Category: Kids

Since 1988 the Kids‘ Choice Awards has been Nickelodeon‘s most anticipated annual event, allowing Nick viewers to cast a vote for their favorite singers, movie stars, athletes, books, video and games and apart from the US, it is viewed across Nickelodeon‘s international channel in UK, Europe, Russia, Israel, Asia, Australia, Latin America and Brazil

CBeebies creative director, Michael Carrington said, “We are launching a raft of new, innovative programming alongside our bedrock of family favourites. We have to remember that our audience keeps growing from tot to toddler to tearaway, so our programming needs to grow and change with them.

“While we have globally recognised, award-wining programmes that will continue to be the foundation of the channel, we felt that it was time for a new look and some exciting new programmes for all our viewers.”

So the old-fashioned, bare studio sets have gone and the presenters will take up residence in their new home, literally.

Carrington continued, “We want to make CBeebies a home from home for the under six-year-olds. For most young children, their world is quite small and centres on their family house.

“So we‘ve given our presenters a new home and they‘ll present in different places at different times of the day – perhaps the kitchen for breakfast time, the bedroom or sofa for story time and the garage for action adventures after school.”

Another major part of the channel‘s new look is its zones. Driven by suggestions from parents and carers up and down the country, CBeebies‘ schedule will now mirror a child‘s activities through the day.

Carrington adds, “We have spoken to a lot of parents and carers and collectively they made one big suggestion to us – to mirror the family rhythms of the day with clear programming for specific ages at specific times. I hope that our new ‘zones‘ should make it easier for our viewers to find all their favourite shows.”

The CBeebies online and interactive re-fresh isn‘t far behind. Over the next couple of months the whole CBeebies site will be redesigned with more programme linked content and activities plus the special Grown Ups zone featuring parenting advice and information.

Carrington says, “CBeebies is already the fourth most visited section of the BBC website behind the news, sport and football home pages.

“It will also now encompass CBeebies Radio (which can be accessed via the site or on a DAB radio). I‘m really excited that these new developments and changes allow us to increase CBeebies‘ offering to children under six across all of the BBC‘s broadcasting mediums.”

“The Disney attraction Expedition Everest boldly and successfully continues Disney‘s mountain-based story-themed roller coaster tradition by combining mythic storytelling with an authentic environment and the latest ride technology,” added the group.

Other winners included the Georgia State Aquarium, Bob Rogers, founder and chairman of BRC Imagination Arts, and Ski Dubai, for its successful creation of a ski resort in the middle of the Arabian desert.

The Themed Entertainment Association (Thea), founded in 1991, is an international nonprofit organization representing 6,500 theme park industry creative specialists working in nearly 500 firms in 39 different countries. The Thea Awards were created in 1994 to recognize achievement, talent and personal excellence within the themed entertainment industry.

The new spots star Wal-Mart‘s animated “spokes-elves,” Wally and Marty, and build excitement about the TV event and products in stores. Additionally, Wal-Mart will
sponsor a new and exclusive category within this year‘s Kids‘ Choice Awards– the “Favorite DVD” category — and will also have a sponsored area and dance floor at the Kids‘ Choice Awards after party.

In stores, Wal-Mart will feature exclusive products and a designated Kids‘ Choice Awards display, and on-line kids can vote for their favorite DVD at http://www.nick.com/walmart .

“We are excited to be engaged in what has become a well-recognized and highly anticipated TV event for kids each year,” said Wal-Mart Stores executive vice president and chief marketing officer Stephen Quinn.”We see this partnership as a great opportunity to share our commitment to kids, tweens and families to be the retail destination for unbeatable values on their top selections.”

“The Kids‘ Choice Awards are one of the biggest events on kids‘ television today, and we are thrilled to be working with Wal-Mart in marking the 20th anniversary of the show as the exclusive sponsor in the retail category,” said Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group Executive Vice President, 360 Brand Sales Jim Perry. “Wal-Mart‘s creative
promotional concept really signifies how marketers are able to take advantage of all Nickelodeon has to offer, with many platforms on which to partner to create customized programs.”

Among the exclusive products available in Wal-Mart stores is the new Nickelodeon Kids‘ Choice, Vol. 3 CD, by Nick Records/SONY BMG‘s Commercial Music Group, retailing for $13.88. The CD marks the third installment of the Nickelodeon Kids‘ Choice Awards music franchise.

Over 18,000 kids voted on this year‘s cover design. The CD features 16 songs from today‘s most popular recording artists including Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood,
Alicia Keys and Ashlee Simpson.

Included with the in-store Nickelodeon‘s Kids‘ Choice Awards displays and among Wal-Mart DVD movie selections will be exclusive DVD movie 2-packs for only $9.44. These include the Nickelodeon Kids‘ Choice Awards “Winner‘s Collection” bundled with top kid movie favorites such as the Drake & Josh,Go Hollywood DVD, the first television movie event based on the top-rated tween series, and the DVD of the hit theatrical film The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. A wide range of Nickelodeon branded toys will also be featured prominently on in-store displays.

Nickelodeon‘s 20th Annual Kids‘ Choice Awards takes place on Saturday, 31 March and will honor kids‘ favorites from the worlds of film, music, sports and television in a live telecast from UCLA‘s Pauley Pavilion. Singer/actor/two-time Best Burp
Award winner and 2007 Nickelodeon Kids‘ Choice Awards nominee, Justin Timberlake, will serve as the host of this year‘s awards show.

Nickelodeon‘s Annual Kids‘ Choice Awards is one of the network‘s highest rated events of the year.

Kids can make the National Geographic Kids site truly their own. Using “My Page” features, they can choose their own fun background images, like flamingos or lion cubs. They can pull their favorite items from around the site into one convenient place for easy and quick access. And they can write about their site favorites and send exclusive e-cards to their friends, informs an official release.

“We want to offer the most fun interactive experience that National Geographic can provide for kids, and also help them make the experience their own,” said National Geographic Digital Media vice president, content operations Betsy Scolnik. “National Geographic wants to inspire people of all ages to care about the planet — the best way to do that for kids online is with an incredibly entertaining, multimedia offering that opens up the world in a way only the Web and National Geographic content can.”

The new National Geographic Kids web site is the latest addition to National Geographic‘s expanding offerings for children. National Geographic Kids magazine, with a circulation of 1.325 million, empowers kids by making it fun to learn about the world. This year National Geographic Kids launched Little Kids magazine, aimed at preschoolers.

The kids‘ television programming and production arm, National Geographic Kids Entertainment, is in production on four children‘s TV programs, with many more in development.

Al Jazeera Children‘s Channel vice chairman Dr. Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani says, “I am pleased to see the attempts and efforts of the past months come to fruition. This extended collaboration demonstrates our mutual commitment to pursue common projects and develop business alliances to ensure high standard Television and Media productions”.

The strategic partnership with JCC is expected to benefit the Malaysian content industry as it created opportunities for local players to take up content development work tailor-made to the requirements of JCC in the areas of animation, games, mobile and digital content.

MDeC will work with JCC to create and promote awareness among the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) member countries on policies and key issues affecting the development of the content industry.

BabyTV.com offers a catalogue of streaming television programming targeted to new and expectant parents from recognized experts throughout the industry. Viewers can tune into the linear schedule of programming and video-on-demand (VOD) library filled with entertaining and informative videos from content partners Oxygen Media and Alpha Mom.

The website also allows parents to submit original video to share with other parents, using the MyBabyTV functionality which has already been dubbed by some the ‘YouTube for Mommies‘ Unlike YouTube, however, all uploaded video content can be quickly reviewed by a BabyTV.com moderator using state- of-the-art tools, allowing MyBabyTV to serve as a family-friendly environment for sharing the special moments of a newborn‘s life.

Importantly, this content screening capability also provides advertisers with protection from negative associations with inappropriate content that has become so common on other video-sharing sites.

Throughout the site, parents and parents-to-be can use interactive functionality to share their opinions about BabyTV content by providing feedback on specific videos, participating in polls, and posting original comments in video forums. BabyTV also offers a library of text-based articles written by industry experts that are available to users of the site.

BabyUniverse chairman and CEO John Textor says, “Our goal is to create the ultimate social networking destination for moms who are looking to share ideas and stories and to find out more about the highly individual journey that we call parenthood.”

“BabyTV brings a wealth of next-generation community features for site visitors, allowing users to create membership profiles, participate in message boards and polls relating to pregnancy and parenting topics, and upload their own videos –providing the premier and most all- encompassing online environment for parents today.”

The launch of BabyTV.com is also changing the rules on the behind-the- scenes work of bringing live TV programming and VOD to viewers, debuting a new Internet content delivery platform that has been implemented by John Studdard, the company‘s executive VP of new media. Studdard, who is known for creating the enterprise architecture behind
VirtualBank.com /Lydian Trust Co. which allowed it to scale from startup into a multi-billion dollar diversified financial services company, has strong credentials for developing next-generation content delivery platforms.

Studdard says, “BabyTV is a significant milestone for Internet broadcasting as well as the BabyUniverse family of online websites, providing a robust platform for the next generation of media-driven networking sites,” . As the first web property to be completely deployed on our new enterprise content management system (CMS), BabyTV provides a way to gain efficiencies of scale in rolling out video, text and community assets across multiple sites.”

The company‘s CMS platform allows BabyUniverse to leverage content throughout other BabyUniverse sites, easily moving video and text content created by a centrally located creative and editorial staff throughout the
sites, when and where it‘s needed, in real time.

The channel claims to enjoy the position of number one kids‘ channel in multichannel homes in South Africa with shows like That‘s So Raven, Zack & Cody and the new series Hannah Montana .

An official statement also mentions that with an average 16-percent audience share, the network ranks as one of the top three performing Disney Channels worldwide.

“From day one we have made a huge impact on the South African market, which demonstrates there is a real appetite for Disney Channel programming,” said Disney Channel UK, Scandinavia and emerging markets managing director Rob Gilby.

Disney is also planning a mixed-use tourist commercial district just outside Disney‘s gateway entrance. The development is comparable in size to Disney‘s Animal Kingdom.

The project is currently in the design stage. Site work and branding is anticipated to begin later this year. The project will be built in phases over the next 8 – 10 years.

Walt Disney World Resort is a 40-square-mile, entertainment and recreation center featuring four theme parks Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Disney‘s Animal Kingdom and two water adventure parks Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon amongst other resorts and hotels.

Nickelodeon Recreation senior vice president Howard Smith. “We‘re absolutely thrilled to expand our brand with our first stand alone Nickelodeon theme park and our largest retail presence in such a wonderful destination.”

As part of the partnership, Nickelodeon will bring its top characters, interactivity, and its signature iconic green slime to Mall of America. The newly revamped park, and the first ever Nickelodeon theme park, will feature new rides, live shows, retail, games and entertainment, and food service establishments themed with top ranking network properties including: SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The Backyardigans and many more. Costumed characters and live interactive entertainment from these Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. shows will also find a home at the Mall.

Mall of America vice president business development Maureen Bausch. “We expect the newly themed park will draw even more new visitors from around the United States, as well as international travel markets.”