ITV

Tag: lines up

  • Nickelodeon lines-up new shows for 2005-06 season

    MUMBAI: Viacom kids’ channel Nickelodeon rolls out new live-action and animated series designed for 2005-06 season in the US. The kid’s channel is slated to introduce 248 episodes of 18 returning hit Nick and Nick Jr. series. The season will also showcase a programme created by Whoopi Goldberg.

    Totaling 124 hours of original programming, the line-up includes 20 new episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, 24 new episodes of preschool series Dora the Explorer as well as new seasons of Nickelodeon’s live action Zoey 101, Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Unfabulous, Drake & Josh and Romeo.

    The new programmes, which Nickelodeon is adding to its programming schedule will introduce Catscratch, in the month of September.

    Power Strikers, a live-action comedy executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg about a girl’s soccer team and The X’s to telecast from November is about a family spies living in the suburbs, informs an official communiqué.

    Meanwhile, Nick Jr. roster with three new play-to-learn series; Go, Diego, Go! to air in October an animated spin-off of the Dora the Explorer. The Wonder Pets, Wubby Widegt and Walden will beam from 2006.

    Launched in May 2002, Nicktoons targets kids and tweens and beams as a commercial-free television network.

    Meanwhile, come August, Nicktoons, which features animated favorites from the past, will become ad-supported in August.

    Nicktoons will also add three new series to its line-up in 2006; Skyland, Shuriken School and Kappa Mikey.

    Earlier this year an announcement was made from the channel that it would cease advertising junk food products on kids’ television, one media buyer doesn’t think Nickelodeon will suffer much.

  • Nick lines up French animation with a quirky twist

    MUMBAI: US kids channel Nicktoons from the Nickelodeon stable will partner with Paris-based studio, Xilam Animation, for a series Shuriken School.

    This is a quirky playground comedy with a martial arts twist. It tells the story of a boy’s adventures at Ninja school. Produced by Xilam and based on an original idea by Zinkia Entertainment, the series is made up of 26 half-hour shows and will air on Nicktoons next year.

    Nicktoons VP and GM Keith Dawkins said, “We are thrilled about our first-ever partnership with Xilam Animation and having such a fun and humorous show like Shuriken School on our air. We have already got a roster of hits and now we’re serving our fans even more fresh, new and cutting-edge animation.”

    Shuriken School blends Japanese and European design. This has created a unique, stand-out animation style with intensive use of digital 2-D animation, combining all the detail of high-quality illustration with action sequences.

    Targetted to 6-11 year-olds, the series tells the story of a 10 year-old Eizan Kaburagi’s rite of passage in his first year at Ninja school,Shuriken. The action takes place in the fictional town of Tokirohama, a melting pot of eastern and western cultures. In many ways Eizan is a normal kid with big dreams, hopes and ambitions.

    He hangs out with his best friends Jimmy B and Okuni; they pick conflicts with kids from the rival school, Katana, and have fun and drum up mischief. However, Shuriken School is not a normal type of school. It is a crazy place where the implausible and improbable happen: Children learn how to melt into the walls, fly over rooftops, disappear in a cloud of smoke and move as stealthily as an invisible cat. Teaching methods at the school are unorthodox and absurd things can and do happen.

    Xilam Animation is an independent audiovisual and multimedia production company. It creates, produces and distributes worldwide, top-quality animated content both 2D and 3D CGI for TV, film and video game formats. Xilam has produced internationally successful animated series for TV including Oggy and the Cockroaches, Ratz, The New Adventures of Lucky Luke and Space Goofs (aka Home to Rent). It recently completed Kaena — The Prophecy. This is the first European feature-length computer-animated 3D film.

  • Zee Cinema lines up ground activity on movie fest

    MUMBAI: Zee Cinema which has launched its three month long film festival – Shaniwar ki raat Amitabh ke saath – has now lined up a ground activity to push one of the blockbuster movies they are showing.

    Ahead of the screening of the blockbuster movie Coolie, the channel will conduct an on-ground activity through which it will entertain coolies of Mumbai (Dadar, VT & Mumbai Central), Kolkata, New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. Two days prior to telecast for one entire day, all coolies at these railway stations will be invited to participate in exciting fun games like dart throwing, target shooting, target being the villain in the film Coolie, arm wrestling and others.

    The following are dates for the ground activity at railway stations.

    Mumbai
    1) Bombay Central 5 January
    2) Bandra Kurla Terminus – 6 January
    3) CST – 7 January

    Delhi
    1) New Delhi- 6 January
    2) Nizammuddin – 7 January

    Lucknow -7 January; Kolkata -Howrah Station – 7 January; Ahmedabad – 7 January

    Winners of these games would win exciting prizes. The main objective of this activity is to interact with the Coolies at their work place and bringing into their lives, a day filled with fun and laughter, to conduct exciting and interesting games, through which they can win prizes and most importantly by making them feel wanted and cared for and appreciated by the Society at large and Zee Cinema, informs an official release.

    Speaking about this activity Zee Cinema business head Bharat Ranga offers, “We at Zee Cinema strive to bring the best to our viewers. Be it in terms of the movies we acquire like Naseeb, Mard, Coolie, which have never been shown on C & S before, or the ground activity we do. There is a humungous amount of work involved in coordinating a ground activity for coolies across 5 major cities, but we would like to celebrate a big film like Coolie with the people it is all about.”

    The ongoing Amitabh festival – Shaniwar ki raat Amitabh ke saath, which was launched on 4 December 2004, is a massive success with viewers clamouring for more, claims the channel. The festival is being communicated on air through innovative promos creating immense nostalgia amongst all Big B fans linked with a conscious 3 month long off air activity – SMS Big B, creating tremendous viewer interaction.

    The movie Naseeb was the highest rated movie across all Hindi movie channels in the entire week with a 2.39 TVR, while Mard received a 2.19TVR, the channel claims quoting TAM. The festival has gained immense popularity with viewers. Films like Aaj Ka Arjun & Akayla, which have been telecast earlier, have garnered great ratings of 1.15 & .8 TVR respectivelyl, the release adds.