s Strawberry Shortcake.

The Business of

Publishing came on board for a video game.The tradingcard game has already been a success for the show, which airs in the U.S. on TheCW4Kids block and has begun rolling out internationally.Apparel deals are being signed and 4Kids has inked a deal for a Chaotic beverage that is available across Canada, featuring codes that kids can use online for the trading-card game. 4Kids has also reached a deal for Chaotic to air on Cartoon Network, further expanding its exposure in the U.S. market.

The Cartoon Network deal includes the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the latest season of 4Kids’ long-running Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.“With any classic property, we have to keep doing new things,” says Roz Nowicki, the executive VP of marketing and licensing at 4Kids, which is also injecting new life into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand.A live-action theatrical release for the pizza-loving heroes is slated for 2011, with 4Kids handling the licensing strategy for the film.

Nowicki is counting on the brand recognition of 4Kids’ properties to entice licensees and retailers.“Business is tough. [It helps] if you can offer them something new, something exciting, and a classic property that they already feel comfortable with. People are a lot more reticent about jumping into something brand new that has not been tried and true or tested.”

Brands

By Mansha Daswani The sale of toys generated almost $22 billion in the U.S. alone in 2008, according to the research firm The NPD Group. It’s big business, and kids’ content owners are anxious to increase their slice of the pie. It’s no secret, though, that times are tough, with the recession putting a squeeze on how much parents are willing to shell out at the toy store, making retailers even more cautious about how they stock their shelves.

Rights-owners, however, can be comforted by some encouraging figures: another recent report from The NPD Group reveals that almost 50 percent of mothers’ discretionary spending on their kids goes to entertainment-related categories like toys, video games and consumer electronics, while 23 percent is spent on apparel. Those categories are driving the kids’ licensing business, and they are the main ones being pursued by producers and distributors seeking to extend the presence of their shows.

4Kids Entertainment has already done so with Chaotic, one of its key properties this year. A master toy deal is in place with Spin Master, covering action figures and other toys, while Activision 46

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MOM-APPROVED

Cookie Jar Entertainment, too, has a tried-and-true property to showcase, with Strawberry Shortcake.“It’s a $2.7-billion business,” says Lisa Streff, the senior VP of domestic consumer products, about the veteran girl-skewing brand, which turns 30 next year.

In a bid to reinvent Strawberry for kids today, Cookie Jar has embarked on a redesign that will roll out in the fall of this year.

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TV KIDS

“We decided to age her up a bit,” Streff continues.“She’s still sweet and wholesome, but she has a new world; it’s very magical, and her story lines skew a little older and are very aspirational. That’s how we keep the girls continuing to love and adore Strawberry Shortcake.”

Hasbro is the master toy partner and a full licensing program is in place, with more than 450 licensees already signed up worldwide. Part of the brand’s appeal, Streff says, is that it has “a ton of mom appeal. A lot of today’s moms grew up with Strawberry Shortcake. We’re always going after that generational appeal. It’s one of those brands that you can find at every retailer. She’ll be in the mass market, in the specialty market, at the department stores.”

Cookie Jar is also emphasizing the Richard Scarry publishing franchise, which includes the TV adaptation Busytown Mysteries for CBC in Canada. Scarry’s books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, Streff notes, and have been translated into 30 different languages.

“Richard Scarry has built-in equity. Children are introduced at a very young age to the books.There is already some established brand awareness. We are combining the equity of the publishing with the new TV series.”

The licensing program, targeted at boys, includes vehicles from the Busytown universe, as well as apparel, games, puzzles and new books to complement the TV show.

CLASSIC ROCK

The Jim Henson Company ( JHC) is also home to a number of well-established properties, including Fraggle Rock, which HIT Entertainment had been representing until May of this year. “We have a multifaceted strategy for Fraggle Rock,” says Melissa Segal, the company’s senior VP of global consumer products. “One is to develop a whole classic, retro program for people in their 20s and 30s who grew up with it. We’re doing some cool fashion-forward, trendy things to make it relevant. And then we have a feature film in development— it’s a live-action family musical.”

JHC is also working with DECODE Entertainment on a new preschool show featuring the Fraggle Rock residents the Doozers, which will have a separate licensing program.

“Fraggle Rock, for us as a company, is a priority,” Segal says.

“It’s familiar, but it feels new.”

Another priority at JHC is the new brand Sid the Science Kid, which has been airing on PBS KIDS since fall of last year.

Hasbro has been appointed master toy partner for the preschool series, and will be bringing products to retail under the Playskool brand. Also on the roster are DVDs from NCircle Entertainment and books from Harper Collins.With those key deals in place, Segal is optimistic about the response she’ll receive from the licensing community for Sid, even though it is a relatively new brand.

“What I’m finding in this kind of conservative economic environment is that everyone wants to know, Who’s your toy player? Who’s your DVD player? Who’s your publishing player?”

4Kids is also presenting a new property this year,with RollBots.

Produced and distributed by Amberwood Entertainment in Canada, the YTV commission was picked up by 4Kids for its TheCW4Kids block, and the company is also representing the licensing and merchandising rights to the series.

“Mattel thought this had such toy potential they came on board pretty early,” Nowicki says. “Most toy companies take a 6/09

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wait-and-see [approach], but Mattel saw a lot in it.Video games are really important to us, and we’ve started talking to various trading-card companies.Those are the key things we always want to seal first.And then we fill in the other categories.”

JHC, similarly, has a head start on Dinosaur Train.Although the series doesn’t premiere until this fall on PBS KIDS, Learning Curve has been confirmed as the toy partner.“It’s an easy property for licensees and retailers to understand,” Segal says. “We were able to get a toy company on board sooner than usual.

“Everyone has been so risk averse,” she continues. “The reason people seem to be excited about the Henson stuff is that it’s new but it feels like it’s going to be around for a while.There are long-term plans for the brands. Also, they’re coming from the Henson company. I think for parents, there is that built-in appeal.”

That’s a sentiment that also applies to BBC Worldwide, which has been able to depend on the cachet of the content from its British kids’ services CBBC and CBeebies, including In the Night Garden, 3rd & Bird!, Charlie and Lola and Teletubbies.

“What unites our brands is the quality of output from the BBC,”says Neil Ross Russell,the managing director of children’s and licensing at BBC Worldwide.“First and foremost, a successful licensing property is built from great content, content that engages with the audience. On the commercial side we then work tirelessly to marry BBC content with entertaining and innovative products across categories for consumers to enhance their experience of their favorite television programs.”

AGE OF COMPRESSION

Even with great content, however, rights owners must contend with the fact that kids are growing up much faster than they used to. “The reality of our business today is age compression,” says Cookie Jar’s Streff.The key, she says, is “designing and developing merchandising programs that are targeted to specific age groups. There’s a 2-to-5 market, a 3-to-6 and a 6-to-11, and we really have to make sure that we’re strategic and we approach each one of those segments differently.”

This view is also expressed by 4Kids’ Nowicki: “We get [kids] for action figures for a year and a half, and then [they move on to] video games. They’re just harder and harder to impress!”

Add the economic downturn to the mix and scoring a hit at retail becomes even more challenging. “We are seeing lower price points and a consolidation of retail across the board,” Ross Russell says.

“More than ever, it’s key that once we have great content, we are working to deliver to the needs and objectives of the retailer. Our reputation as an established and trusted licensor stands us in good stead for the year ahead, but it is fundamental that we retain our focus on a few key brands, delivering quality products that consumers put value on.”

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A plush life: In the Night Garden is one of BBC Worldwide’s biggest kids’ brands, with a toy line that includes Blanket Time Iggle Piggle.

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TV KIDS

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Dave Filoni Dave Filoni has spent a long time immersed in the Star Wars universe. A fan of the franchise since childhood, Filoni today serves as the supervising director of Lucasfilm Animation’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Working with artists, animators, writers and episodic directors, he has taken viewers on all-new adventures in the Star Wars galaxy with the Cartoon Network original series. He tells TV Kids about the challenge of putting an animated spin on the world’s biggest movie franchise.

By Mansha Daswani

TV KIDS: How did you approach turning this iconic brand into an animated film, and then into a TV series?

FILONI: I had several meetings with George Lucas, and he set the tone for what his expectations were. He wanted a new look, something no one had seen before, and he wanted it to capture the epic scale of Star Wars in 22 minutes. I then studied different styles of Star Wars art, from Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept art for the classic Star Wars, to the Cartoon Network micro-series and more recent prequel films.We tried to find a way to combine these styles into an animated look that was still true to the visual design of Star Wars.

The story lines were laid out in broad strokes from discussions head writer Henry Gilroy and I had with George Lucas. We then came up with several different stories that became the early episodes. After a while, George got so excited about the episodes he started giving us more specific outlines and stories, which was amazing.

TV KIDS: What’s the key to making it feel fresh for viewers

today?

FILONI: We have to always challenge ourselves to show the

audience something they’ve never seen before. If we are doing a battle, we will stick it on the side of the cliff and do a vertical battle. If we have Jedi in a tough situation, we try to get them out of it in creative and different ways. It’s a big challenge, and George always reminds us that he’s already done the easy stuff in his films.

TV KIDS: What is it about Star Wars that has been able to

appeal to so many different generations, all around the world?

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FILONI: I think the story is universal, and the environment

and characters are very familiar feeling. I knew a guy growing up that was like Han Solo; I think at one point in our life we feel like Luke Skywalker did when he left his home on Tatooine. These connections are very comfortable, so we think we know this place, this galaxy, and yet the scale and spectacle of it is also amazing. So we see things we never imagined, whether it was a laser sword or a giant snow walker that looked like an animal, Star Wars has always amazed us.

TV KIDS: How much of the original mythology do you

draw on?

FILONI: I love the original mythology and I try to draw upon

it without overdoing it. If we get too precise and answer every question, it would take away from the original mythology.

Sometimes we only reference the mythology visually, with familiar locations and designs. George is always encouraging us to create new characters, planets and vehicles. Sometimes he will give me a design that he has been saving for years and now figured out where to use it, and sometimes we get to make it up from scratch. It’s all pretty exciting because either way, it is becoming part of the Star Wars galaxy.

TV KIDS: How much of a responsibility do you feel to Star Wars’ intensely passionate fan base? Is it ever daunting?

FILONI: I knew going in that the fan base would have high expectations, and I take the responsibility I carry very seriously. At the end of the day, I have to show everything I do to George Lucas. If he’s happy with it I know we are doing a good job. George is always my toughest critic, but it’s his high standards that grew the fan base in the first place, and now we must continue that tradition.

TV KIDS: How much do you think about all the various

extensions to the brand, be it the merchandise or the newmedia properties, as you’re working on the series?

FILONI: It’s been fun for all of us to see toys from our show on the store shelves. It’s hard to believe because I can remember getting Star Wars figures when I was a kid, and now kids are buying Clone Wars figures that sometimes are characters I designed.When you see how happy it makes them—I think that’s what resonates most with all of us.

TV KIDS: Are you working on any other projects you can tell us about?

FILONI: I am very focused on Clone Wars and dedicate most of my time to that. Like all artists, I have my other projects, but for now I get to journey to a galaxy far, far away, and there’s no place I would rather be.

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