Category: Kids

MUMBAI: Disney Channel will start showcasing the exhilarating rock ‘n roll musical Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam from 15 October.
The film, that will be shown at 3 pm on the Navratri and Dussehra weekend, stars Demi Lovato and Jonas Brothers. Disney Channel‘s popular hosts – Tara and Murtuza – will be introducing all the fun in Camp Rock 2 The Final Jam with exclusive behind the scenes footage and cool trivia on the film.

The Hindi film soundtrack, featuring 15 songs spanning hip-hip, rock and pop/rock performed by the cast, has been composed by Sangeet and Siddharth Haldipur and sung by fresh new voices such as Apeksha Dandekar.
 
The sequel, choreographed by Rosero McCoy, is a tour de force for actress and recording artiste Demi Lovato. It showcases both the music and charm of Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas and includes their younger brother Frankie Jonas in his TV film debut.

The highly anticipated sequel also brings back fan favourites from Camp Rock — Maria Canals-Barrera, Meaghan Martin, Alyson Stoner, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, Jasmine Richards, Daniel Fathers, Roshon Fegan and Jordan J Francis. The film introduces two exciting new performers, Matthew Mdot Finley and Chloe Bridges.

The sequel follows Mitchie and her friends as they return to Camp Rock for another great summer of music and fun. But when big-money, state-of-the-art Camp Star opens across the lake, it lures away many instructors and campers — putting the future of Camp Rock in jeopardy. Mitchie emerges as a leader determined to save the camp and challenges the egocentric Luke Williams and his fellow Camp Star campers to a Final Jam — an end-of-summer performance duel, may the best camp win.

Written by Dan Berendsen and the team of Karin Gist and Regina Hicks, the film is based on characters created by Karin Gist, Regina Hicks, Julie Brown and Paul Brown.

Disney Channel is a 24-hour kid-driven, family inclusive television network that taps into the world of kids and families through original series and movies.

MUMBAI: Hyderabad-based DQ Entertainment has signed a co-production agreement with the MoonScoop group, France, and Classic Media, USA, for the second season of Casper‘s Scare School in high-end 3D animated CGI format at Mipcom 2010, Cannes.
The co-production will have a global budget of approximately Euro 7 million. The production of the second instalment is scheduled to start later this month.
 
Casper has become one of the most famous properties with global recognition for DQE. Season one, which premiered in Canada on YTV in January last year, was a huge success and has since been broadcast on Nick and also across the entire South Asia and Sun TV network‘s kids channel Chutti TV in November the same year.

TF1, the leading French broadcaster and Cartoon Network, US, are already committed to broadcasting the second season. Cartoon Network, US is expected to launch the second season by 31 October next year.

Says DQE Group chairman and CEO Tapaas Chakravarti, “We are extremely happy to collaborate again with Moonscoop for the co-production of this iconic property, Casper‘s Scare School. The first season was a huge success and we expect to carry this momentum into the second season.”
 

MUMBAI: Hyderabad-based DQE has, in association with French Broadcaster TFI, signed a co-production deal with French production company Super Prod and France-based Story Board Animation with a global pre-sales budget of Euro 7 million.
Super Prod will hold the rights of the French version of the 52-episode animated series Lassie and Friends, being co-developed by DQE with Classic Media – UK for worldwide distribution, particularly for the French-speaking Europe (France and domestic territories like Monaco, Andorra, French-speaking Switzerland and Belgium).

Lassie and Friends is a fast-paced, action-packed drama, loaded with suspense, charm and comedy. It has Lassie living in our modern world and involved in new adventures along with her friends.
 
Comments DQE Group Chairman and CEO Tapas Chakravarti, “The heart-warming response Lassie and Friends has received at Cannes has given us confidence in our endeavour to reincarnate the world‘s most loved canine. Lassie, in her new animated avatar, going into production shortly, will surely be loved by audiences across the world. We are grateful to our long-standing partners ZDF, Classic Media and TF1 for their continued support in our initiative to resurrect classical properties and welcome Super Prod on this new journey.”

The series, in dazzling animation, is targeted at children between 5 to 10 years.

MUMBAI: DQ Entertainment, the animation, gaming and live action entertainment production and distribution company, has signed a new co-production agreement for its property, The New Adventures of Peter Pan with ZDF Group (Germany).

DQE is producing the 26X30 minutes episodes in a 3D stereoscopic animated CGI format with Method Animation (France), and has now concluded a deal with ZDF to co-produce the series.

DQE Group chairman and CEO Tapaas Chakravarti said, “The production of Peter Pan is in line with our strategic business plan to work globally with knowledgeable and powerful business partners to produce high quality branded IP to attract audiences and generate multiple revenue streams for licensing, publishing and merchandising. We are confident that Peter, Wendy and the mischievous and endearing Tinker Bell will capture hearts around the world.”
 
ZDF will have the right to appoint executive producers with full editorial and distribution rights across German speaking countries for Europe (excluding Italy and Turkey) UK, Ireland, South Africa and Latin America. France Televisions has broadcasting rights for France and French speaking territories.

“We at ZDF Enterprises are proud to be part of an enthusiastic team of experienced co-production partners who all have the same goal: creating programs that touch the hearts, minds and souls of worldwide audiences,” said ZDF Enterprises president and CEO Alexander Coridass. “The New Adventures of Peter Pan is yet another example of an historic model that is filled with new life using modern, breathtaking production technologies and innovative ideas from international partners working jointly together.”

The New Adventures of Peter Pan is being produced at a global budget of approximately 10 million euros in high-end 3D stereoscopic CGI, and is anticipated to be broadcast by the beginning of 2012.

DQE has already signed De Agostini (Italy) and ATV (Turkey) as co-producers of the series for the project. While De Agostini, the leading Italian film, television and media conglomerate will hold exclusive Pay TV, video on demand and licensing and merchandising distribution rights for Italy and Italian speaking countries, broadcaster ATV will hold broadcast rights for Turkey.

MUMBAI: Galli Galli Sim Sim, the children‘s television show, is back with an all new season on leading kids‘ channels – Cartoon Network and Pogo.

Beginning 4 October, the new season features a whole lot of new stories and adventures that would help children learn the importance of getting along, caring for their environment and habitat, taking care of their health, new words and much more.
The series will be telecast every Monday to Friday at 8 am on Cartoon Network and at 8.30 am on Pogo.

Talking on the TV series, Turner International India Vice President and Deputy General Manager – Entertainment Networks, South Asia, Monica Tata says, “Going beyond TV entertainment, the Galli Galli Sim Sim series underscores our commitment and leverages our powerful platforms, Cartoon Network and Pogo to encourage kids across India to exercise their basic right to education. We are delighted and proud to present season 5 of this happy, informative, engaging series.” 
 
This season sees Chamki and Googly dealing with sadness about a friend who has gone away or times when the grown-ups are too busy to spend time with them. Boombah gets homesick for his mother‘s delicious fresh salad and Grover tries to show Toto how to make new friends.
Amidst all these are numerous adventures, including lost keys on the beach, talking trees and frogs, missing bees and sheep, planes made out of air, nodding dinosaurs and even a shrinking Muppet!
Galli Galli Sim Sim is watched by 11 million children every year of which more than half follow the show throughout the year.

MUMBAI: Kids entertainment channel Pogo is set to premier Barbie A Fashion Fairytale on 3 October at 12 noon.
The movie will have a repeat telecast at 8 pm.
 
Barbie‘s latest adventure begins with, Barbie and her dog Sequin going to visit her aunt‘s fashion house in Paris, only to find that it is about to be shut down forever. Barbie comes up with a brilliant idea to save the business after she discovers three enchanting Flairies with sparkle-magic powers.

During her adventures, Barbie discovers her inner sparkle and learns that magic is what happens when you believe in yourself.

MUMBAI: Hyderabad-based DQE has appointed Plus Licens AB (Plus Licens), one of Sweden’s leading licensing and merchandising agents, as its licensing representative for The Jungle Book.

Under the terms of the agreement, Plus Licens will represent DQE on the commercial exploitation of Jungle Book’s merchandising and publishing agreements in several countries including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and several other countries in Eastern Europe.
 
The agreement is commercially significant to DQE with estimated potential revenues in excess of a million dollars for the license term as estimated by Plus Licens. The Swedish company intends to market The Jungle Book merchandise and books to coincide with the TV broadcast of the series scheduled to begin early next year.

Says DQE Group chaiman and CEO Tapas Chakravarti, “As DQE continues to execute its strategy of capitalizing and licensing opportunities of our core global brands, we believe our partnership with Plus Licens will maximize commercial opportunities in these regions. Plus Licens has an impeccable track record stretching back over 30 years coupled with tremendous market reach in the Nordic countries and over 30 East European nations.”
 

MUMBAI: The experiment of telecasting live cricket in a kids channel seems to have worked for Disney. The three Champions League Twenty20 matches got a cumulative reach of 7.5 million on Disney Channel and 6.3 million on Disney XD, demonstrating that the T20 format is popular among the youth audiences.

While the reach growth was remarkable, the ratings rose but still stayed below 1 TVR. The matches, which featured some of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises, fetched an average TVR of 0.16 on Disney Channel and 0.17 on Disney XD, according to Tam data.

Says Disney associate director, programming, Devika Prabhu, “We specifically targeted co-viewing in line with the themes of sports and spirit of accomplishment which is integral to the DNA of Disney XD. And what better way to engage a young fan and their family than cricket. To kick off this promotion, we ran a contest on Disney XD which received about 70,000 entries in a little over a week. It had three lucky winners meet the Captains of the three Indian teams in South Africa and featured in the pre and post show of the matches.” 
 
The channels more than doubled their viewership in a specific target segment. Says Prabhu, “Viewership across the channels more than doubled in the 4-14 TG and brought in an incremental 433 per cent in family viewership. An incremental 2.7 million viewers (up 54 per cent) tuned into the channels across the first two matches (7.6 million versus 4.9 million).”

While Disney Channel‘s viewership amongst kids for the time-slot grew by 160 per cent, co-viewing across the time-slot grew by 375 per cent as compared to the previous four weeks. The slot reached an additional two million viewers, up 80 per cent at 4.4 million, as compared to the previous four-week average of 2.4 million.

Disney XD got a boost among its core 10-14-year-olds in the kids genre with a 34 per cent market share, according to Prabhu. The slot reached an additional 1.4 million viewers, up 67 per cent at 3.4 million as compared to the previous four-week average of two million.

In terms of viewership, the slot grew 400 per cent to an average of 0.15 TVR during the cricket matches as compared to the previous four weeks.

MUMBAI: A host of new exhibitors from the kids entertainment sector will make their presence felt at the television trade event MipJunior and Mipcom next month in Cannes, France.

The list includes Skechers Entertainment Zevo-3, Technicolor Pete and Pickles, CreaCon Entertainment City of Friends and 41 Entertainment Blake : Double Identity. 
 
In addition, Saban Brands Power Rangers returns to MipJunior and Mipcom with international television distributor MarVista Entertainment, as part of a major relaunch of the Power Rangers brand.

Mipcom 2010 will feature animation studios and children’s entertainment companies, with a combined presence of more than 1,680 animation buyers, making it the world’s largest exhibition and global acquisition marketplace for kids programming.

The 13th edition of MIPJunior, the international showcase for children‘s and youth TV programme screenings, will this year host over 1000 new programmes in its digital library. The event takes place from 2-3 October.

CreaCon Entertainment CEO Carl Christian Hamre says, “The screening process and facilities at MipJunior are so important for both broadcaster and rights owner, providing quality comprehensive screening time for the buyer and for the vendor and real-time feedback on who has viewed the series and their reaction” .

Out of the many companies targeting kids’ entertainment this year, Mipcom Opening Night Party and Internet Zone sponsor Saban Brands aims to make a big splash with the 18th season of the Power Rangers, along with television distributor MarVista Entertainment, sponsor of the MipJunior Networking Lunch.

Saban Brands president Elie Dekel says, “We are thrilled to have Saban Brands at this year’s Mipcom. The wide world of television comes to Mipcom every year ¬— it’s where we can meet our partners and forge new alliances. And especially this year, as we re-launch the Power Rangers, there is no better place to do business than Mipcom.”

Produced by Method Animation‘s Aton Soumache, the new animated production of Le Petit Prince will world-premiere before MipJunior’s Closing Cocktail on 3 October. Soumache says, “The kids‘ animation market has gone through tremendous changes over the past years. Kids watch more and more high-quality programmes while overall quality of the programmes is increasing. Mipcom is a must-be place for the animation market and for Method Animation. It is the perfect place to feel new trends, the shape of the market and the financing opportunities.”

Also on 3 October, Sesame’s Street’s Bert and Ernie are inviting MipJunior’s attendees to a special presentation of ARD/NDR’s Sesamstrasse’s Carrot for Two, co-produced with Sesame Workshop.

Mipcom director Laurine Garaude says, “The kids’ entertainment sector is extremely dynamic. The number of animation exhibitors at Mipcom has risen 12 per cent in five years and we will welcome over 680 exhibiting companies this year, new sponsors and key newcomers. We are thrilled to see so many animation and kids’ programming companies attending Mipcom and MipJunior this year.”

With 95 years of experience in entertainment innovation, Technicolor is nevertheless a newcomer company at MIPJunior 2010. Technicolor’s VP Animation Steven Wendland says, “Technicolor is so excited to enter the original content business that we proudly plan to showcase our very first property, Pete and Pickles at this year’s MipJunior”.

12 Korean kids’ entertainment companies, including Roi Visual and SAMG Animation, will be present at MipJunior. The inaugural, What’s new in Korea venue, sponsored by Korea Culture and Content Agency, will provide MipJunior delegates with the opportunity to discover new partnership, co-production and content opportunities with their Korean counterparts.

On the conference front, Disney Channel’s series Hannah Montana co-creator, writer and executive producer Michael Poryes will give a keynote address at MipJunior on 3 October.

Skechers Entertainment senior VP creative development Kristen Van Cott will lead the Case Study conference Creating a Family Brand held on 2 October. Van Cott says, “For a producer to be able to grab the attention of today‘s kid viewers, content needs to tell a good story, offer compelling graphics and be interactive. The programming at Mipcom is remarkably diverse, yet the most successful shows all share those qualities. This market is essential to Skechers Entertainment as we introduce our branded content to the world.”

MUMBAI: In line with its plan to create and retain the IP of shows, UTV Television has registered a kids fun-cum-learning game show format, Spell Champ.

The TV content company has also started the production of the show for Sun TV Network’s Tamil kids channel, Chutti TV. The show is scheduled to air on the channel in early October. Chutti TV has roped in Alpenlibe as title sponsor for the show.
 
“We have created a new format and registered it under Spell Champ. Unlike other spelling-based game shows, which gets into very serious competition, our show is also meant to entertain,” UTV Television COO Santosh Nair tells Indiantelevision.com.

The format will see kids participating in the spelling quiz in a fun way – like running around, doing some tasks, getting letters together and forming the words rather than just spelling it out.

“We have started shooting of the show and it will air on Chutti TV in the first week of October. It breaks the monotonous approach of international shows of similar formats,” Nair adds.

UTV Television is bullish on retaining IPRs. The production house is also planning to make finite series and pitch to channels. “We seriously believe that retaining IPR is going to be the future. We are working on certain finite series, where we will retain the IPR. We will produce it first, before even going to the channel and pitching it,” Nair says.

The production house has also started shooting for Rakhi Ka Insaaf (Imagine TV) and a Hindi remake of Kongal (for Star Plus, tentatively titled Rangoli…Rishton Ki). Both the shows will hit the TV screens in October.