DISCOPEDITION

Licensing TrendsStar Wars: The Clone Wars’Dave Filoniwww.tvkids.ws THE MAGAZINE OF CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING JUNE/JULY 2009

For 35 years, the Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) inCanada has been working to make sure that Canadian childrenare receiving the best entertainment possible. That mandate wason display on June 3, with the organization’s 2009 Awards ofExcellence Gala at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

The event presented a total of 13 awards, including a grandprize for the most outstanding production to hit the smallscreen in the past two years, along with awards for emergingtalent, lifetime achievement and best original cross-platformcontent tied to a children’s television program. The winnerswere selected by a jury of Canadian and international experts,including Maya Götz from Prix Jeunesse and David Kleemanfrom the American Center for Children and Media.

The Gala also presented a special Emerging Talent Award toChristin Simms of Sinking Ship Entertainment, and anOutstanding Achievement Award to Patricia Ellingson, thecreative head of children’s media content and programming atTV Ontario.

“We always recognize the special contribution of people whohave been so important in the kids’ programming industry,” saysCaroline Fortier, the executive director of ACT. “PatriciaEllingson has been very active and instrumental in building theTVO kids’ brand and making sure that kids in English Canadawill get the best educational programs possible.”

YOUTH MATTERSWhile recognizing the achievements in Canadian content iscertainly an important mandate at ACT, there are several otherareas the organization is involved in. “We aim to positivelyaffect Canadian children’s lives by using three main things:advocacy, recognition and training, to enrich the screen-basedmedia,” Fortier explains.“I would add to that research, whichis one thing we’re doing a little bit more of.”

Indeed, ACT is about to embark on the largest study to dateof Canadian youth programming, with the financial assis-tance of CTVglobemedia, through the tangible benefits fromCTVglobemedia’s acquisition of CHUM. “It’s a two-phaseanalysis,” Fortier says. “We’re going to be looking at the key

components of kids’ programming—the context, the charac-ters and actions—and relating this to societal issues like ecol-ogy and the environment.We’re also going to be looking atthe importance of new media, new delivery platforms.”

The first phase of the report will be linked to a broader world-wide study, being conducted by the International CentralInstitute for Youth and Educational Television in Germany,calledChildren’s Television Worldwide: Gender Representation.The secondphase, Fortier says, will explore the “impact that Canadian pro-gramming has on the values and identity of Canadian children.The first phase will be released in November 2009 in Toronto forour Children,Youth and Media Conference.The final results willbe known in the spring of 2010.Then we will engage in phasetwo.This will bring us to 2012.”

In addition to research efforts, ACT has increased its lobby-ing activities, Fortier says. “We’re trying to raise the profile ofkids’programming,making sure that with all the changes goingon in this field, kids will not be forgotten.This is somethingwe’re going to pursue even more in the next few years.”

The times certainly call for it, given the fiscal and financialconstraints on kids’ programming in Canada and around theworld. “In the last five, six, seven years, as the 2007 edition ofThe Case for Kids Programming study on children and youthaudio-visual production in Canada has shown, there has beenfalling production volume in kids’ programming, falling budg-ets, falling level of public funding within the CanadianTelevision Fund. And now we’re seeing falling ad revenues.This is becoming a big concern for us. It does impact ourcapacity to be able to create those programs that will reflectour values and our sense of being Canadian.”

A second edition of this study was prepared for theCanadian Film & Television Production Association (CFTPA)in association with ACT and the Shaw Rocket Fund and wasreleased during the Banff World Television Festival on June 9.

Fortier continues:“We’ve been [making kids’ programming]in Canada for over 50 years.We’ve had international recogni-tion.We’re seen as being able to produce great programming,possibly because of our specific Canadian values like tolerance,openness, inclusiveness, and possibly a somewhat less commer-cially driven approach.Also,we do have a diversity of commu-nity, of cultures.There are new kids coming to Canada fromall over the world.We believe that one of our greatest tools foreducating them is television. Broadcast and online combinedhave huge reach into these communities and can help instillcultural values and what it is to be Canadian.This is why it’sso important for us to remain able to provide the most diver-sity, a variety of relevant,meaningful and educational shows forall ages and platforms.”

By Mansha Daswani

44 World Screen 6/09

TV KIDS2

Canada’s Alliance for Children andTelevision (ACT)

turns 35.

Devoted to Kids

The sale of toys generated almost $22 billion in the U.S. alonein 2008, according to the research firm The NPD Group. It’sbig business, and kids’ content owners are anxious to increasetheir slice of the pie. It’s no secret, though, that times are tough,with the recession putting a squeeze on how much parents arewilling to shell out at the toy store, making retailers even morecautious about how they stock their shelves.

Rights-owners, however, can be comforted by someencouraging figures: another recent report from The NPDGroup reveals that almost 50 percent of mothers’ discre-tionary spending on their kids goes to entertainment-relatedcategories like toys, video games and consumer electronics,while 23 percent is spent on apparel. Those categories aredriving the kids’ licensing business, and they are the mainones being pursued by producers and distributors seeking toextend the presence of their shows.

4Kids Entertainment has already done so with Chaotic, one ofits key properties this year. A master toy deal is in place with SpinMaster, covering action figures and other toys, while Activision

Publishing came on board for a video game.The trading-card game has already been a success for the show,whichairs in the U.S. on TheCW4Kids block and has begunrolling out internationally.Apparel deals are being signedand 4Kids has inked a deal for a Chaotic beverage that isavailable across Canada, featuring codes that kids can useonline for the trading-card game. 4Kids has also reacheda deal for Chaotic to air on Cartoon Network, furtherexpanding its exposure in the U.S. market.

The Cartoon Network deal includes the rights toYu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the latest season of 4Kids’ long-runningYu-Gi-Oh! franchise.“With any classic property, we have

to keep doing new things,” says Roz Nowicki, the executive VPof marketing and licensing at 4Kids, which is also injecting newlife into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand.A live-action the-atrical release for the pizza-loving heroes is slated for 2011, with4Kids handling the licensing strategy for the film.

Nowicki is counting on the brand recognition of 4Kids’properties to entice licensees and retailers.“Business is tough. [Ithelps] if you can offer them something new, something excit-ing, and a classic property that they already feel comfortablewith. People are a lot more reticent about jumping into some-thing brand new that has not been tried and true or tested.”

MOM-APPROVEDCookie Jar Entertainment, too, has a tried-and-true property toshowcase, with Strawberry Shortcake.“It’s a $2.7-billion business,”says Lisa Streff, the senior VP of domestic consumer products,about the veteran girl-skewing brand, which turns 30 next year.In a bid to reinvent Strawberry for kids today, Cookie Jar hasembarked on a redesign that will roll out in the fall of this year.

4 TV KIDS

46 World Screen 6/09

Amid a tough economy, kids’content owners are searchingfor innovative ways to get the

most out of their brands.

The Business of

BrandsBy Mansha Daswani

Cookie Jar’s Strawberry Shortcake.

6/09 World Screen 47

5TV KIDS

“We decided to age her up a bit,” Streff continues.“She’s stillsweet and wholesome, but she has a new world; it’s very mag-ical, and her story lines skew a little older and are very aspira-tional. That’s how we keep the girls continuing to love andadore Strawberry Shortcake.”

Hasbro is the master toy partner and a full licensing pro-gram is in place, with more than 450 licensees already signedup worldwide. Part of the brand’s appeal, Streff says, is that ithas “a ton of mom appeal. A lot of today’s moms grew upwith Strawberry Shortcake.We’re always going after that gen-erational appeal. It’s one of those brands that you can find atevery retailer. She’ll be in the mass market, in the specialtymarket, at the department stores.”

Cookie Jar is also emphasizing the Richard Scarry publish-ing franchise, which includes the TV adaptation BusytownMysteries for CBC in Canada. Scarry’s books have sold morethan 150 million copies worldwide, Streff notes, and have beentranslated into 30 different languages.

“Richard Scarry has built-in equity. Children are introducedat a very young age to the books.There is already some estab-lished brand awareness. We are combining the equity of thepublishing with the new TV series.”

The licensing program, targeted at boys, includes vehiclesfrom the Busytown universe, as well as apparel, games, puzzlesand new books to complement the TV show.

CLASSIC ROCKThe Jim Henson Company ( JHC) is also home to a numberof well-established properties, including Fraggle Rock, whichHIT Entertainment had been representing until May of thisyear. “We have a multifaceted strategy for Fraggle Rock,” saysMelissa Segal, the company’s senior VP of global consumerproducts. “One is to develop a whole classic, retro programfor people in their 20s and 30s who grew up with it.We’redoing some cool fashion-forward, trendy things to make itrelevant.And then we have a feature film in development—it’s a live-action family musical.”

JHC is also working with DECODE Entertainment on anew preschool show featuring the Fraggle Rock residents theDoozers, which will have a separate licensing program.

“Fraggle Rock, for us as a company, is a priority,” Segal says.“It’s familiar, but it feels new.”

Another priority at JHC is the new brand Sid the Science Kid,which has been airing on PBS KIDS since fall of last year.Hasbro has been appointed master toy partner for the preschoolseries, and will be bringing products to retail under thePlayskool brand. Also on the roster are DVDs from NCircleEntertainment and books from Harper Collins.With those keydeals in place, Segal is optimistic about the response she’llreceive from the licensing community for Sid, even though it isa relatively new brand.

“What I’m finding in this kind of conservative economicenvironment is that everyone wants to know, Who’s your toyplayer? Who’s your DVD player? Who’s your publishing player?”

4Kids is also presenting a new property this year,with RollBots.Produced and distributed by Amberwood Entertainment inCanada, the YTV commission was picked up by 4Kids for itsTheCW4Kids block, and the company is also representing thelicensing and merchandising rights to the series.

“Mattel thought this had such toy potential they came onboard pretty early,” Nowicki says. “Most toy companies take a

wait-and-see [approach], but Mattel saw a lot in it.Video gamesare really important to us, and we’ve started talking to varioustrading-card companies.Those are the key things we always wantto seal first.And then we fill in the other categories.”

JHC, similarly, has a head start on Dinosaur Train.Although theseries doesn’t premiere until this fall on PBS KIDS, LearningCurve has been confirmed as the toy partner.“It’s an easy prop-erty for licensees and retailers to understand,” Segal says. “Wewere able to get a toy company on board sooner than usual.

“Everyone has been so risk averse,” she continues. “Thereason people seem to be excited about the Henson stuff isthat it’s new but it feels like it’s going to be around for awhile.There are long-term plans for the brands.Also, they’recoming from the Henson company. I think for parents, thereis that built-in appeal.”

That’s a sentiment that also applies to BBC Worldwide,whichhas been able to depend on the cachet of the content from itsBritish kids’ services CBBC and CBeebies, including In theNight Garden, 3rd & Bird!, Charlie and Lola and Teletubbies.

“What unites our brands is the quality of output from theBBC,”says Neil Ross Russell, the managing director of children’sand licensing at BBC Worldwide.“First and foremost, a success-ful licensing property is built from great content, content thatengages with the audience. On the commercial side we thenwork tirelessly to marry BBC content with entertaining andinnovative products across categories for consumers to enhancetheir experience of their favorite television programs.”

AGE OF COMPRESSIONEven with great content, however, rights owners must con-tend with the fact that kids are growing up much faster thanthey used to. “The reality of our business today is age com-pression,” says Cookie Jar’s Streff.The key, she says, is “design-ing and developing merchandising programs that are targetedto specific age groups.There’s a 2-to-5 mar-ket, a 3-to-6 and a 6-to-11, and we reallyhave to make sure that we’re strategicand we approach each one of those seg-ments differently.”

This view is also expressed by 4Kids’Nowicki:“We get [kids] for action figuresfor a year and a half, and then [they moveon to] video games. They’re just harderand harder to impress!”

Add the economic downturn to the mixand scoring a hit at retail becomes evenmore challenging. “We are seeinglower price points and a con-solidation of retailacross the board,”Ross Russell says.“More than ever,it’s key that oncewe have great content, we are working todeliver to the needs and objectives of theretailer. Our reputation as an established andtrusted licensor stands us in good stead forthe year ahead, but it is fundamental thatwe retain our focus on a few key brands,delivering quality products that con-sumers put value on.”

A plush life: In theNight Garden is oneof BBC Worldwide’s

biggest kids’ brands,with a toy line that

includes Blanket Time Iggle Piggle.

Dave Filoni has spent a longtime immersed in the StarWars universe. A fan of thefranchise since childhood,Filoni today serves as thesupervising director of Lucas-film Animation’s Star Wars:The Clone Wars. Workingwith artists, animators, writ-ers and episodic directors, hehas taken viewers on all-newadventures in the Star Warsgalaxy with the Cartoon Net-work original series. He tellsTV Kids about the challengeof putting an animated spinon the world’s biggest moviefranchise.

TV KIDS: How did you approach turning this iconic brandinto an animated film, and then into a TV series? FILONI: I had several meetings with George Lucas, and he setthe tone for what his expectations were. He wanted a newlook, something no one had seen before, and he wanted it tocapture the epic scale of Star Wars in 22 minutes. I then stud-ied different styles of Star Wars art, from Ralph McQuarrie’soriginal concept art for the classic Star Wars, to the CartoonNetwork micro-series and more recent prequel films.We triedto find a way to combine these styles into an animated lookthat was still true to the visual design of Star Wars.

The story lines were laid out in broad strokes from discus-sions head writer Henry Gilroy and I had with GeorgeLucas. We then came up with several different stories thatbecame the early episodes. After a while, George got soexcited about the episodes he started giving us more specificoutlines and stories, which was amazing.

TV KIDS: What’s the key to making it feel fresh for viewerstoday?FILONI: We have to always challenge ourselves to show theaudience something they’ve never seen before. If we aredoing a battle, we will stick it on the side of the cliff and doa vertical battle. If we have Jedi in a tough situation, we tryto get them out of it in creative and different ways. It’s a bigchallenge, and George always reminds us that he’s alreadydone the easy stuff in his films.

TV KIDS: What is it about Star Wars that has been able toappeal to so many different generations, all around the world?

FILONI: I think the story is universal, and the environmentand characters are very familiar feeling. I knew a guy grow-ing up that was like Han Solo; I think at one point in our lifewe feel like Luke Skywalker did when he left his home onTatooine. These connections are very comfortable, so wethink we know this place, this galaxy, and yet the scale andspectacle of it is also amazing. So we see things we neverimagined, whether it was a laser sword or a giant snow walkerthat looked like an animal, Star Wars has always amazed us.

TV KIDS: How much of the original mythology do youdraw on?FILONI: I love the original mythology and I try to draw uponit without overdoing it. If we get too precise and answer everyquestion, it would take away from the original mythology.Sometimes we only reference the mythology visually, withfamiliar locations and designs.George is always encouraging usto create new characters, planets and vehicles. Sometimes hewill give me a design that he has been saving for years and nowfigured out where to use it, and sometimes we get to make itup from scratch. It’s all pretty exciting because either way, it isbecoming part of the Star Wars galaxy.

TV KIDS: How much of a responsibility do you feel to StarWars’ intensely passionate fan base? Is it ever daunting?FILONI: I knew going in that the fan base would have highexpectations, and I take the responsibility I carry very seri-ously. At the end of the day, I have to show everything I doto George Lucas. If he’s happy with it I know we are doinga good job. George is always my toughest critic, but it’s hishigh standards that grew the fan base in the first place, andnow we must continue that tradition.

TV KIDS: How much do you think about all the variousextensions to the brand, be it the merchandise or the new-media properties, as you’re working on the series?FILONI: It’s been fun for all of us to see toys from our showon the store shelves. It’s hard to believe because I can remem-ber getting Star Wars figures when I was a kid, and now kidsare buying Clone Wars figures that sometimes are characters Idesigned.When you see how happy it makes them—I thinkthat’s what resonates most with all of us.

TV KIDS: Are you working on any other projects you cantell us about?FILONI: I am very focused on Clone Wars and dedicate mostof my time to that. Like all artists, I have my other projects,but for now I get to journey to a galaxy far, far away, andthere’s no place I would rather be.

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

Star Wars: The Clone Wars’Dave Filoni

6 TV KIDS

By Mansha Daswani

48 World Screen 6/09