Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo have a channel of their own with today’s launch of TELETOON Retro. Offering fresh laughs with familiar friends like Fat Albert, Tom & Jerry, The Jetsons and Superfriends, TELETOON Retro is available in over 2.7 million Canadian homes on channel 599 on ExpressVu Digital TV from Bell and channel 284 on Rogers Digital Cable. Premiering today at 6 pm, TELETOON Retro gives audiences the chance to be a kid again. More information can be found on the TELETOON Retro website at teletoon.com.

Cynopsis: Kids!

10/01/07

Good morning. It’s Monday, October 1, 2007, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Coolabi, TV production and licensing company, has inked a deal to acquire production company, Indie Kids.  Moving forward, Coolabi will produce all Indie Kids’ shows and formats.  Dan Maddicott, Indie Kids’ co-founder and Creative Director, will join Coolabi as an Executive Producer, reporting to Coolabi’s Head of Children’s Programming, Julian Scott.  Indie Kids series include The Large Family, Fungus The Bogeyman and The Worst Witch.

Optimal Group Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire WowWee Ltd., the Hong Kong-based developer/marketer/supplier of consumer robotic, toy and electronic products, as well as the assets of WowWee Marketing, and WowWee Group, for a price tag of $65 million.  WowWee Marketing and WowWee Group provide services to WowWee Limited in the operation of its business.  Some of WowWee’s most popular products include the Robo line (e.g. Roboraptor, Robosapien, Robopet etc) and one of its newest products, Flytech Dragonfly.  According to the deal WowWee’s Senior management, including the majority shareholders of WowWee Ltd, will continue to toil for the company, following completion of the acquisition.

MORE KIDS STUFF

Animal Planet debuted the Meerkat Manor episode Friday night that told of and examined the events surrounding the death of Flower, the dominant female of the Whiskers, an extended family of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert.  The episode, A Journey’s End, was followed by an online chat with series executive producer Mick Kaczorwoski, on the network website.  Future episodes of the docudrama will follow the group as they re-align following the passing of Flower.  Additionally, production continues on a Meerkat Manor feature-length film, which features Flower.  Meerkat Manor is produced for Animal Planet by Oxford Scientific Films

HBO Family has acquired CCI Entertainment’s youth-targeted reality series, Ghost Trackers.  HBO Family plans to offer an early preview of Ghost Trackers in October 2007, in advance of the official launch of the series on the channel in January 2008.  Ghost Trackers pits kids against kid as they investigate paranormal activity in haunted locations.  Created by Chris Gudgeon and produced by Jim Corston and Arnie Zipursky, the series is based on the science of ghost hunting with contestants judged on skill and competence by their peers.  Ghost Trackers had its original premiere in Canada on YTV.

Digimon Data Squad, the fifth season of Toei Animation’s Digimon series, premieres tonight at 8:30p on Toon Disney’s Jetix programming block.  Additionally, Bandai America is set to release a line of Digimon Data Squad toys this November, while Namco Bandai Games American will release video games based on the new season later this fall.

Look for BRB Internacional to present the first episodes of the new cutout animated series Papawa (104x7min) at MIPCOM Junior this coming weekend.  Targeted to K6-10, Papawa is a non-verbal narrative comedy that features sound and music.  Based on the works of theater group Tricicle, the series is produced in HD by Spain’s, as part of a Hispano-French co-production between Screen 21, Televisio de Catalunya (TVC) and 2 Minutes.  Papawa will be available for air in fall 2008.

Studio B Productions inks a deal with LUK International for season four of the animated series Being Ian, for Spain, Portugal and Andorra.  LUK now holds broadcast rights to all 52 episodes of the series in those regions.  Nelvana Enterprises, which holds international distribution rights for Being Ian and Class of the Titans, has completed new agreements for both series.  Being Ian goes to Zebracom (Columbia), FETV (Panama), MNet (South Africa), Soread (Morocco), and TV Afrique (French speaking Africa), all acquiring 52 episodes.  Taking 26 episodes of the series are, MediaCorp TV12 (Singapore), Lativi (Indonesia), and TELEPOOL GmbH (Switzerland).  Ten new broadcast deals for Class of the Titans, include ABC (New Zealand) and MNet (South Africa) all picking up 52 episodes.  Those taking the first season of the series include RTE (Ireland), TSR (Switzerland), TV7 (Bulgaria), ABC (New Zealand), MediaCorp TV12 (Singapore), Colombia (Incomsa S.A.), Soread (Morocco and Africa), KM Productions (Middle East) and DigiTurk (Turkey), with Juita-Viden (Malaysia) acquiring the first 13 episodes of the series.

Several new TV and home entertainment deals for Icon Animation’s girl-aimed animated series Lola & Virginia: the series has been picked up by commercial broadcaster MTV3 (Finland); E-MAS for air on public TV RTM (Malaysia); and taking the TV and home video rights is O6 TV (Greece); in Latin America, Tycoon, a home video distributor/merchandising agent, takes the home video rights for Mexico and Central America.  Additionally, Icon is producing online games for the series website ( www.lolavirginia.com ), which is available in Spanish, English and Catalan and soon in Italian and Portuguese.  Lola & Virginia is a co-production between Icon Animation, Millimages, France 3, TV Catalunya and ETB.

Canada’s Galakids will be at MIPCOM with two projects, which it is developing with Canadian kids TV channels.

• Cartoon Gene, a mixed live-action and CGI animated comedy for tweens.  Galakids is working on the series with Teletoon.
• Surly Acres, currently in development with YTV for K6-11, follows the adventures of kids that live full time at a campground. 

MARKETING/LICENSING

BKN New Media, a unit of animation producers/distributors BKN International, will attend Brand Licensing Europe to identify licensing partners for two new K8-12 aimed series:

• Dork Hunters From Outer Space (36×22 min & 1×60 min) launches in the UK on ITV (GMTV1, GMTV2, Freeview and sky Kids) in fall 2008.  Current partners include Character Options, which serves as the pan-European master toy licensee, which plans to rollout a toy line based on the series in fall 2008.  Other TV partners include, RLT2 (Germany) where the series launches in spring 2008, CTC (Russia), Fox 8 (Australia) and TV7 (Bulgaria).
• Zorro: Generation Z (26×22 min & 1×60 min), this modern day Zorro has traded in his horse for a purple motorcycle and is armed with lots of gadgets.  Broadcast partners include Mediaset (Italy), Telemundo (US), CTC (Russia), SABC (South Africa), Fox 8 (Australia), Falcon Film (Middle East), Rede Record (Brazil), MBC (Middle East), RTM (Malaysia), TMC (Turkey), Fairmead (South Africa) and TV7 (Bulgaria).

Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products has named Jakks Pacific as the domestic-based master toy licensee for Neopets. Under the deal Jakks will create a line of toys and merchandise based on Neopets including plush toys, action figures, accessories, playsets, Plug It In & Play TV Games, as well as role-play products, vehicles, electronics, novelties, stationery products and Neopets Key Quest, a new multiplayer collecting game.  The plush toys will feature codes that allow players to unlock virtual extensions of the toys, which can be used as part of Neopets Key Quest.  The Jakks Neopets collectible plush products are slated to be available at retail from early spring 2008, followed by other products that fall.

The Hardy Boys are set to go interactive, as JoWooD and The Adventure Company, PC game publishers, complete a five-year partnership deal with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, to develop games based on The Hardy Boys books.  The first title The Tower Treasure is slated for a fall 2008 release.  The Adventure Company is a division of DreamCatcher Interactive, which in turn is owned by Austria’s Jowood Productions.

STONE SOUP

Weekend Box Office Estimates for kids/tweens/teens rated G, PG or PG-13; September 28-30, 2007:
The Game Plan (Buena Vista) PG                        Opening Weekend $22.7m
Mr. Woodcock (New Line) PG-13                         $3.0m-3 wk total $19.6m
Sydney White (Universal) PG-13                         $2.7m-2 wk total $8.6m
Across the Universe (Sony (Revolution)) PG-13    $2.1m-3 wk total $5.5m
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) PG-13             $1.7m-9 wk total $222.8m
Transformers (Paramount (DreamWorks)) PG-13  $1.2m-13 wk total $315.2m
Rush Hour 3 (New Line) PG-13                            $1.1m-8 wk total $137.7m
Dragon Wars (Freestyle Releasing) PG-13            $1.1m-3 wk total $10.2m
Mr. Bean’s Holiday (Universal) G                         $675,000-6 wk total $31.8m
Balls of Fury (Rogue Pictures) PG-13                   $550,000-5 wk total $32.1m
Source: Box Office Mojo

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Adastra Creative expands its creative team by inking a deal with Anna Starkey as Consultant Development Producer.  She will work with Adastra founders and Co-Directors Mellie Buse and Jan Page to drive in-house production.  Starkey is also serves as a writer on Guess with Jess and Thomas the Tank Engine, in addition to having written for a range of other kid properties.  She is also a sketch comedy writer and stand-up comic.  Based in the UK, Adastra is currently producing Grandpa In My Pocket (26×15 min), the first live action comedy aimed at preschoolers for CBeebies.

RATINGS

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Monday, September 24, 2007, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 980; K6-11 433; TWEENS 9-14 339
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 837; K6-11 506; TWEENS 9-14 421
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 467; K6-11 304; TWEENS 9-14 220
TOON DISNEY:           K2-11 133; K6-11   74; TWEENS 9-14   68
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Tuesday, September 25, 2007, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 941; K6-11 390; TWEENS 9-14 325
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 837; K6-11 553; TWEENS 9-14 457
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 467; K6-11 294; TWEENS 9-14 225
TOON DISNEY:           K2-11 133; K6-11   63; TWEENS 9-14   39
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 920; K6-11 365; TWEENS 9-14 293
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 886; K6-11 555; TWEENS 9-14 430
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 427; K6-11 253; TWEENS 9-14 173
TOON DISNEY:           K2-11 125; K6-11   62; TWEENS 9-14   33
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Thursday, September 27, 2007, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 932; K6-11 391; TWEENS 9-14 333
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 781; K6-11 487; TWEENS 9-14 421
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 502; K6-11 301; TWEENS 9-14 207
TOON DISNEY:           K2-11 136; K6-11   58; TWEENS 9-14   35
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE CYNOPSIS FOUNDATION, INC.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: In the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang who played the friendly toymaker?  BENNY HILL   Kudos to:  Mark Lowden-Azzurro HD,LLC/NY; Melissa Baumgart-HBO/NY; Mike Sheridan-Granada America/NY; Anita Frazier-NPD Group/Port Washington, NY; Steve Feldman-Sam Hill Entertainment LLC/Nashville; Robin Winslett-GJR Entertainment, LLC/Alvin, TX; Sue Barrett-Determined Productions/Chicago; Pat Ryan-Foothill Entertainment, Inc./Santa Barbara; Stefanie Tier Friedman-Top Tier Licensing/Agoura Hills, CA; Sandy Dibble-Ice Box/Van Nuys, CA; Brook Peters-Teletoon/Canada

Today’s Trivia Question:  In the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite, what does Napoleon ask his brother Kip to bring to him at school?  ( Click here with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)
 
Later — Gwen
Gwen Billings for Cynopsis: Kids!
10.01.07

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JOB OPENING:  ONLINE ACCT EXEC/Discovery Networks/NY: Sell National online advertising on IMedia Ad Sales Team, strong sales skills, 5 yrs sales exp, min 2 yrs internet sales. Apply: www.discovery.com (#5868)   (10/6)

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JOB OPENING:  MGR WRITTEN COMM/WB WW TV PUBL/CA: Create, write, edit and/or proofread all consumer publicity, bus comm, mktg, advertising/sales materials of WB TV Group. 5 yrs exp. Email: Wbjobs@trm.brassring.com    re: 88523BR_UCTC (10/6)

JOB OPENING:  FINANCE/BUS INTELLIGENCE SR ANALYST/MAXIM DIGITAL/NY: Support Maxim Digital Ops: fin modeling, web analytics; Strong system skills desired; Online exp pref’d; 2+ yrs exp fin / analytics; email res: finance@maxim.com  (10/6)

JOB OPENING:  MANAGER AD SALES MKTG/TV Land/MTVN NY: BA; 5 yrs marketing exp. Creative thinker w/ strong proj mgmnt sk; highly organized. Understands brand mgmnt, advtg, promos, resrch. EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply www.mtvncareers.com (10/6)

JOB OPENING:  NEW MEDIA EXEC PROD/Atlanta:   Exp in online Product Mngmt & Product delivery.Resp for content strategy, funding launch, ad sales strategy, writing business plans. Strategic role.  thammack@edgets.com (860) 632 3707 (10/6)

JOB OPENING: DIR INTG MKTG/Lifeskool/Sportskool/NYC: develop &sell integrated VOD programming& standard advert direct to brands & agencies. 5+ yrs sales in media w/direct to client exp. rez to www.cablevision.jobs ref #2475BR (10/5)

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FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: TV GUIDE Prod Interns! Obtain opp to learn elements of ent news producing, from field prod to multi-camera studio shows. Apply http://search3.smartsearchonline.com/tvguide/jobs/jobdetails.asp?job_number=563 (10/2)

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SITUATION WANTED: Looking for “at home” assignments in marketing/promotion/translation/typing/calls etc. W/15 +yrs of International & Marketing experience. Spanish, Portuguese & English languages. Contact tolentinoporres@comcast.net  (10/5)

SITUATION WANTED: PRODUCTION COORDINATOR/L.A. area: exp. juggling multiple shows at one time, great work ethic and attitude; have TV & Film exp. as PA, script asst., and coord; amazing org. skills. Please contact Jasheeley@gmail.com (10/4)

SITUATION WANTED: TV PROD./L.A. Seeking writer’s/showrunner’s assistant/PA position, 5 yrs. industry experience, computer-savvy, great written/verbal communication skills, resourceful, professional, excellent references. tvjobwanted@yahoo.com  (10/4)

SITUATION WANTED: ANIMATION PRD/NYC. Seek Producer/Assoc. Prod. Role. Exp. in Animation Industry. TV Series, Mobile/Digital Content. Contact philbirth@gmail.com  (10/3)

SITUATION WANTED: REALITY SHOW RUNNER & DIR: Seeks employment. Extensive Directing, Prod,Dvlpmnt, Story & Post exp. Network and Cable credits. NYC & LA. (Reality, Competition, House, Lifestyle, Docusoap) realityshowproducer@gmail.com (10/3)

SITUATION WANTED: MKTG/SALES DIRECTOR: 10+ yrs TV, print, radio, online. Entrepreneur-minded, out-side-the-box, brand-focused Canadian w/GreenCard, US-educated, seeks US-based (Cali/ FL/NYC), mngmnt-level role. freshmanagement@aol.com (10/3)

SITUATION WANTED: PRODUCTION COORDINATOR/L.A. area: exp. juggling multiple shows at one time, great work ethic and attitude; have TV & Film exp. as PA, script asst., and coord; amazing org. skills. Please contact Jasheeley@gmail.com (10/3)

SITUATION WANTED: NYC’s PREMIERE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY LIFE COACH. Tired of working on other people’s projects & not your own? Need to focus? Need a plan? Call for a free consultation. 646-331-3143. www.theentertainmentcoach.com (10/2)

SITUATION WANTED: Digital Media Exec (NY/NJ) available. 15 yrs exp. most with cable nets. Successful track record leading content, e-commerce, branded entertainment, VOD and broadband. digitalgooroo@gmail.com (10/2)

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