– Creative Wonders expands production

Creative Wonders is keeping busy, thanks to two recent development deals based on licensed properties. The company is continuing its relationship with Children’s Television Workshop, and will produce five additional Sesame Street titles. To date, Creative Wonders has released seven titles based on the educational children’s television show. And Creative Wonders is also teaming up with Scholastic Productions to create CD-ROMs based on The Baby-sitters Club book series. This deal allows Creative Wonders to target an older audience of preteen girls.

-Modern Media creates Web contest

Software publisher and developer Modern Media Ventures will soon be choosing the grand-prize winner of The Ultimate Web Contest. The promotion kicked off on its GusTown-themed Web site (www.gustown.com) on June 1, and consisted of four weekly challenges. The grand-prize winner, to be named early this month, will win an Apple Power Macintosh 6500/300 and an Apple eMate Mobile Computer. Prizes awarded weekly have included eMate Mobile Computers, Huffy bicycles, GapKids gift certificates, Power Bar products and Gus and the CyberBuds software from Modern Media Ventures.

-Nickelodeon launches first Web site

After hosting an area on America Online for nearly two years, Nickelodeon is boosting its on-line presence with its first-ever Web site (www.nick.com). The site features a schedule of its children’s television shows, an area for Nickelodeon Magazine, an advice column written by kids, jokes, trivia games and a section where kids can sign up to be a Big Helper volunteer. To support the site’s kickoff, Nickelodeon is giving away a home page, a Gateway Destination computer, a printer and other prizes in a Wired by Nick, Powered by Kids Sweepstakes, which closes at the start of this month. The site is supported by advertising from GapKids, Sony and General Mills’ French Toast Crunch. As well, Nickelodeon has redesigned its AOL area (keyword: NICK)-which originally opened in October 1995-to include less text and more pictures, as well as a hotlink to the new Web site.