ITV

Category: Kids

  • 4Kids Entertainment names global licensing agent for WordWorld

    MUMBAI: PBS Kids television network‘s WordWorld has roped in 4Kids Entertainment, which specializes in the creation, development, production, broadcasting, distribution, licensing and manufacturing of children‘s entertainment products, as its global licensing agent.

    WordWorld revolves around WordFriends and WordThings, characters and items made of the letters that spell them, in the correct order.


    The main focus of the show is literacy, with the shows curriculum being based on the National Reading Panel‘s 2000 Teaching Children to Read report with input from other groups and experts. The show aims to focus on print awareness, Phonics sensitivity and letter knowledge, Reading comprehension (including vocabulary development) and socio-emotional skills. Under the deal, 4Kids will leverage WordWorld‘s combination of educational



    and play value to build a licensing programme across a variety of product categories that highlights the daily 3D animated series‘ focus on word play for pre-schoolersSaid 4Kids Entertainment chairman and CEO Al Kahn, “Its critical praise, growing popularity among parents and children, along with its distinct visually educational and entertaining style makes this property extremely desirable for licensors and retailers.”

  • Virgin Media kicks off ‘TV Takeover’ contest

    MUMBAI: Virgin Media teamed up with children‘s TV presenter Zoe Salmon launching TV Takeover, a contest that gives chance to two kids to decide what the nation‘s school children will be watching this summer on Virgin Media‘s television-on-demand service. The contest ends on 14 June.

    Salmon is giving one boy and one girl aged between seven and twelve years the chance to pick their favourite TV programmes to go on Virgin Media TV-on-demand this August.


    “To have my favourite programmes available to watch whenever I wanted over the summer holidays would have been a dream come true for me, as I‘d often flick through the channels but not find anything I wanted to see. Virgin Media‘s ‘TV Takeover‘ is an amazing opportunity for kids in the UK to make this year‘s summer one to remember,” said Salmon.


    The winners will get to choose from a range of shows available on Virgin Media‘s on demand service, including SpongeBob SquarePants from Nickelodeon, Ben 10 from Cartoon Network, and Bob the Builder and Angelina Ballerina from Nick Jr. Their hand-picked programmes will be showcased in Virgin Media‘s ‘Kids TV‘ section, to watch at any point and as many times as they like throughout the month.


    Virgin Media executive director of content and acquisition Katharine Burns Rivington said, “There‘s always something for every member of the family to watch on Virgin Media TV on demand including a great range of kids‘ programmes. However we think our customers‘ children deserve something special this summer holidays, which is why we‘re giving them this fantastic opportunity to have their say on what shows should feature in our popular kids TV section.”

  • FUNimation Entertainment to stream ‘One Piece’ in US, Canada websites

    MUMBAI: FUNimation Entertainment and Japanese powerhouse consortium of producer Toei Animation Co., Ltd., publisher Shueisha, Inc. and broadcaster Fuji Television Network, Inc, have entered into an agreement that gives the American anime leader exclusive rights to the U.S. and Canadian online simulcast of the studio‘s signature animated series One Piece.Starting 30 May at 9 pm (CDT), just an hour after airing in Japan, FUNimation and the consortium will stream the first, free, professionally-produced, accurately English-subtitled One Piece series episode beginning with episode 403 via the official One Piece website www.onepieceofficial.com, followed soon thereafter by FUNimation partner sites. In addition, beginning 14 May, FUNimation has been streaming episodes from the Sabaody Archipelago saga story arc starting with episode 391. FUNimation will also offer both its produced uncut, English-tracked and English-subtitled adaptations of the hugely successful series beginning with the first episode.

    This decision was taken by the production consortium for the North American, English-language One Piece DVDs, which comprises of Toei Animation Co. Ltd, Shueisha, and Fuji Television Network, Inc., with the goal of maximizing the business potential of package media and merchandising in North America, among other things, in consideration of the growing online viewer market in the United States in recent years.

  • Fitz Roy Media appoints Breiter and Zivic as licensing agent for US

    MUMBAI: Fitz Roy Media (FRM) a media property development company specializing in children‘s entertainment created for a variety of new and emerging media platforms including mobile, Internet and interactive broadcast TV has announced the appointment of Jonathan Breiter and Jennifer Zivic as US licensing agents for the company‘s slate of children‘s properties.


    Breiter and Zivic will launch their representation of Fitz Roy‘s newest kid franchises including Funny Face, Heathcliff and Secret Wings at the 2009 Licensing International Expo in June.


    Breiter began his career in advertising as part of the team that won the “Burger Wars” with the award winning “Where‘s the Beef” campaign for Wendy‘s Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Breiter was associated with Hasbro as associate VP for marketing and was later promoted to SVP.


    Over his 10-year tenure, Breiter has led all of the licensing initiative for Baby Boom, FunHouse and Banafish including becoming the first license for SpongeBob Squarepants and an early licensee for the launch of brands like Pokemon, Care Bears, Eddie Bauer, and Yo Gabba Gabba.


    Jennifer Zivic is a seasoned director with experience in the manufacturing and licensing of consumer products. She began her career at Taratoy Corporation in the Kid‘s Stationery Division, where she served as director of marketing and product development



    . At Taratoy, she introduced new Barbie, Hot Wheels and Polly Pocket lines of stationery products for kids and novelty stationery product lines for Peeps and Felix the Cat. Zivic also spent seven years with Mattel Toys in various roles, where she managed Sesame Street and Barbie businesses.


    Zivic was also director of licensing – Soft Lines at HIT Entertainment, and was responsible for managing and growing HIT‘s soft lines business, including children‘s marketplace.


    The company also announced the appointment of publishing industry executive Jon Rosenberg, who will represent Fitz Roy‘s slate of properties throughout the publishing industry and veteran development executive Richard Oren, who will be the agent handling promotional opportunities for the company.

  • Disney adds 5 channels in Central and Eastern Europe

    MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has announced that it is re-branding its Jetix channels in five more Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.


    Later this year, the channel is set to launch in Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria that will increase the channel‘s distribution to 12 million households in the CEE region. The channel will be localised for the market with programming dubbed in local languages.In just two months following the series‘ debut in Hungary, Disney‘s Hannah Montana, Phineas and Ferb attracted an additional 391,000 viewers that propelled Jetix from No. 3 to No. 1 kids‘ channel.


     
    Disney Channels EMEA executive vice president and general manager Giorgio Stock said, “CEE is a key market for the Walt Disney Company and launching Disney Channel is important to the company‘s strategic growth plan in the region.



    “The performance of Disney Channel in Poland and the huge impact of the channel‘s content on Jetix have proven the demand for its kid-driven, family inclusive programming. We look forward to leveraging this demand, the power of the Disney brand and synergies with other Disney businesses to become the undisputed leader in the kids‘ TV market.”


    Targeted at two distinct age groups, kids aged between 2 to 5 and 6 to 14 and their families, the channel will offer CEE viewers a mix of programming including live action favourite Hannah Montana, the hit animated series Phineas and Ferb.

  • Turner acquires DQE’s Iron Man for South and South East Asia

    MUMBAI: Turner Entertainment Network Asia (TENA) has inked a broadcasting deal with with Hyderabad-based animation and gaming company DQ Entertainment (DQE) for the 3D animated series Iron Man. The series will be aired on Cartoon Network in 2010 across the entire South Asia and South East Asian region.

    Iron Man is a co-production between Marvel Animation and Method Animation, France. DQE holds the sub-distribution rights from Method Animation, under which the deal with Turner has been signed.


    DQE chairman and CEO Tapaas Chakravarti said, “We are pleased that Cartoon Network has acquired the property for broadcast in this region. Iron Man is an iconic property and we are happy that it has found a world-class and renowned partner in Turner Entertainment.”


    Iron Man is the legendary superhero first appearing in the pages of Marvel Comics. Already two previous TV and a live action film have increased Iron Man’s popularity. With the new deal, the masked metal hero will now join the ranks of Ben 10, Thor, The Avengers, Marvel Super Hero Squad and more on Cartoon Network.


    TENA VP content Mark Eyers said, “Iron Man is another fantastic property that is joining the ranks of such shows as Cartoon Network’s own Ben 10 and along with other titles from the Marvel universe. Deals like this prove we are the #1 destination for distributors.”


    Iron Man is known since last 40 years for adventures, crime fighting and saving the world with over 450 comic books.

  • Hasbro in JV with Discovery Communications

    MUMBAI: Hasbro has entered into a deal with Discovery Communications buying a 50 per cent stake for around $300 million in Discovery Kids.According to the terms of the agreement, the two companies will have equal representation on the joint venture‘s board of directors with the distribution and ad sales taken care by Discovery and Hasbro providing studio produced programming.

    The joint venture planned to create a rebranded television network will be launched in late 2010.


    Targeted at family audience and children, the network will feature entertainment and educational properties based on Hasbro‘s brands including Romper Room, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, G.I. Joe and Transformers. Also, the duo plan to launch several merchandises based on the new shows.

  • CN unveils games for Asian Market

    MUMBAI: Cartoon Network (CN) is revamping its lineup of online games for 2009.

    Targeted at the Asian markets, the new games include FusionFall, Ben 10 Omniverse, and Tom and Jerry. Ben 10 Omniverse will be launched in the latter half of this year while Tom and Jerry will be launched in 2010. Both the games will be featured in CN‘s website.


    Currently, the CN website features approximately three dozen casual games which are related to the various series featured on the channel.

  • BBC kicks off search for UK’s ‘Junior Apprentice’

    MUMBAI: The British Broadcasting Corporation has announced that its youth-based serial Junior Apprentice would soon be telecast on its channel BBC One with Sir Alan Sugar at its helm.

    The five one-hour episode series will see ten young contenders, five girls and five boys aged 16 to 17 years old compete to become the winner of the title of the first Junior Apprentice.


    The show from TalkbackThames will be in addition to the main series which returns for its sixth run next year.


    Candidates from all social backgrounds are being encouraged to apply – whether they are straight A students from grammar or public school or have no academic qualifications.


    Sir Alan will guide the candidates through a variety of business tasks to test their entrepreneurial skills.


    Each week, teams will go head-to-head starting with the five boys against the five girls. The losing team will end up in the boardroom and the project manager will have to choose two people to join them in the firing line.


    Sir Alan said, “It is my long held belief that we should promote the series vociferously amongst young people as the future of our economy relies on them. I passionately believe that the key to business success lies in hard work and common sense and that we should encourage young people as much as possible.“


    The Junior Apprentice, chosen by Sir Alan, will win a prize tailored to his or her individual career prospects worth up to ?25,000.

  • CN to unveil four alternative live action series in June

    MUMBAI: Cartoon Network is set to launch four new live-action alternative series as part of its “CN Real” programming block this June.


    While Total Drama Action, the follow up of Total Drama Island will be launched on 11 June, adventure series The Othersiders and Survive This will roll out from 17 June.


    Total Drama Action will be aired every Thursday at 9 pm while The Othersiders and Survive This will be telecast at 8 pm and 8.30 pm respectively.


    The channel will also roll out two new game shows – BrainRush and Destroy Build Destroy from 20 June.


    BrainRush will premier at 8 pm and Destroy Build Destroy at 8.30 pm.