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Microsoft unveils its next-generation console
CONSUMER PRODUCTS / INTERACTIVE / TV
With the seemingly infinite amount of entertainment devices swarming today’s living rooms, Microsoft is hoping to zero in on one. The company has announced long-awaited details surrounding Xbox One, an all-encompassing entertainment system that delivers games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype.

3 days ago Wendy Goldman Getzler
McDonald’s, General Mills among Despicable Me 2 marketing minions
CONSUMER PRODUCTS / RETAIL
Universal Partnerships & Licensing (UP&L) has accumulated a crop of global marketing partners – and an unprecedented US$250 million in total media value – in advance of the July 3 release of Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 2.

4 days ago Wendy Goldman Getzler
eOne takes all rights to YouTube animated hit Simon’s Cat
INTERACTIVE / TV
The pact is part of a strategy by Toronto-based eOne to expand into developing licensing programs for brands conceived in the non-linear space for a broader audience.

4 days ago Matthew Sylvain

Three-day Asian Animation Summit to be held in Thailand

The second annual Asian Animation Summit, which is designed to showcase Asia’s strongest animated projects looking for investors and partners, will take place in Phuket, Thailand from December 9-11, 2013.

May 7, 2013 Wendy Goldman Getzler

CCTV and ABC co-produce Hoopla Doopla

A new live-action preschool series will further the ongoing production relationship between Australia’s ABC Childrens TV and China’s national broadcaster CCTV. Hoopla Doopla has begun filming in Beijing for a debut on ABC4Kids next year.

May 7, 2013 Wendy Goldman Getzler

Talking Friends program accented with Parragon book deal

CONSUMER PRODUCTS / INTERACTIVE

After inspiring a successful web series and a crop of licensing deals, the Talking Friends app is making its foray into the book world.

May 7, 2013 Wendy Goldman Getzler

500 Words

BLOGS / Planet Preschool

The hardest thing about having a blog is coming up with something to write about every week. Five hundred words may not sound like a lot but it is when you have nothing to say. Typically I just write about myself but, trust me, that topic gets just as old for me as it does for you. Even my mother suggested that I change it up.

May 7, 2013 Josh Selig

Time to make the donuts: Six things to do at the start of production

Kids Got Game

The start of a new project is an exhilarating time and – let’s be honest – a terrifying thing. As someone who’s been on core teams in both the conceptualization and production phases on countless TV shows and games, I’ve spent a lot of time in this space. So here are a few coping mechanisms and tools I draw on to make sure I’m on the right track as I get down to the business of making stuff.

May 6, 2013 Anne Richards

Uglydoll inks beauty and personal care deal

CONSUMER PRODUCTS / RETAIL

Santa Monica, California-based Boldface Company has inked a deal with Pretty Ugly, the creators of design-led, kid-friendly brand Uglydoll, to produce a number of licensed beauty and personal care products.

May 6, 2013 Gary Rusak

Sales up 15% for LeapFrog

CONSUMER PRODUCTS / INTERACTIVE / RETAIL

Educational toy designer LeapFrog reported a 15% sales increase for the first quarter of 2013 driven by content sales for its multimedia platforms such as the popular LeapPad2 learning tablet for kids.

May 6, 2013 Jeremy Dickson

The Hub gets into live event programming with Halloween special

BROADCASTING / TV

With help from Bob Bain Productions, the producers behind Fox’s Teen Choice Awards and Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards, children’s cablenet The Hub has announced it will broadcast its first annual Hub Halloween Bash live event in late October.

May 6, 2013 Jeremy Dickson

Kidscreened

May 6, 2013 Kidscreen Staff

Favennec leaves M6 for new distributor Superights Family Entertainment

BROADCASTING / NEWS / PEOPLE MOVES

M6 head of children’s programming Morgann Favennec is joining new Paris-based distributor Superights Family Entertainment, founded by French companies Axone Invest and Superprod, which will focus solely on live-action and animated family and youth entertainment.

May 6, 2013 Gary Rusak

Photos

MIPCOM 2012 - Om Nom delights at Digital Kids