Category: Kids

MUMBAI: DIC Entertainment and Thomopoulos Productions have joined forces to launch Promise Media Productions, a new venture focused on developing, marketing and distributing properties for children and families under the positive value-based Promise Media brand for both the faith-based and secular markets.

The announcement was made by Thomopoulos Productions president Tony Thomopoulos and DIC Entertainment chairman and CEO Andy Heyward.
 
Promise Media Productions will develop original live-action and animated Promise Media-branded content, as well as acquire properties with strong brand recognition for distribution across film, television, home entertainment, new media and consumer products platforms. In addition to developing comprehensive licensing and merchandising campaigns, it will build an online community to reach an audience interested in positive value entertainment that will serve as an information and entertainment destination.

The Promise Media-branded content will incorporate virtues such as faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance to create product that ranges from an animated version of Black Beauty to a classic remake of Ben Hur and an original live-action theatrical production Angel Flight For Life. The programming will avoid all gratuitous sex and violence and will offer parents a safe environment to entertain and inform their children.

“The multi-billion dollar market for positive values entertainment continues to rapidly grow, and Andy and I recognised a tremendous opportunity in this underserved marketplace to create and deliver high-quality product that resonates with faith-based values. DIC has built a solid reputation in the brand management of family and children’s properties, and I look forward to working with Andy and his team to develop unique entertaining and inspirational family fare,” said Thomopoulous.

“We know there is a vast demand for content that showcases positive values and celebrates the triumph of the human spirit, and we plan to apply our entertainment and consumer products’ expertise to promote positive values for kids. Tony is a respected industry veteran whose patina of quality and stature of his career is unparalleled, and we plan to set the gold standard in this market with the Promise Media label,” added Heyward.

Promise Media Productions is currently forming an Advisory Board which will comprise leading media experts and educators who can develop program guidelines that ensure positive values are incorporated into the content. The board will include clinical psychologist, author and leadership consultant, Dr. Henry Cloud.

Promise Media Productions is currently in development on a slate of animated and live-action projects for theatrical, home entertainment and television. By returning to the literary roots of Lew Wallace’s original novel, Ben-Hur, A Tale of the Christ is an animated film that revitalises the classic story of one man’s journey from loss and betrayal to forgiveness and salvation.

Angel, Flight for Life is a feature film based on a true story of how a loving father, restricted by his financial limitations and reeling from a devastating loss, must rely on the generosity and ingenuity of his small town community to provide the miracle that will save his gravely ill daughter and renew his faith.

The live-action children’s DVD series, Zakland, produced in association with Jay Silverman Productions, showcases the multi-talented Zak Norman, an award winning musical performer and writer. Zakland entertains, inspires and encourages young viewers to explore the world through the magic of their imaginations.

Based on the illustrated children’s book, Sophie and Sam, by Tori Cloud and rooted in the principles of the bestselling book, Boundaries, by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, The Animated Adventures of Sophie and Sam delivers fun, often comical, lessons on how to set and keep boundaries.

The Jammies of Harmonyville, a television series produced in association with Believe Entertainment, is an innovative series that utilizes original music and CGI animation to teach valuable life lessons while introducing young audiences to a wide range of musical style.

The animated comedy adventure, Noah’s Hope, stars Noah, a hip, nineteen-year-old scientist, and his animal friends, who are concerned about environmental issues such as global warming, deforestation, pollution, etc.

Black Beauty, an animated version of Anna Sewell’s classic novel, encompasses its universal and timeless message that all animals deserve to be treated with consideration and respect.

MUMBAI: Sesame Workshop and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., have announced plans to distribute bilingual, multi-media outreach kits entitled Talk, Listen, Connect: Helping Families During Military Deployment, this August.

The announcement was made by Sesame Workshop president and CEO Gary E. Knell and Wal-Mart vice president of corporate affairs Ray Bracy, at the annual Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) national conference.

Distribution of the Talk, Listen, Connect kits will begin on 1 August. Based on feedback from the program‘s advisory board, as well as the priorities established from focus groups, the kits will be distributed at no cost to military families through the following outlets and provided by the US Department of Defense.

Due to an overwhelming response to the announcement of the project and feedback from Talk, Listen, Connect‘s advisory board, Wal-Mart has donated an additional $575,000, for a total of nearly $1.5 million in funding. This additional funding will increase the number of kits produced by Sesame Workshop and their partners to nearly 400,000 kits. The resources will consist of a bilingual (English / Spanish) kit with a DVD for children and adults, starring the Muppets from Sesame Street, and a magazine and poster for children, parents and caregivers.

The Talk, Listen, Connect kits will also be available online at http://www.sesameworkshop.org/tlc, where streaming video is being provided by The Department of Defense Quality of Life Information Technology Center, so families everywhere can view the video and download the information.

To meet the needs of children, Sesame Workshop developed Talk, Listen, Connect, with an initial donation of nearly $1 million from Wal-Mart and additional support from The New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) and the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC).

The project will help children between the ages of three and five, whose parents are members of the United States Armed Services, National Guard and Reserves, cope with the feelings, challenges, and concerns experienced during various phases of deployment: pre-deployment, deployment and homecoming.

“Wal-Mart has a long history of supporting our troops and their families. We are proud to be part of a program that will provide important resources to the children of our servicemen and servicewomen, who bravely serve our country and defend our freedom. At Wal-Mart, we are committed to honoring and supporting these individuals each and every day and we are proud to be part of a project that takes a holistic approach to helping the entire family,” said Bracy.

“Sesame Workshop is grateful to Wal-Mart and our partners and proud that Talk, Listen, Connect kits will be distributed nationwide, as well as, be available online for all military families to access these groundbreaking materials. It is our privilege to provide Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve families with unique tools to help their young children find emotional strength and resilience,” said Knell.

“Whether children are worried about moving to a new home or school or a parent‘s deployment, being a child in a military family represents a unique emotional challenge for today‘s youth. OMH is proud to have been invited to play a role in this important initiative with Sesame Workshop and Wal-Mart,” said commissioner Sharon E. Carpinello.

MUMBAI: Despite the fact that the Pirates of The Carribean sequel set a record by crossing the $100 million mark in the first three days of release, US media conglomerate Disney is set to cut the number of films made each year from 18 to eight.

Media reports indicate that the trend among Hollywood studuios is to reduce their overall costs, whether it is in production, marketing, distribution or legal costs. Disney‘s plan is to make less films under both Touchstone and Miramax. It will focus on making films under its own brand name.

The number of people employed in its film division will be reduced by upto 25 per cent. Disney is said to be looking to focus more on family films as there is more revenue potential there in terms of merchandising opportunities.

Apart from the Pirates sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia did really well last year. At the same time, there were failures with Alamo bing the biggest. Media reports indicate that studio revenue is being affected by production and marketing costs. The DVD market is also slowing down.

MUMBAI: Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) has teamed up with South Korea‘s media group JoongAng Ilbo (JAI) to launch Cartoon Network Korea.

The agreement was signed by TBS Korea vice president Ron Lee and JoongAng Broadcasting Corporation (JBC)- a JAI media group company- president and CEO Mun-Yeon Kim.

In keeping with the Korean broadcast regulations, the majority stake in the joint venture will be held by JAI‘s JBC, with Turner holding a 49 per cent stake in the partnership. Cartoon Network Korea will be languaged in Korean.

To debut later this year, Cartoon Network Korea will showcase the best in animation, offering both Korean and international animation. Predominantly an animation channel, it will bring together a unique mix of new as well as recognised programming to Korean kids.

Kim said, “The launch of Cartoon Network Korea is a very significant event for us and for the Korean television industry as the launch of the Network officially kicks off. Cartoon Network Korea will combine the unique strengths of both partners, and will build on our unrivalled knowledge and expertise to create a kids‘ channel that will raise the bar and set new standards of excellence in the kids‘ entertainment genre. Cartoon Network Korea will offer a variety of multi-genre animation titles from its world-renowned library, and will provide more than just Japanese titles or a single style of animation genre.”

Lee added, “To successfully operate in a highly developed market such as Korea, it is imperative to enter into an alliance with a local partner. In JoongAng Ilbo, we are partnering with an acknowledged leader in the Korean media business. The partnership is a natural extension of our long standing relationship with JAI and is further strengthened by JAI‘s deep understanding of our brand philosophy. By making this strategic investment to create a unique kids‘ entertainment channel in Korea, we are demonstrating our commitment to cater to the specific viewing preferences of the young Korean audience.”

“As a leading player in the kids‘ entertainment genre in Asia-Pacific, we understand that effective localisation is key for a network to resonate with the audience. Given our experience in successfully delivering specialised Cartoon Network services across the Asia-Pacific, we are confident that our compelling and diverse array of content, specially engineered for kids in Korea, will open up a whole new viewing experience for them,” said Turner Entertainment Networks Asia senior vice president and general manager Ian Diamond.

Cartoon Network Korea will provide a diverse mix of content drawn from production companies from around the world including Japan, Korea and Cartoon Network‘s own library – comprising more than 14,000 Warner Bros., MGM, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Originals series and shorts. Cartoon Network Korea will also work closely with JAI to examine opportunities for the development of animation in Korea.

MUMBAI: Kids have been gaining the mind space of more and more broadcasters across the globe. And why not? These tech babies who are the fastest to adopt any new technology are also contributing to core family decisions and have a large chunk of spending power at their disposal.

In such a scenario, kids broadcasters have to be that much more vigilant to cater to their needs unremittingly. At the second day of the Promax&BDA conference, kids programming took center stage.

While Nickelodeon UK vice president and creative director Peter Drake spoke on how to cater to the “Tough Crowd” i.e. the kids; whereas Walt Disney Television International (India) director programming Nachiket Pantvaidya touched upon the issue of how to localize international brands.

“Kids have changed the way they consume media. More and more kids now feel the need to be in control with all the gadgets that they are exposed to. Moreover, with parents being busy in their work, the need for a digital nanny has also become prevalent now. In such a scenario, we, as broadcasters have to make viewers see us as more than just a TV channel,” Drake said.

He spoke about an interactive show – Me:TV! on Nickelodeon UK, wherein kids who have a webcam can host the show from their homes. “The aim was to utilise new technology to deepen the kids‘ experience of our brand. User generated content can be tapped to a great extent in the near future,” Drake said.

Another point which came out was that there was a need for broadcasters to develop evolving communication so that it can work on all delivery platforms rather than just television, which in turn would throw up new revenue opportunities too.

“In the end, it‘s still about having great content but it‘s just about how you present it that matter the most,” Drake concluded.

Disney‘s Pantvaidya, on the other hand, dwelled on the various reasons why an international brand should localize itself to suit local sensibilities. “Localisation is cost effective and at the same time it is essential for building cultural relevance. As far as what needs to be localized in a channel to create relevance, it would be language, local faces, formats, narrative content and graphics,” he said.

MUMBAI: Following the precedent of its popular monthly audio podcasts, the Disneyland Resort in Southern California has now introduced a new monthly series of video podcasts that will bring all the magic and fun of “The Happiest Place on Earth” to fans around the world via their desktop computer or video iPod.

As one of the first organisations to successfully venture into audio podcasting (launching its first podcast in May 2005), Disneyland Resort has now debuted the first episode of its all-new Disneyland Resort Video Podcast series.

In the video episode, available now on the internet, viewers will witness the official world premiere of the new Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest and the re-opening of the classic attraction Pirates of the Caribbean, which has recently been enhanced. All the excitement of getting ready for this amazing event is captured in this mini-documentary.

Viewers will walk the red carpet with the film‘s stars Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, plus meet many of the die-hard Pirates fans. It‘s a fast-paced look (six minutes, four seconds) behind-the-magic at one of the memorable nights in Disneyland history.

Like the Official Disneyland Resort Audio Podcast, the new video podcast is a free monthly internet-based show accessible to a global audience via a “Disneyland” search on the iTunes Podcast Directory. Listeners can also subscribe to both podcast versions (audio and video) through the iTunes Podcast Directory to receive new episodes automatically each month.

The monthly video podcast takes viewers behind-the-scenes of what‘s new and exciting at the resort plus showcases stories from the resort‘s 50-year legacy of creating magical moments for guests from around the world. Similar to its initial entry into audio podcasting, the Disneyland Resort enters the emerging world of video podcasting in its infancy — there are currently only 150 free video podcasts available on the iTunes Podcast Directory but interest in, and use of, the medium is rapidly increasing.

Additionally, the newest episode of the Official Disneyland Resort Audio Podcast is now available online and takes listeners to all the excitement of the world premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest, which had its official bow at Disneyland on 24 June. Recorded live on the world‘s longest red-carpet (2,000 feet from the beginning of Main Street, USA to the riverfront in New Orleans Square) this podcast (38 minutes, 50 seconds) features an array of segments, including:

• Interviews on the red carpet with Pirates film producer Jerry Bruckheimer, actor Bill Nighy (Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man‘s Chest) and Disney CEO Bob Iger.


• Actor Johnny Depp encounters the newly added Captain Jack Sparrow for the first time inside the recently enhanced Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.


• Walt Disney himself in a very rare clip from a 1965 press conference at WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) where he describes his vision for Pirates of the Caribbean, the use of models in the creation of the attraction and his description of Imagineering.


• A new interview with Jason Surrell, Disney Imagineer and author of the book Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies.


• An encounter with one of the fans of the Official Disneyland Resort Podcast.


• A meeting with two diehard Pirates fans who traveled all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, and Mobile, Alabama, to visit Disneyland and participate in the premiere.


• Meet a Disneyland Cast Member who was so enthralled with the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl that she has become a bona fide Pirate historian.


• A five-year old Pirate fan gives the newly enhanced attraction a “Thumbs-Up!”


• Premiere recap and attraction overview from author and Disney historian Tim O‘Day.

Achieving a rating of four-and-a half stars out of a possible perfect five on the iTunes Podcast Directory, the Official Disneyland Resort Audio Podcast continues to be a hit with listeners. Each episode features an engaging mix of original programming recorded live throughout the resort including locations in Disneyland, Disney‘s California Adventure Park, the Downtown Disney District and the resort‘s three hotels — Disney‘s Grand Californian Hotel, Disneyland Hotel and Disney‘s Paradise Pier Hotel — creating a “you are there” audio experience.

MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) has inked a mobile content agreement with Buongiorno, a company in the field of multimedia content for telephony and digital channels. This move supports Disney‘s strategy to make its highly creative and engaging content available to consumers in a wide variety of ways.

Under the terms of the deal, Buongiorno will make Disney mobile content such as screensavers, wallpapers, ringtones and games available to consumers across Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Content includes Mickey Mouse and Friends (e.g. Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck), Disney Classics (e.g. Cinderella, Peter Pan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Finding Nemo and The Lion King.

“This agreement with Buongiorno gives consumers another means to access Disney‘s popular mobile content in southern Europe. Buongiorno‘s expertise and local market reach will help consumers find Disney mobile content anytime and anywhere, and we are pleased to add them to our network of distributors,” said WDIG Europe vice president of mobile Sunil Gunderia.

“We are delighted to be associated with a leading entertainment company like Disney to help bring their properties to market. Disney content will allow Buongiorno to offer several million customers in southern Europe a unique experience of entertainment on the move. We are looking forward to widening our collaboration to new markets, exploiting Buongiorno and its consumer brand Blinko‘s global network,” said Buongiorno Group head of global products Matteo Montan.

According to Informa, an international provider of specialist information and services, the fast-growing mobile entertainment market will be worth $42.8 billion by 2010, of which $11.2 billion will be generated from mobile games.

Disney content will become part of Buongiorno‘s portfolio of over 300,000 services and licensed contents, marketed to a potential target of more than one billion wired and wireless telephone users globally, through a multi-channel strategy that includes direct distribution through the brand Blinko as well as through partnerships with telecom companies and the most important media groups.

All of Disney‘s mobile content will be managed by Buongiorno through B!3A, its proprietary technology platform conceived to design, build, manage and provide high quality services to leading businesses and to mobile consumers globally. B!3A provides a full-blown set of components that allow performing all the main tasks to create a complete digital content marketplace embracing content acquisition, presentation, delivery, reporting, billing and CRM.