Warner Bros.
Animation Producing "THE
BATMAN" An
All-New Take on the Dark Knight
Groundbreaking
Series Swoops Into Action On Kids' WB! in Fall 2004
Cartoon Network in Spring 2005
CYNTHIA TURNER'S CYNOPSIS
Kids! 02/12/04
Good morning. It's
Thursday, February 12, 2004,
and this is your early morning
Kids!
briefing.
Early yesterday morning The Walt Disney Company announced that its
Board of Directors received and would evaluate an unsolicited proposal
(Read: takeover bid) from the huge cable company Comcast Corp.,
which offered a total bid of upwards of $66 billion ($54.1 billion in
stock combined, together with the assumption of Disney’s debt). The
bid came on the day that Disney executives were preparing to walk into
two days of meetings with institutional investors and research analysts
at Disney World in Orlando, which prompted Disney to announce prior to
the meetings that its quarterly earnings showed improvement and those
improvements came earlier than intended. In addition to a sizable
debt, Disney has had some significant upsets since the beginning of the
year including Pixar ceasing its drawn out contract negotiations with the
Mouse House, as well as the very public exit of Disney board members Roy
Disney and Stanley Gold, all of whom made, and continue to make, quite a
bit of noise as they let the door swing close behind them. The
questions that are being asked by industry insiders and observers are, if
the Comcast offer is large enough to earn it face time with the mouse and
if the deal were to go ahead, how weird would that be for the other cable
companies? In case you just arrived home from the red planet,
should Comcast’s bid be accepted and approved, it would make Comcast the
biggest media company on this planet. Which is kind of a nice segue
into Toy Fair mode and the possibility of a new line of Brian Roberts,
CEO/Comcast, Michael Eisner, CEO Disney and maybe even Roy Disney action
figures for holiday 2004 … or not.
KidScreen magazine opens the doors to its 5th annual KidScreen
Summit today in NYC. Over the course of the two day confluence,
attendees (this year numbering some 500+ kids TV programmers, producers
and members of the licensing and merchandising industry, and of course,
me), will have their choice of 20, 30-minute seminars including this
mornings’ opening keynote panel where the topic will be State of the Kid
Nation with panel members Charlie Caminada, COO/HIT Entertainment; Gary
Knell, President & CEO/Sesame Workshop; Al Ovadia, EVP/Sony Pictures
Consumer Products; Bruce Steinberg, Chairman & CEO/Fox Kids Europe
and Cyma Zarghami, President/Nickelodeon. Other seminar topics and
speaker/participants include: a discussion with Al Kahn Chairman &
CEO/4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (moderator, Jocelyn Longwork,
Editor/KidScreen); Doing Business with Japan; Sponsored & Branded
Programming; Developing Hit Programming from Books; Pitch It!
(moderator Amy Friedman VP & Creative Director/Noggin); and
individual ’30 minutes with:’ industry folks including Jen
Bergstrom/Simon & Schuster, Pierre Belaisch/Canal J, Nicole Keeb/ZDF,
Peter Moss/Corus Entertainment, Bob Higgins/Cartoon Network; Brown
Johnson/Nick Jr.; and a closing keynote address by John Wilson, SVP &
Chief Program Executive/PBS.
Beginning with a few preview opportunities today through Saturday, the
101st International Toy Fair officially begins on Sunday, February
15 and runs through Wednesday, February 18 in NYC. The annual event
brings toy retailers, wholesalers, importers and buying groups, featuring
over 100,000 toy and kid’s entertainment products from 25 countries
together for meetings being held at toys show rooms in and around the The
Toy Center at 200 5th Ave.(between 23/24) and at exhibitor booths at the
Javitz Center.
Cartoon Network and Take-Two Licensing, Inc. have entered
into a long term partnership providing Take-Two with the ‘first look’
rights to publish & distribute video games based on Cartoon
Network properties targeted to K6-11. As part of the deal,
Cartoon Network will present new properties to Take-Two at the earliest
stages of series development. Under the terms of the deal Take-Two
may exercise rights to produce games for all future properties owned by
the network and will publish titles for the usual suspects in the next
generation gaming console arena. The partnership begins with a new
game based on Codename: Kids Next Door, slated for a holiday 2004 release
for Game Boy Advance, to be followed by releases for other platforms in
2005. Take-Two Licensing is a subsidiary of video game publisher
& distributor Take Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Kathy Bates joins the cast of the Fox TV year end CGI
animated Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, according to
Daily Variety. Bates will lend her voice to Sea Hag/Siren a
longtime enemy of Popeye.
Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) has partnered with its
master toy licensee, Mattel, and VEIL Interactive Technologies
to create a hybrid technology of action figure and vehicle play and
interactive TV. The technology is exclusive to WBCP and Mattel for
2004, and will make its retail debut fall 2004 with products from the new
The Batwave toy line based on the new Warner Bros. animated series
The Batman. The concept works like this: each episode of The Batman
will be encoded with digital data using VEIL (Video Encoded Invisible
Light) technology. While watching the show, the toys can be activated to
receive the encoded signal. After the signal is received, engine
graphics, diagnostics, gadgets, story line background from the show,
character information, power-ups, and more, are activated within the
toys. In addition, when the show is on, the toys recognize the show and
respond with lights, motion and sound. When The Batman isn’t on TV,
kids just play with the toys the old fashion way.
Hasbro’s Tiger Electronics will showcase the newly expanded video
disc library of episodes of TV series and the new addition of several
feature movie titles, for its kid targeted personal video player
VideoNow, introduced at the end of last year. The new video
disc titles include programming from Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and
Nickelodeon, noted episodes of American Idol, Fear Factor, America’s
Funniest Home Videos and CBS’ I Love Lucy as well as feature length film
titles Cody Banks, Snoopy Come Home and A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
Additionally there will be new original content discs, similar to the
Hilary Duff’s VideoNow release, A Day in My Life and Behind the Scenes
making of Cody Banks, including athletes (BMX-bike riders, Skateboarders
and surfers), musical artists like Romeo, and more Behind the Scenes
titles.
In other Hasbro news, the company announced yesterday that they
have successfully settled a lawsuit against Perfect Deal to
stop the sale of fake Beyblade toys that infringes on its
trademarks. The defendants have agreed to immediately stop all
sales and distribution of the infringing merchandise, and destroy its
inventory, as well as pay Hasbro an undisclosed amount in settlement,
according to Hasbro. This lawsuit was one of several that Hasbro
has filed against various parties in the US, Canada and Europe.
I am not sure if this is all good news or not but … According to the
results of AOL Games/Digital Marketing Services’ nationwide
‘Casual Games Report’ (casual gaming defined as having played
online games with the last three months), which surveyed 3,600+ casual
gaming women, men and teens about their online game playing habits,
nearly twice as many adults as teens play internet games for 8+
consecutive hours. And, of those who play games on the web, women
in the 40+ category play most often and spend the greatest number of
hours per week doing so, which overshadows both men and teens.
Other findings include: Men spend more time on the internet than do women
(23.2 vs. 21.6 hours); Women 40+ spend much of their time online playing
games (9.1 hrs vs. the men at 6.1 hrs). These women were also more
likely to play online games every day than men or teens of either
gender. While gaming is replacing TV time, movies, reading
exercising and time outside for 44% of the women surveyed, what is
perhaps more surprising, is that 28% of these women play online games
between midnight and 5a. As for teens, well they are still finding
7.4 hours in their week to play online games; with many of them spending
more time playing than they do reading or doing their homework. I
wonder if most online purchases take place during those overnight hours
as well.
The NAB has announced plans to hold a summit this spring on
the topic of responsible programming, or preventing indecency on
television. That announcement followed the letter sent by FCC
Commissioner Michael Powell to the NAB, NCTA and to each of the broadcast
networks asking them to 'clean up their act', self-govern and to
utilize responsible programming standards. NAB President/CEO Eddie Fritts
responded to Powell's letter with his own, stating in part , "Even
before the recent incidents, our members were engaged in extensive
discussions about indecent programming and what role NAB should play in
the growing debate over broadcast programming." In 1951 the
NAB issued its own programming Code of Ethics: 1) Shows will not
sympathize with evil; 2) Shows will not degrade honesty, goodness and
innocence; 3) Figures exercising lawful authority should not be
ridiculed; 4) Law breakers must not go unpunished. I don't think
this is what Powell, or anyone else, has in mind.
Correction: Information concerning two new properties headed to MIP next
month was reversed and should have read:
· Beat
Freaks (26x:11); target K6-11; CGI animation series; Spin
Entertainment (creator/producer); Mainframe Entertainment (distributor)
Kids Cable Network Averages in thousands (000) for Tuesday February 10, 2004, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON: K2-11 1154; K6-11 506; TWEENS 9-14 332
DISNEY CHANNEL: K2-11 711; K6-11 396; TWEENS 9-14 297
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 589; K6-11 325; TWEENS 9-14 246
ABC FAMILY: K2-11 139; K6-11 108; TWEENS 9-14 146
TOON DISNEY: K2-11 125; K6-11 49; TWEENS 9-14 35 Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data
A MESSAGE FROM CYNOPSIS: Kids!
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Answer to yesterday's Trivia Question:This young fictional lady lived on Prince Edward Island. The person who really lives in the house, is the same person who invented the character. Who is this fictional character? And as an extra bonus, who is the real person living in the house? ANNE OF GREEN GABLES "lived" in Lucy Maud Montgomery's home. Kudos to: Carolyn Mailloux-Rawle Murdy/Charleston; David Lerner-Mindshare/NY; Holly Gregory-Nickelodeon/NY; Penelope Jawkes-Fisher Price Brands/NY; Helaine Billings-Prof Grandmother/Chicago; Liz Stahler-L&G Licensing/LA; Patrick Connelly/LA; Avery Cobern-Fox Box/LA; Katherine Kaufman-Televix Ent/LA; and internationally from Barbara Jones-Sailor Jones Media/Ontario; Aubray Lynas-Corus Ent/Toronto; and Michele Schofield-Cartoon's Boomerang Net/Australia.
Today's Trivia Question: What was the name of the 5-foot tall Ant people from the planet Carillon? (To answer the trivia, click hereand please remember to include your name, company, city and time zone. Only the second four from each time zone will appear in tomorrow's kudos list.)
Later -- Gwen
Gwen Billings for Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis Kids!
Publisher/Editor Cynthia Turner
02/12/04 6:02am Free Subscriptions-- SubjectKids! Searchable Archivewww.Cynopsis.com Cynopsis Kids! Ad Sales 203-526-8978 Submit Press Releases to Gwen Billings at
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