MUMBAI: Cartoon Network has tied up with former tennis player Anna Kournikova to promote fitness amongst kids.
As part of the tie up, Kournikova will promote the channel‘s ‘Get Animated‘ campaign that encourages kids to get off from the couch and exercise. Says Kournikova, “The campaign is determined to be taken seriously when educating kids about exercise and is driven to get kids off their sofas and get them into sports and exercise.”
MUMBAI: Nickelodeon has stitched a global partnership deal with Activision Publishing to create a videogame based on the kids entertainment channel‘s flagship live-action show iCarly.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing is a developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.
Releasing internationally this 2009-fall, the videogame will, for the first time, bring the interactive elements from the series to Wii(TM) and Nintendo DS(TM).
Says Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group EVP Digital Media Steve Youngwood, “In order to make a property like iCarly into a videogame, we tapped into the interactive model of the show itself. iCarly‘s entire premise is to allow kids and tweens to actively participate in their entertainment experience and Activision is doing the job in recreating that for Wii(TM) and Nintendo DS(TM) systems.”
MUMBAI: After having won over avid comic book buffs for 59 years, Diamond Comics is planning to launch a kids channel aimed at the 4-14-year-olds.
The company will exploit its library of 80 characters for content creation. “We will use our brand name as well as our vast library of IP consisting of characters and their stories. 16 out of the 80 will be adapted for animation format and the rest will be utilised through live action format,” says Diamond Comics chairman and MD Gulshan Rai. The channel will be titled Diamond Comics Channel. “It will be strictly dedicated to Indian characters, culture and heritage with live and cartoons-based animated serials based on characters of Diamond Comics. We expect the channel to go on air by 2009-end,” says Rai.
Also, in a bid to cater to a larger audience set across the country, the channel plans to create content across various other languages apart from Hindi. These include Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Gujarati.So, how is the company planning to tackle its animation programming considering the long production cycles? “We have already worked out this problem. Knowing the complications, we have decided to deal with multiple studios,” explains Rai.
Besides rolling out a new channel, Diamond Comics is also planning to launch its comic characters on the mobile platform. “We are trying our best to make our plan operative within a fortnight,” asserts Rai.
As part of the initiative, Diamond Comics‘ characters will be available on one‘s mobile screen on mobile service providers – Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel and Spice. While Ramayana and Mahabharata would be available on Vodafone, Tenali Raman would be available on Airtel. The cost of each mobile comic strip will be Rs 1 per day and will be delivered to the user‘s inbox every morning.
MUMBAI: In a bid to celebrate the 10th anniversary year of Nick‘s flagship character SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) has partnered with fashion design brand Nooka to create a line of ‘limited-edition‘ wrist watches inspired by the same.
Nooka has created two timepieces – the Nooka ZENH and Nooka ZENV model – featuring graphics and colours based on SpongeBob and ‘Bikini Bottom‘ with additional collaborations to be released throughout 2009 and 2010.
Says NVCP senior vice president – domestic licensing Hal Snik, “As we continue to reinterpret the look and feel of SpongeBob for our audiences in its 10th anniversary year, Nooka‘s style combined with SpongeBob‘s humour and optimism makes that transition an organic one.”
SpongeBob SquarePants is syndicated in 171 markets across 25 languages.
MUMBAI: Kwality Wall’s and Zapak have launched the second edition ‘Paddle Pop Gaming League’ (PPGL).
On the lines of the IPL (each city having its league), PPGL is hosted in six cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, wherein each city will have its league.
Same as last year’s format, the tournament would be played on four games based on Paddle Pop brand character and his new ‘Pyrata’ adventure theme. Online preliminaries that are open now ends on 24 May. Children register and play all the four games in their city league on paddlepop.in.
The Top 100 scorers from each city on 24 May qualify for the city finals to be held at the ‘Zapak Gameplex’ across the six cities on 30 and 31 May. The top 5 scorers of the city league would represent their city at the national finals to be held on 7 June at ‘Nirmal Lifestyle Mall’ in Mumbai.
“PPGL has allowed us to engage with the online kids’ community and bring ‘Paddle Pop’ online and on-ground. With Zapak as our strategic partner, we created this property last year,” says Kwality Wall’s category head Punit Misra.
Winners stand a chance to appear on Cartoon Network and win Xbox consoles, Play station portables (PSPs) & prizes from Giny & Jony, EA and Zapak Games.
MUMBAI: The BBC has announced the launch of CBeebies iPlayer.
This is part of the BBC‘s commitment to deliver creative and engaging content to audiences in new and innovative ways, and put parents in control of their children‘s viewing.The specially designed child-friendly BBC iPlayer offers children six years old and under the chance to watch many of the programmes they love, from Aardman Animation‘s new series Timmy Time to Charlie And Lola and Kerwizz at a time which suits the whole family.
Designed to be a shared and flexible online experience with parents, the new service follows the launch of the popular CBBC iPlayer last year for six to 12-year-olds. Through the CBeebies website, the service provides a dedicated place on the internet for the BBC‘s youngest viewers to view BBC children‘s programmes on demand.
The service is designed to restrict inadvertent access to non-children‘s programming and puts children‘s viewing priorities first. Most programmes will be available to view for a week after broadcast with some available for up to 13 weeks as “series catch ups”.
The BBC iPlayer has received over 414 million requests to view BBC television content (TV streams and downloads) since its launch in 2007.
While a significant number of requests each day for CBeebies content are received via the main BBC iPlayer, requests to view BBC Children‘s programmes are expected to increase with the new service. The BBC adds that the CBeebies website reached more than one million unique users in the UK during the first week of February.
The BBC adds that its children‘s department is a leading exponent for child-safe internet products that reflect the concerns of children growing up in Britain today and works extensively to promote home-grown content. The new service follows user-testing, with the design produced by a combined team of children‘s interactive experts from BBC Vision and video-on-demand specialists from the BBC‘s Future Media and Technology division.
The BBC iPlayer extension for CBeebies is just one of a number of new and enhanced services being introduced for young viewers this year, with exciting developments coming soon to the CBeebies Red Button service.
Pressing Red on the CBeebies channel will take viewers into a new and enhanced interactive area mirroring the content on the channel, as well as brand new games featuring CBeebies favourites In The Night Garden and Green Balloon Club.
CBeebies radio is also set to launch later this year on the Red Button service, as well as a new grown-up section containing useful information for parents.
The new design features a ‘carousel‘ making the interactive service simple to use for all ages, and will now be tailored to optimise the performance on whichever platform the viewer is using ie Sky, cable or Freeview.
BBC Future Media and Technology director Erik Huggers said, “The children‘s BBC iPlayers bring the flexibility of on-demand viewing to the BBC‘s younger viewers to a more familiar environment – designed specifically for them. We are constantly innovating to improve our audiences‘ experience of the BBC‘s first-rate children‘s programming, and hope CBeebies iPlayer will be a hit with parents and children alike.” BBC Children‘s controller Richard Deverell says, “Children live in an on-demand age and with the launch of the new BBC iPlayer designed for the under sixes, children can now watch some of their favourite programmes whenever they want and parents have greater flexibility and freedom to choose what their children watch and when. This is why I am so delighted that we are launching the CBeebies iPlayer and I hope it will significantly increase the public value we deliver to this important audience.”
The main BBC iPlayer incorporates industry-standard guidance labelling, allowing parents to make informed choices about potentially challenging content as well as the parental guidance lock. This safeguard allows parents/guardians to ‘lock‘ potentially challenging content as well as the parental guidance lock.
This safeguard allows parents/guardians to ‘lock‘ potentially challenging guidance-labelled content, which may then only be accessed by first inputting a user-defined password. This new release is designed from a child‘s perspective and works irrespective of whether parents have set the password protection system
.
Approximately 40 per cent of CBeebies‘ output is currently available on BBC iPlayer and this will remain the case with the introduction of the CBeebies iPlayer. This is the equivalent of an average of 35 hours a week which includes a mix of first run series and repeats.
The majority of titles will be available for seven days after showing, with some series available in their entirety (series stacked) until seven days after the last episode is transmitted (up to a maximum of 13 weeks and in accordance with permissions and approvals granted by the BBC Trust).
MUMBAI: Nickelodeon‘s ParentsConnect announced this year‘s annual Parents‘ Picks Awards. Parents can pick their favourite businesses and local resources in their communities across the US. Parents can vote online at www.nicksparentspicks.com for the best of the best in 30 different categories, including: best museum for families; best toy store; best playground/park; and more.
Voting for the awards will end on 15 July and winners will be announced on 15 August.
Nick Jr.com senior VP Tanya Van Court says, “ParentsConnect is a great resource for families to find information that is helpful in their everyday lives. With Parents‘ Picks, we want to hear what parents have to say about the best places to eat, shop and play in their local communities. Their ideas, opinions and recommendations are key ingredients in ParentsConnect‘s mission to serve as a quality resource and authority on what‘s great for families all over the country.”
ParentsConnect‘s Parents‘ Pick Awards will identify winners from more than 10,000 nominees in 52 US cities. Winning venues will receive a “Parents‘ Pick 2009 Winner” seal to display in their storefront windows, and will be featured on Nickelodeon‘s ParentsConnect for the rest of 2009 as one of the best family resources in the area.
Nickelodeon‘s ParentsConnect Local offers families a weekly events calendar and a complete listing of family-friendly resources near them. It allows parents to search for activities, events and attractions by their kids‘ ages and activity preferences.
Featuring the tagline We‘re not perfect, we‘re parents, Nickelodeon‘s ParentsConnect is the online resource providing parenting advice
and community, celebrating the reality of parenthood and making parents‘ lives easier.
MUMBAI: In a bid to look after the growing slate of its non-feature projects, Disney Company and Pixar Animation studio have planned to launch an animation studio in Vancouver, Canada.
The animation studio will focus on characters such as Buzz, Woody, McQueen and Mater from Pixar‘s animation movies such as Tom Story and Cars respectively.
“The process that will be carried out in the studio will dedicated to producing short-form computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition,” says Disney/Pixar president Ed Catmull.
Pixar, headquartered in Emeryville, California will look after the 3D works.
Sequel and 3D version of the Toy Story will be distributed later this year. Up, the animation movie from Pixar, will be unveiled at Cannes Film Festival next week.
NEW DELHI: Nick and Only Kidz have launched merchandise including tableware and back to school range under its toon brand ‘Dora’.
The back to school range includes a Dora latched sandwich box, Dora galaxy sports bottle, 3D Dora base dome tumbler and Dora food containers. The tableware range includes a Dora tumbler, Dora round plate, three section plate and Dora bowl.
The merchandise is available between the price range of Rs 59 to Rs 299.
The newly launched range will be available in stores in cities like Mumbai
, Ahemdabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Jalander, Hyderabad, Goa and Pune as well as at retail stores like Landmark, Hypercity, Crossword, Lifestyle and Odyssey.
MUMBAI: Nick has acquired the TV rights of Little Krishna for two years for the South Asian territory. This is the first time the kids channel has acquired local content for the Indian market.
Created by Big Animation, a part of Reliance Big Entertainment, and Iskon‘s India Heritage Foundation with an investment of around Rs 500 million, the 13- episode TV series will debut on 11 May on the
Nick channel at 12.30 pm and 6.30 pm.
Nick, which telecasts in Hindi and English languages, has also acquired the rights of the TV series in Tamil and Telugu. It plans to launch Tamil and Telugu feeds later in the year.
Each episode of Little Krishna is a standalone story and the series has around 300 characters.
Big Animation is also scouting for distributors for the series in the US, Singapore, Europe and Japan. It is also working on a feature film on Krishna, ready to be released in 2009.