CYNTHIA TURNER’S
Cynopsis: Kids!
01/04/06
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, January 4, 2006 and this is your first early morning Kids! briefing.
Disney has upped its content offering available at iTunes to include additionally programming from ESPN, ABC Sports, ABC, Touchstone Television, ABC News, Buena Vista Television, Disney Channel, and Soapnet as well as content produced by Disney Feature Animation. Of particular interest to kids and teens will be the ability to download ESPN’s the Best of the X-Games and This is SportsCenter commercials; Disney Channel’s animated series Kim Possible and The Proud Family; ABC Entertainment’s School House Rock interstitials from the 1970’s, America’s Funniest Home Videos; and Disney Feature Animation, and featured on Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s upcoming “Disney at the Academy Awards”, including The Three Little Pigs (1933) and The Tortoise and the Hare (1935).
Vongo is the name of the new subscriber service from Starz Entertainment Group, a service which will allow its users to download movies from the internet, and playback on handheld video devices as well as on your PC or on your television. The new service should not be confused with Starz’ other movie download service – Starz Ticket – which does not allow the user to move the downloaded film to a handheld device. The new service is in conjunction with Microsoft’s upcoming re-release of Windows Media Player. It should be noted however, that at this time, the movies will not be compatible with the Apple iPod. Starz will also offer the Vongo service via the Sony Connect download service, which doesn’t help the iPod problem, but probably does address the PC vs. Mac problem. The new service allows its subscribers to pay a flat fee of $9.95 per month, and then download as many films as they like from a library of approx 800 titles.
Well, the honeymoon is over … it was bound to happen … and now … the day has arrived. Jamster’s Crazy Frog animated TV ringtone commercial has been named 2005’s most irritating ad in Britain by Marketing Magazine. The Crazy Frog ringtone and pop dance music chart topper, irked 60% of the 1,000 consumers surveyed by the magazine. Of course Jamster is crying all the way to the clever marketing bank, given that in June 2005 alone the ringtone was downloaded 11+ million times. The bing-bing sounds were initially created by a Swedish techie attempting to imitate the sounds of an Italian scooter. Jamster is European subsidiary of California-based VeriSign Inc.
NEW PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Discovery Kids Channel‘s series Strange Days at Blake Holsey High is coming to an end as the main characters head toward graduation. Not to worry we won’t be left hanging as all the loose ends will be tied up in a two-hour series finale movie, the network’s first ever original made for TV movie, premiering Saturday, January 28, at 7p. Strange Days at Blake Holsey High is produced for Discovery Kids by Shaftsbury Films.
Raven Moon Entertainment Inc. has raised half of the proposed $3.2m film budget for its first animated theatrical movie, Gina D & the Transistor Sisters In Search of the Golden Record. The investment of about $1.6m comes from MG Studios, a 3D digital TV/multi-media studio. Targeted to a family audience, the movie is expected to have a total running time of about 65 minutes and will feature 12 original Motown-style songs and features a script penned by Tim Trombitas, Joey DiFrancesco and Bernadette DiFrancesco. This is the third time in about 14 months that MG Studios has invested in Raven Moon. In December 2005 MG Studios invested $4.8m in new financing to Raven Moon in order to produce an 17 episodes of its preschool series Gina D’ Kids Club. A year earlier MG Studios teamed with Raven Moon provide the company with $5m in financing.
MORE KIDS STUFF
Televideo Services, Inc. acquired the license to Breakthrough Entertainment‘s animated series Atomic Betty for broadcast across Latin America. Under the agreement Televideo Services will air Atomic Betty, seasons I & II as well as a Christmas special (60 min), in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic and Paraguay. The deal was put together by Breakthrough’s agent in Latin America, Hola Entertainment.
The NBC Agency, the agency that supports the Marketing/advertising/promotional needs of NBC Universal owned properties, has teamed with the Hip-Hop group Flipsyde to produce a music video to promote the upcoming Torino Olympic Winter Games, February 10-26, 2006. Produced in a various lengths, the music video will run on the network as well as online, on cable and in retail. The band makes its national TV debut tomorrow night on the Tonight Show, where they will perform their single.
Fox Home Entertainment has unveiled the titles included in its first collection of movies to be released on the much-discussed new Blu-ray Disc platform. The first wave of 20 movie titles includes Fantastic Four, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Behind Enemy Lines and Kiss of the Dragon, the CGI animated movie Ice Age. Fox plans to launch its initial line-up of BD titles to coincide with the Blu-ray hardware launches in North America, Japan and Europe in 2006. Fox has scheduled the simultaneous releases of its films on BD and DVD.
MARKETING/LICENSING
Motorola, Inc. has introduced iRadio its new mobile phone based subscription music service. Expected to launch later this year, iRadio will allow customers with Bluetooth enabled devices to move music channels and content from their mobile phone to other devices. Motorola iRadio is initially launching with 435 commercial-free radio channels and a subscription will cost in the neighborhood of $7-10 per month. No deals with individual wireless carriers were announced.
Phonebites, a mobile entertainment software publisher, and Fox Licensing & Merchandising have inked a two-year licensing agreement for Family Guy and Napoleon Dynamite. Phonebites will design, manufacture and distribute its Razz headsets, a hands free mobile phone accessory; each will come preloaded with 10 notable audio clips from either Fox’s movie Napoleon Dynamite or animated TV series Family Guy. Set for release later this month the Razz headset will let users insert the audio clips into their live conversations.
Nintendo reports sales of close to 4 million Nintendo DS, its handheld gaming unit, in North America and 5 million in Japan. The DS sales combined with Game Boy Advance line leads Nintendo to claim a combined US market share of 78%. Additionally, Nintendo has sold more than 1 million copies each of its DS games Mario Kart, which includes live wi-fi gaming capabilities, Nintendogs and Mario Cart 64 in the US.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Hit Entertainment has reorganized its Hit European Consumer Products line of business by breaking up its multi-brand unit into three new groups UK Consumer Products, EMEA-Business Development and Entertainment. In conjunction with this reorganization Hit has made several appointments: Katie Rollings has been upped to VP/Consumer Products; Dave King moves up to VP/Entertainment; Laura Clarke has been promoted to Director/Licensing EMEA; and Katie Price is upped to Director/Publishing EMEA. The three new consumer products units and respective responsibilities:
- UK Consumer Products will focus on the UK licensing business teams set by categories and managing all of Hit’s brands, the group will be supported by the international marketing team.
- EMEA-Business Development will develop and nurture new business, offer additional retail development, third party promotions and sponsorships and brand related efforts.
- The Entertainments unit will further build the UK Video Entertainment division, with a separate European team to develop the EMEA DVD and audio business. This group will also be responsible for expanding Hit’s merchandise as well as furthering both live events and creating themed location based entertainment concepts.
Peter Kosann has been appointed President/CEO, Westwood One. Kosann, who has also been elected to sit on the Westwood One Board of Directors, had been serving as both Co-COO and President of Sales for Westwood One. Kosann takes the reins from Joel Hollander, Chairman/CEO, CBS Radio who had been serving as interim President/CEO, Westwood One.
Answer to yesterday’s trivia question: This production company parodied the MGM lion logo by using a sweet little kitty cat meowing at the end of each of their show’s. What company was this? MTM (Mary Tyler Moore’s prod co). Kudos to: Jane Pook-Geto & de Milly/NY; Sharon Lerner-Lerner Media/NY; Joe Swaney-Cartoon Network/Atlanta; Julie DePue-Stelor Productions/Darnestown Productions; Paul Koenig-WETA/Washington DC; Andrea Blain/Skokie IL; Steve Fisch-The Associates Group/LA; Rita Bonnell Illig-RBI Associates/Grenada Hills CA; Sam Ewing-Cookie Jar Entertainment/LA; Matt Wayne-Warner Animations/Sherman Oaks; Cherie Oldenburg-Alliance Atlantis Communications/Toronto; David Marsden-Entara/London England; John Rooney-Corus Entertainment/Toronto; Stephen Gallagher/UK
Today’s Trivia Question: The house used for exterior shots for Marcus Welby M.D. was the same house used for exterior shots of this classic 50s and 60s show. What tv show was it? (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 Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis Kids!
01.04.06 – 3:39a
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