Cynopsis: Kids!

7/03/08

Good morning. It’s Thursday, July 3, 2008, and this is your first early morning Kids briefing.

This week an Ohio district court set July 7, as in this Monday, as the expiration date for a temporary restraining order obtained by American Greetings to block DIC Entertainment from being acquired by Cookie Jar Entertainment, per Thomson Financial News.  The Cookie Jar and DIC $87.6 million merger was announced on June 20.  The court also set a preliminary hearing for July 24-25 to decide whether to provide American Greetings with another injunction to stop DIC from exploiting the Strawberry Shortcake property while the dispute is resolved.  American Greetings maintains that the sale of DIC would violate its rights as the owner of the Strawberry Shortcake brand, which DIC manages for them.

MORE KIDS STUFF

Adness Entertainment has granted Germany’s m4e AG, a brand management and media company, the broadcast, home entertainment, licensing and merchandising rights for Germany and German-speaking territories for the live action series Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.  Adness is adapting the Japanese series and has completed production on 40×30 episodes of Kamen Rider, which will be available from January 2009.  The series follows the adventures of a teen that obtains the powers of the Kamen Rider, an armored warrior from a parallel dimension, from a mysterious Advent Card.  Now a Kamen Rider the teen must use his powers to help save his father from the clutches of the evil General Xaviax.

Global preschool channel JimJam, a joint venture between HIT Entertainment and Chellomedia, is set to launch in the Netherlands on cable operator Ziggo.  The new Netherlands launch will make JimJam available to about 400,000 additional households.  Combined with recent launches on CanalDigitaal and UPC, the channel is expected to be available to almost 1 million subscribers in the Netherlands.  JimJam is also launching into Russia and Bulgaria this month via the channel’s new Middle East feed.  Showtime Arabia debuted on the Middle East feed in April 2008, while additional launches will make JimJam available in Arabic, English and Russian languages, as well as making the channel available in South Africa.

MARKETING/LICENSING

KidsCo, the joint venture channel owned by NBC Universal, DIC Entertainment and Corus Entertainment, launched an international ecommerce store for kids featuring games, video and downloads. The store is launching in the local language in each territory the channel has a presence.

Russ Berrie and Company’s Applause from Russ launches SeaPals, its new line of educational, marine-based, web-interactive plush.  Each SeaPals plush comes with a secret code that allows you to log on to www.seapalsworld.com where kids can create a virtual aquarium, including personalizing it, as well as ensuring their aquarium thrives by feeding and caring for their fish and keeping the tank clean.  In addition to going on adventures with their characters, kids can also earn and collect Pearl Points by playing games and activities.

STONE SOUP

Bestseller Children’s Picture Books (top 10), Week of June 16, 2008: Title; Author (Publisher)

Oh, The Places You’ll Go; Dr. Seuss (Random House Trade)

Gallop!; Rufus Butler Seder (Workman)

Read All About It!; Laura and Jenna Bush (HarperCollins)

Alphabet; Matthew Van Fleet and Brian Stanton (Simon & Schuster/Wiseman)

Fancy Nancy; Bonjour Butterfly; Jane O’Connor (HarperCollins)

Knuffle Bunny Too; Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Dirt on My Shirt; Jeff Foxworthy (HarperCollins)

Curious You: On Your Way!; H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin)

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!; Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Don’t Bump the Glump! And Other Fantasies; Shel Silverstein (HarperCollins)

Compiled from data received from independent and chain bookstores.
Source: Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Children’s Fiction Books (top 10), Week of June 9, 2008: Title; Author (Publisher)

Twilight; Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown/Tingley)

Eclipse; Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown/Tingley)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules; Jeff Kinney (Abrams/Amulet)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid; Jeff Kinney (Abrams/Amulet)

New Moon; Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown/Tingley)

The Quest Begins; Erin Hunter (HarperCollins)

Lock and Key; Sarah Dessen (Viking)

The Book Thief; Markus Zusak (Knopf)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret; Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press)

The Mysterious Benedict Society; Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown)

Compiled from data received from independent and chain bookstores.
Source: Publishers Weekly

EXECUTIVE MOVES

The Thurber House Residency in Children’s Literature has named Alan Silberberg, the kid’s TV writer and author of the book Pond Scum, as its 2008 Children’s Writer-in-Residency.  While there, Silberberg will have the opportunity to focus on completing his next book, Milo, a humorous look at the life of a struggling 13-yr-old boy.  He will also work with kids in workshops and creative writing classes and free readings.  Based in Columbus, Ohio, Thurber House is a non-profit literary center and museum housed in a one-time home of author and New Yorker cartoonist, James Thurber.  Congrats Alan!

RATINGS

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 1181; K6-11 668; TWEENS 9-14 481
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11   986; K6-11 740; TWEENS 9-14 618
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11   745; K6-11 490; TWEENS 9-14 343
TOON DISNEY:           K2-11   156; K6-11   86; TWEENS 9-14   60
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: In the Disney movie Peter Pan who is Captain Hook’s chubby little right-hand man? SMEE (MR. SMEE) Kudos to: Kerry Milliron-Random House Children’s Books/NY; Mike Doyle-Time Warner Cable Media Direct/NY; Sheilagh Bryan-Cmedia/Exton, PA; Mike Coughlin-Sesame Workshop/NY; Mike Patterson-Cartoon Network & [adult swim]/Chicago; Matt Stevens-Script Partners, Inc./Burbank; LeNea Ricks-KIDK/Idaho Falls, ID; Misti Ray-FOX 13-KSTU/UT; Betsy Bozdech-Common Sense Media/San Francisco; Lynn Valiquette-Picture Box Distribution Inc./Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question:  On what animated series could you find characters Hundley, Gnocchi, Mr. Glass and Chef Pisghetti? (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 — Cyn
07.03.08

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