A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM DISNEY

Source: The Nielsen Company (NPower), 1Q’11, M-Sun 7p-12a, based on Co-View Share %.  Networks programming less than 51% of the daypart are excluded. L+SD.

Cynopsis: Kids!

04/07/11

Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 7, 2011, and this is your first early morning Kids briefing. 

4Kids Entertainment, the entertainment and merchandise company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of NY yesterday for all of its domestic wholly owned 4Kids subsidiaries.  Simultaneously the company also filed first day motions to allow it continue to manage its day-to-day operations.  The bankruptcy petition does not include 4Kids Entertainment International, which is a 4Kids subsidiary based in London.  The move is not a surprise, when 4Kids Entertainment reported its 2010 fourth quarter and year end results at the end of March, 2011, the company indicated that it would petition for Chapter 11 under the United States Bankruptcy Code to preserve the company if it could not resolve a lawsuit filed against it by Yu-Gi-Oh! licensors Asatusu-DK and TV Tokyo Corporation on March 24, 2011.  The Chapter 11 filing puts in place a “stay” of the lawsuit, “until such time as a Court may order otherwise.”  While assuring clients, partners and licensees the company will continue to function during this time, Michael Goldstein, interim Chairman, 4Kids Entertainment explained the company continues to explore strategic alternatives, which includes the possible sale of the company or a reorganization.  Goldstein also said, “We continue to believe that the purported termination of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Agreement was wrongful and that 4Kids’ assessment of the audit claims will be vindicated in court. If the Court rules in favor of the Company, 4Kids will pursue the full measure of damages for the significant injury the Licensors have caused to the business of 4Kids.”

India’s DQ Entertainment (DQE) and France-based Method Animation ink a co-production and deal for a new K6-10 aimed 3D HD animated series, Robin Hood  Mischief in Sherwood (52×11).  The CGI animated series, which follows the adventures of 10-year-old Robin and his friends as they go up against the impudent you prince John, will be produced with an estimated worldwide budget of US$12+ million.  The humor-filled Robin Hood series is the newest co-production for DQE and Method, which together have produced series including Ironman, Little Prince, Little Nick, Skyland, Peter Pan, and the 3D stereoscopic movie, the Prodigies, with DQE’s sister-company Onyx Films.

MORE KIDS STUFF

Cake completes new sales of the K6-11 targeted animated series Oscar’s Oasis.  A co-production between Cake, French animation studio TeamTO, Tuba Entertainment and TF1, Oscar’s Oasis, a non-verbal series, has been acquired by Cartoon Network Latin America, PT Cipta TPI (Indonesia), Societe Radio Canada (Canada), 2×2 Channel (Russia), YLE (Finland), ATV (Turkey), S4C Wales (Wales), SVT (Sweden), QTV (Ukraine), MBC (Middle East), and SFDRS (Switzerland).  Cake and TeamTO previously collaborated on the animated projects Hareport and Angelo Rules.

Silver Ant and Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JC) have launched their co-produced animated feature Seefood at MIPTV.  Set for release in theaters this summer, followed by DVD, in English, Arabic, and other languages, Seefood follows the adventures of a bamboo shark named Pup and his best friend Julius, a big blue shark, as they work to save shark eggs from human poachers.  The movie, which took two years to complete, included the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Malaysia and the Multimedia Development Corporation.

ZDF Enterprises completes program sales with buyers for a number of kid/youth programs at MIPTV:  Canal Encuentro (Argentina) and TV3 (Spain) pick up The Jungle Book and Marsupilami; SVT (Sweden) takes Ludovic; MediaCorp/Peppermint (Singapore) picks up Fun with Claude; and acquiring the Australian teen/youth series Dance Academy (52×26) are Disney for Portugal and Spain, NRK (Norway), YLE (Finland), Kenny’n Co. (South Korea), canal + (France), and Astral (French Canada); meanwhile in German-speaking countries The Jungle Book is acquired up by Turner Deutschland, the first season of The Elephant Princess is picked up by ORF (Austria), and SRF (Switzerland) takes seasons 3 and 4 of Mission X.

The Hub (www.hubworld.com) moves the original episode premieres of the animated series Transformers Prime to Saturdays at 7p, beginning this Saturday, April 9, 2011.

Starz will host a Toy Story franchise movie marathon this month.  Pixar‘s Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and the premiere of Toy Story 3, will air beginning Saturday, April 16 at 6:05p, and continuing with all three movies airing from Sunday, April 17 at 9a and again at 5:15p.

CORRECTION: Disney will release Pixar‘s Monsters University on June 21, 2013; it had been scheduled for November 2, 2012.

MARKETING/LICENSING

Discovery Communications and Weldon Owen, a producer of illustrated books, enter into a deal with non-fiction publisher Kingfisher for Animal Planet branded books for kids.  Weldon Owen holds the Animal Planet license from Discovery and will supply the books.  The deal includes 17 titles that will be published over a three-year period, beginning September 2011, for distribution in North America and the UK.  This new kid’s book collection includes three larger reference volumes, a series of 48-page books targeting Tweens 9-12, and a series of picture books for K5-8.  The first titles includes a reference book on migration featuring photography called Incredible Journeys, and two titles about animal behavior called Weird and Wonderful.  The books feature close-up photos and animal facts and questions on each page.  On the illustrated picture book side, the initial titles include My Life in the Wild series, featuring first-person, narrative life stories including Cheetah and Penguin.  Animal Planet’s licensing agent, the Joester Loria Group, manages the publishing program in North America.  Discovery Enterprises International handles the publishing program across all international markets.

4Kids Entertainment International enters into a new deal with indie publisher Signature Publishing for a new bi-monthly Dinosaur King magazine, based on the animated series of the same name, for release in the UK.  Signature Publishing will launch the new Dinosaur King, which will feature cartoons, puzzles, coloring and facts and cover mounted gifts with each issue, magazine on August 12, 2011.  The company published a successful test issue in summer 2010.  Additionally, Dinosaur King be featured on the cover and inside on the April issue of Signature Publishing’s monthly Dinosaur magazine Dinomite.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group promotes Jane Gould to SVP/Consumer Insights.  Gould adds management of Nickelodeon’s International Research team to her maintaining her previous responsibilities, which includes oversight of consumer insights research for all Nickelodeon networks.  Gould will continue to report to Ron Geraci, SVP/Research and Planning, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group.  Gould previously served as VP/Consumer Insights, creating the Permission to Play study and Family GPS research, among other things.  She previously served Director/Programming, Content Development and Research, Nickelodeon Australia.  Prior to joining Nickelodeon, Gould was President and Founder, Looking Glass Insights in Australia.

Turner CN Enterprises appoints Victoria Saint as Hard Lines Licensing Manager, UK.  Saint will report to UK Licensing Director, Graham Saltmarsh.  Most recently, Saint was with CPLG where she served as Category Manager/Toys and Gifts. Prior to that she was New Business Development Manager, Cancer Research UK and European Associate Licensing Manager, Coca-Cola.  She will work alongside Retail Marketing Manager, Suzanne Sutton.

RATINGS

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Tuesday, March 5, 2011, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 998; K6-11 406; TWEENS 9-14 345
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 982; K6-11 489; TWEENS 9-14 372
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 450; K6-11 254; TWEENS 9-14 213
DISNEY XD:               K2-11 188; K6-11 137; TWEENS 9-14 107
NICKTOONS:              K2-11   88; K6-11   62; TWEENS 9-14   49
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia: This high school was set in a cemetery.  The only human at the school was a teacher named Max Schneider.  The rest of the population were kids of famous monsters.  What is the name of this show?  Gravedale High starring Rick Moranis  Kudos to: Scott Oldeman/Boston; Casandra Kate Escobar-Women in Children’s Media/NY;

Today’s Trivia Question:  Speaking of kids of famous monsters, in this show they get together to form a group that goes about atoning fo their famous ancestor’s bad deeds.  The group included Dracula’s son, and relatives of Frankenstein and Wolfman.  Do you remember the name of this 1980-82 series?  (Email [email protected] 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 Billings for Cynopsis Kids!
04.07.11

Cynopsis Ad Sales:
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JOB OPENING: DIR RESEARCH/Discovery/MD: Functions as primary network POC; fulfill needs for consumer-based &marketplace info; 7yrs+ mrktg rsrch firm or major corp exp; media exp preferred . www.discovery.com #3589 (4/14)

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