Category: Kids

MUMBAI: Nickelodeon has elevated Anne Mullen to senior vice president, on-air creative strategy.

Prior to this, Mullen was director, original programming and production at Sundance Channel where she oversaw its creative strategy and supervised the production and creative teams for the channel content development.In her new capacity, Mullen will be responsible for overseeing the on-air creative execution for Nickelodeon 24-hours a day, from pre-school to Nick at Nite. She will also oversee the conceptualisation, development and execution of all on-air promotion and brand communications in partnership with Nick‘s programming, brand marketing and digital teams to ensure that the on-air creative execution aligns with Nick‘s business objectives.

Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and family group chief creative officer Russell Hicks, “Mullen has been a talented leader within our organisation for more than four years. Her experience in creative strategic planning for top brands continually brings a fresh perspective to Nickelodeon.”

MUMBAI: Kids Animation India (KAI), the publishing and merchandising division of kids edutainment channel Spacetoon India, has launched 31 book based on its intellectual property, Fafa & Juno.

Fafa-Juno books are available in different categories such as knowledge series, activity books, board books and story books.The books, created to cater to the age group of 3-10 years, aim to present teaching ideas in an exciting and educative manner.

Said Spacetoon South Asia MD and CEO Rajiv Sangari, “We will soon launch complete health-based series books of Fafa & Juno. One of these books will be based on Yoga for little children titled, ‘Yoga with Juno‘.”

MUMBAI: BBC has announced the appointment of Damian Kavanagh as CBBC controller.

Kavanagh will start later this year on an initial year‘s attachment. He replaces Anne Gilchrist, who, after three years of running the department, is joining the BBC in-house Comedy department as Creative & Business Director.

Damian will oversee all programmes and multiplatform commissioning for the CBBC channel and the two dedicated blocks on BBC One and BBC Two.

Programmes due to be shown later over the next year include the return of Tracy Beaker in Beaker‘s Back; a second series of Richard Hammond‘s Blast Lab; The Sarah Jane Adventures and Simon Nye‘s adaptation of Just William.

Damian joins from Daytime where he is currently head of planning and scheduling and an executive producer working on shows including Escape To The Country, Hospital Heroes and The Unsellables.

He has previously worked as an independent commissioning executive – working on, amongst others, Hider In The House, The Sorcerer‘s Apprentice and The Underdog Show – and as head of scheduling at BBC Children‘s.

MUMBAI: Media and entertainment company Pow! Entertainment has partnered with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment to release Time Jumper, a digital motion comic series.Priced at $0.99 per episode, Time Jumper will be initially released as a ten-part series of five-to-eight-minute digital episodes and will be made available for retail on iTunes stores from 24 July.

Users will be able to download Time Jumper on their Mac, personal computer and iPod. Consumers can also view the series on platforms such as online, mobile and DVD.

Time Jumper showcases the modern tale of a young man, who engages viewers in a multi-dimensional and multi-platform universe.

MUMBAI: Astral Media‘s Family Channel and Playhouse Disney have announced the programming line up for fall, representing the best of Disney, Canadian original programming and engaging programming for young viewers.

Family Channel, from 20 September, will premiere Zeke and Luther that chronicles the adventures of teenage best friends on a quest to become world-famous skateboarders. In October the channel will bring in adventure series Aaron Stone, starring Kelly Blatz as a champion video game player.

The Disney Channel, on the other hand, will air the third season of Wizards of Waverly Place and the second season of The Suite Life on Deck. The Canadian original series Overruled is scheduled to start from 13 September.

In October, Roxy Hunter (Aria Wallace) returns with its fourth instalment of the TV movie franchise in Roxy Hunter and the Horrific Halloween.

Favourite Friends will also return on Playhouse Disney with new season. Imagination Movers will be back on the channel to emphasise creative problem-solving skills in early 2010. Mickey, Donald, Goofy are also set to return to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse this fall.

“Family Channel‘s diverse fall slate has something for everyone. On Playhouse Disney we are excited to welcome back the high-energy Imagination Movers as well as beloved characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny and Franny‘s Feet,” said Family Channel and Playhouse Disney VP for programming Kevin Wright.

MUMBAI: Nick India has signed a deal with Shogakukan-Shuseisha Productions to obtain the product and promotional licensing of Ninja Hattori.

As part of its licensing plans, the channel will launch the product range across various categories in the market early next year.

The channel has aggressive licensing plans around Ninja Hattori and plans to launch the range across various categories in the market by early next year. Ninja Hattori has been the top show on Nick consistently for the last 18 months.

Viacom18 Media VP consumer products Sandeep Dahiya says, “Ninja Hattori has been the frontrunner in both popularity and appeal in the kids entertainment category and therefore it‘s only natural that we extend his presence beyond television. The launch of Ninja Hattori merchandise will further strengthen our existing merchandising program around Dora and SpongeBob, with an existing presence in over 20 categories in India.”

SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer are available in categories including apparel, back to school range, tableware products, stationery, puzzles, games, story books, bed-linen, gifts and novelties and toys.

“We‘re proud to be involved in the creation of this very unique range of ‘Ninja Hattori‘ consumer products for kids. This is our very first venture together. We are sure all kids are waiting to have their favourite Nick toon ‘Ninja Hattori‘ in their playrooms,” says Shogakukan-Shuseisha Productions Executive Director Licensing Department Media Division Akira Fujita.

MUMBAI: Following the success of its online debut on BBC Switch last year, Fresh, a comedy series set in the world of university freshers, has been commissioned for a seven-part series.

The series will air on BBC Two and BBC Three in September 2009. The half-hour episodes have been produced by multi-platform production company, Greenroom Entertainment. Set on a fictional UK university campus, Fresh explores the lives of a mis-matched group of fresh-faced students as they embark on university life and their first taste of independence, with all the mishaps and misadventures that entails.

The TV series will continue where the online show left off. The original five-minute webisodes will be reformatted to create the first TV episode, followed by six completely new half-hour episodes.

The show features a cast of both new and established actors, including Jonathan Bailey as Danny, Danny Morgan as Shane, Joanna Cassidy as Scarlet and James Buckley as Fred. Greenroom Entertainment executive producer Nick Hamm says, “The evolution of Fresh from online to a multi-platform broadcast, reflects a wider trend in our industry where programme makers are responding to the audience need to receive content across numerous platforms. Fresh is a comedy with wide appeal for young audiences which makes it perfectly suited to the multi-platform approach.”

MUMBAI: Funskool India, a joint venture between MRF and Hasbro Inc, has introduced a new line of toys based on the Hollywood film, Transformer: The Revenge of the Fallen.

The toys are available in three different varients namely deluxe, voyager and leader and are priced at Rs 175 upwards.

The toys allow kids to mix their voice through a ‘radio‘ just like like the Transformers character, Bumblebee. the products also feature realistic robot battle sounds and radio tune-in phrases to add authenticity to the play experience.

MUMBAI : The management of Jetix Italy, led by Francesco Nespega, has reached a deal with The Walt Disney Company to take ownership of the channels GXT and K2.

GXT, a pay-TV channel launched in May 2005 and skewed towards young males, reaches 4.7 million homes on SKY Italia while K2 is a free-TV service for kids aged 4 to 14, available on DTT to 8.5 million homes and via satellite to 6.5 million homes.

Nespega who has been managing the Jetix Italy business since 2000, has acquired 100 per cent of the subsidiary and rebranded it as Switchover Media, that operates both the GXT and K2 channels and develops other services for the Italian market. Switchover will also manage Jetix services in Italy until the Disney XD launch in the fall.

MUMBAI: Giving a further push to its local and live-action programming line up, Turner International India is gearing up to launch its new show FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on Pogo, come 19 July.

Positioned as a curiosity show that is based on scientific principles, FAQ will be aired every Sunday at 10.30 am. “With this, Turner Networks‘ live-action format basket will now hold ten original shows ranging across seven to eight different genres,” says Turner International India director – programming South Asia Krishna Desai.

FAQ will be hosted by a new brand face Pratik and will be further supported by co-host Crash – the dumb robot. The show will undertake various experiments to unravel many scientific tricks.

Says Desai, “Our focus is to create more and more 100 per cent Turner-owned shows that will help us possess and expand our IPR properties.”

As part of its marketing activity, Turner is conducting school contact programmes across over 20 towns to touch base with 900 schools in metros and tier II cities. “We will be establishing contacts with as many as 9 lakh through this programme. We will visit schools to receate a lab to expose the flavour of the show and conduct live experiments to help children understand what the show is all about,” Desai elaborates.

FAQ will also go online, courtesy a dedicated microsite for the show that will go live simultaneous with the launch of the new property.

“The site will hold many questions from FAQ. It will also capture clips of the show, five games developed on the character -Crash and also a number of contests,” he avers.

FAQ will also be promoted heavily on Cartoon Network and Pogo wherein at least 15-20 promos of the show will be run daily prior to launch.