Nancy Lees
The Learning Box spells out its edu-content plans
NEWSBolstered by a US$47.5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Chicago, Illinois-based prodco The Learning Box is well-positioned to meet its mandate to create original series that bring literacy skills and tools to families. To get the venture off the ground, John Lee, the founder of specialty U.S. toy retailer Learning Curve, is putting his expertise in the kids realm to work as the company’s new president.
CBS, WB marry net assets, while the Eye tinkers with its kids block
NEWSCBS and Viacom’s parting of ways means the U.S. terrestrial net is shaking up its Saturday morning kids block. Last month, the Eye signed a five-year deal with DIC Entertainment to take over programming duties from its former partner, Nickelodeon. The three-hour Nick Jr. block, which featured shows such as Dora the Explorer (averaging a 2.7 share for kids ages two to five), will be replaced in September with CBS’s Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party.
Hot Talent: the skonkworks brews up a batch of new toons
NEWSIt seems appropriate that the first project from a renaissance man like Michael Carter would be about Leonardo da Vinci. After 10 years spent in the creative, technical and business sides of the animation industry, Carter hung his own shingle 10 months ago to create Toronto, Canada-based animation incubator theskonkworks (an old English term for [...]
Got it Need it: CBC looks to quirky comedy for afternoon overhaul
NEWSWhile best known as must-see TV for the Canadian preschool set, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is looking to shake that rep a bit. The national net is hoping some edgy homegrown animation and a revamped Saturday morning block will prove to comedy-loving older kids and tweens that the CBC has more to offer to them than content for their younger siblings.
ABC fishes for preschool pitches with lure of new funding initiative
NEWSHoping to cast its net as wide as possible to find new preschool programming, ABC Australia is taking a more proactive approach, issuing an industry-wide request for show proposals under its new The Children’s Special Television Project initiative. It’s only the second time the pubnet has sent out an RFP like this for children’s projects. This time around, ABC has earmarked about US$3.8 million in funding via a mix of cash, resources and access to the net’s facilities to support the production of one or more winning projects.
Jetix ramps up to round out its sked
NEWSJetix Europe has been branching out from its all-action all-the-time programming remit lately and plans to keep the trend going strong with a whack of new development money and a renewed focus on airing wholly owned IPs.
Talkin’ to their Generation: Audio books take off with iPod-toting tikes
NEWSThe headphone wearing tweens and kids are not only hitting on-line sites to build their music libraries, but also to stock their virtual audio-book shelves
Ozone enters the tween furniture stratosphere
NEWSRoom décor has been blowing up as a category lately, so it was only a matter of time before someone took that literally. Funhouse, the recently renamed kids furniture division of New York’s The Betesh Group, will introduce a new line of super-stylin’ inflatable chairs and pillows called Ozone. Each SKU comes with a built-in iPod/MP3 player-compatible speaker, so wired kids can rock out while reclining.
Anatomy of a Hit
NEWSParents stormed the toy aisles this past holiday shopping season in search of Amazing Amanda, Playmates Toys’ surprise best-selling doll. And the toyco delivered, managing to keep shelves stocked and countless girls happy.
Time Warner and Comcast announce they’re in a family way
NEWSFollowing much industry speculation, cable giants Comcast and Time Warner have announced they will indeed launch family-targeted programming packages as part of their digital cable offerings at the beginning of this year. The new tiers will feature nothing but G-rated programming, and to head off the type of controversy that has sprung up around several live events over the past two years, both companies claim they will limit the amount of live programming on the family tiers.
The definitive kids ent resource.Photos
Kidscreen Summit 2010 -