Cynopsis: Kids!

06/25/09

Good morning. It’s Thursday, June 25, 2009, and this is your first early morning Kids briefing.

Paramount‘s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (PG-13) took in an estimated $16 million in midnight movie plays, making it the best gross ever for a movie opening on a Wednesday and the third biggest midnight grossing behind The Dark Knight (Friday, July 18, 2008) with $18.5 million and Star Wars: Episode II  Revenge of the Sith (Thursday, May 19, 2005) with $17 million.  A Michael Bay movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened in about 3,000 runs beginning at 12:01a on Wednesday.

The Nielsen Company‘s insights officially releases its new study, How Teens Use Media, later today at the 2009 What Teens Want conference in NY.  Traditionally viewed as fickle and quick to jump to new technology and away from anything old, the report finds that while Teens are involved in new technology but they haven’t given up on media like TV, newspapers and advertising.  Spend any time with a teen and you’ll know they are totally adaptable and easily downloading this and that trying out anything and everything at the same time they are texting/IMing (cell phone, computer), listing to music (various devices), surfing the net (on computers and cell phones), playing video games (handheld, consoles, cell phones), and are watching shows/movies/video on a range of devices and locations … including on a TV.  The Nielsen study underlines that teens aren’t just engaged in the new, in fact Teens are watching TV than ever, up by +6% over the past five years in the US.  That is good news for TV folks indeed. Further findings from the study include:

• Teens spend less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online versus the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
• Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25-34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on TV.
• US teens watch less TV per day than in most other metered countries.
• Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio and Teens who recall TV ads are 44% more likely to say they liked the ad.
• US Teens’ favorite TV shows, top websites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as their parents, with American Idol being the top show in 2008 and Google the top website.
• In the US, nearly half of online Teens 1217 visited MySpace and Facebook in May 2009 (45% and 44%, respectively). All said, Teens 1217 accounted for 28% of MySpace’s page views and 12% of Facebook’s during the month.

MORE KIDS STUFF

Nickelodeon celebrates SpongeBob SquarePants‘ 10th anniversary with the Ultimate SpongeBob SpongeBash Weekend, July 17-19, a 50-hour programming event hosted by Patchy the Pirate.  The weekend includes 11 SpongeBob premieres, a top-10 countdown of celebrities’ favorite episodes and fan picks too.  The porous one will also be feted on VH1 with the debut of Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants, an hour-long TV documentary from producers Creadon O’Malley (Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A.) on Tuesday, July 14 at 9p.  Additionally, this fall Nickelodeon will debut an hour-long TV movie event, Truth or Square, featuring celebrity guest stars Will Ferrell, Ricky Gervais, and Robin Williams, among others.  Leading up to the SpongeBash Weekend, fans can log onto www.spongebob.nick.com/bash where they’ll find new content, including new games, and vote for their favorite episodes.  Tom Kenny’s (the voice of SpongeBob) celebrity playlist of his top 25 favorite series episodes will be available exclusively for purchase for on iTunes ($29.99) beginning July 13.  A Nicktoons Production, SpongeBob SquarePants launched on Nickelodeon on July 17, 1999 and is produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, Calif.

Also, Nickelodeon takes a look at some of the kids/teens that other kids are watching online in Nick News With Linda Ellerbee Webstars: the Kids Behind the Hits on Sunday, June 28 at 9p.  The show will feature some of the kids around the country who are creating their own shows and personas online through comedy, characters, videos and interviews and so on.

ZDF Enterprises and Jonathan M. Shiff Productions (JMSP) extend their 2002 agreement for an additional 6 years.  Under the terms of this new deal ZDF Enterprises will co-produce JMSP productions and will also see ZDF handle worldwide sales of all associated rights outside Australia and New Zealand.  The partnership has yielded live-action series including The Elephant Princess, Wicked Science and H2O  Just Add Water.

MARKETING/LICENSING

The Jim Henson Company and Archaia enter into a partnership to publish comic books and graphic novels based on Henson titles as well as new co-branded original properties.  The multi-year partnership will draw from The Jim Henson Company’s film and TV library, including Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Mirrormask, The Storyteller and among others. The agreement also allows Henson and Archaia to partner with talent in the comic book, TV and film industries to create new stories under a co-branded banner.

Poof-Slinky, makers of Slinky toys, names Jakks Pacific as its exclusive international distributor outside of North America (excluding UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico).  Under the new agreement, Jakks has the distribution rights to the entire Poof-Slinky portfolio, which includes Slinky Dog toy, and other products such as The Slinky, coloring and activity books, action toys, tabletop games etc.  Both Jakks and Poof-Slinky are licensees of Disney Consumer Products.

Hit Entertainment will launch The Fireman Sam Summer Safety Campaign, promoting outdoor and fire safety for young kids, next month with visits to eleven Smyths toy stores across the UK and Ireland.  The effort will be supported by each local fire companies who will be on hand to offer essential safety information, and Smyths will promote the summer campaign throughout its stores and online with special product promotions and giveaways including Fireman Sam stickers, reflective arm bands and safety tip leaflets.

Bulldog Licensing prepares to launch the preschool property Super Why in the UK with licensing partners in place for the brand including Cesar (hanging and boxed dress-up), RC2 (master toy licensee), and Melbry Events (UK shopping mall events).

EXECUTIVE MOVES

With an eye towards a more ‘focused product strategy,’ publisher THQ Inc. is dividing the company into three business units and has laid out a reorganization management plan.  The new business groups are Core Games, Kids, Family and Casual Games and Online.  Danny Bilson has been promoted to EVP/Core Games, with Doug Clemmer upped to EVP/Kids, Family and Casual Games and Steve Dauterman promoted to SVP/Online. All three will report to THQ President and CEO Brian Farrell.  In addition, Ian Curran is promoted to EVP/Global Publishing and will oversee worldwide revenue for THQ.

Michael Arkin is named to the newly created role of SVP/West Coast Sales and Strategic Partnerships, Zoom Media and Marketing.  Based in the LA office, Arkin will oversee all west coast sales efforts and develop partnerships with advertisers and content providers.  Prior to this, Arkin served as SVP/Marketing, Paramount Pictures where he developed marketing campaigns for home entertainment titles released by Paramount, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films, Paramount Vantage and Paramount Classics among others.

RATINGS

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 1128; K6-11 725; TWEENS 9-14 620
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 1249; K6-11 939; TWEENS 9-14 771
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11   585; K6-11 402; TWEENS 9-14 299
DISNEY XD:               K2-11   208; K6-11 143; TWEENS 9-14 123
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:   While this song was written in 1958, guaranteed you all know it. It was written for Christmas that year with the singing voices of popular animated characters.  The song sold more than $4 million worth of records in under seven weeks.  What is the name of this song? Hint:  It’s not Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.  THE CHIPMUNK SONG by Ross Bagdasarian , aka “David Seville” and featured the singing talents of Alvin, Theodore and Simon  Kudos to: Jeffrey Lesser-Little Airplane Prods/NY; Richard Betz-MTV/NY; Barbara Rosenthal/Tiffany Outdoor/NY; Sandy Chapman-Freebairn & Co/Atlanta; Tom Boyd-WGN/Chicago; Squirrel Rippley-Dark Horse Media/Tucson; Richard Quan-Imaginary Time/San Francisco; Margot Lockridge-Cartoon Network/LA; Chris Devine Dailey-Simply Devine Marketing Group/Hermosa Beach; Grace Ressler-Saving Grace Entertainment/Culver City.

Today’s Trivia Question:  Who am I?  I look a lot like Top Cat because I have a hat, cuffs and collar, only I’m not feline.  I live at the zoo and often am working on my next escape plan. When I’m not doing that, you’ll find me doing chores for Mr. Twiddle, the zoo keeper.  And I’m very proud to tell you that years after I was on television, Howling Mad Murdock had a pet like me with the same name.  Who am I?     (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
 Gwen Billings for Cynopsis Kids!
06.24.09

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