MIPTV: The Week in Kids

MIPTV has been steadily ramping up its slate of events for the kids’ community over the last few years. The expanded Junior@MIPTV segment this market included a focus on kids’ live-action programming, as well as a live action pitch. Among the panels was one focused on the challenges of funding live-action series. It kicked off with David Michel, president and founder of Cottonwood Media and head of Federation Kids & Family, highlighting Find Me in Paris, which was the first-ever Kids’ World Premiere Screening at MIPTV. The series, Federation’s first live-action tween show, is a co-pro with ZDF and ZDF Enterprises, among others.

The first season of 26 episodes was made with a budget of 12 million euros and work has begun on season two. “That’s a very high budget in kids,” he noted. “It’s a very expensive show and I’ve never financed a series that fast in my life! It took me triple the time to finance a 4-million-euros show. I think there are two reasons. The first is the script. Every time we shared it with a new broadcaster, they would fall in love with it. That’s how the show got financed quite quickly. And the second reason is the fact that there’s very little independent live action for kids. Premium live action for kids is a niche within a niche within a niche. So when you do come up with something that has great storytelling and a great cast attached,” broadcasters and platforms will be interested, he said.

Also on the panel was Cristiana Buzzelli, the senior VP of sales and acquisitions at Rainbow. The Italian studio’s first live-action show, Maggie & Bianca: Fashion Friends, is now in season three and has spawned two TV movies, a full consumer-products program and a concert tour. On Rainbow’s move into live action, Buzzelli said that as a European independent producer, “you always need to put yourself in front of new challenges. We were looking to expand our target demographics to 9 to 12, the tween audience. The time to market for live action is faster. And there was and still is a demand from the market.”

OTT platforms have become more important in the financing mix for live action, the panelists said. Maggie & Bianca sold to Netflix and Hulu boarded Find Me in Paris. “The reason we’re here talking about premium live action is because of the SVOD platforms,” Michel said. “It really started with Amazon commissioning very high-quality shows, many of them from Canada, like Annedroids. Amazon started with this trend of looking for compelling, high-end kids’ shows, and it’s something no one was thinking about at that time. Four or five years ago, most of the kids’ live action was multi-cam sitcoms coming from Canada or the [big global] networks. Then Netflix started commissioning quite a bit as well. Now hopefully we’ll have Apple as well.”

Veteran kids’ producer Joan Lambur, who set up her own outfit after leaving Breakthrough Entertainment, said that OTT services “are not making brand promises to the parents and children” the way that the kids’ linear networks have to, “so they have more freedom creatively. They’re able to go out on these limbs and do things in a way that’s not going to interfere with any non-existent brand promise they’ve made.”

Some new live-action shows were unveiled last week, as Nickelodeon International greenlit The Covurts (working title), its first original co-pro with Nutz Productions in association with Israeli cable network HOT. Mondo TV Iberoamerica, meanwhile, announced that it is producing a movie based on the hit live-action teen dramedy Heidi Bienvenida. And CBeebies commissioned Happy Tent Tales, a live-action series for young viewers between the ages of 3 and 6, from Ivy House Productions.

MIPTV also featured the return of the International Emmy Kids Awards in Cannes. The ceremony on Tuesday night presented International Emmys to seven winners from Canada, France, Germany, Norway and the U.K.

The victor in the preschool category was La Cabane à Histoires (The Treehouse Stories), which is made by Dandelooo/Caribara Production in France. Revolting Rhymes, from Magic Light Pictures in the U.K., took home the animation prize, while Jenter (Young Girls) from Norway’s NRK was selected as best digital project. In the factual category, the winner was Berlin und wir (Berlin and Us) from Imago TV/ZDF in Germany. The non-scripted entertainment award went to Snapshots from FORTÉ Entertainment in Canada. The series category was won by Club der roten Bänder (Red Bracelets) from Bantry Bay Productions/VOX Television in Germany, while the TV movie/miniseries prize went to Hank Zipzer’s Christmas Catastrophe from Kindle Entertainment/DHX Media/Walker Productions/Yorkshire Content Fund in the U.K.

“The programming kids watch every day has a major influence on their behavior and views of the world,” said Bruce L. Paisner, president of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “We congratulate all the winners for their outstanding achievements and for setting the high-quality standard we all expect for our kids.”

The week saw a range of deal announcements, among them Entertainment One appointing Alpha Group as the master toy partner for the popular preschool brand PJ Masks in China. Superights inked a deal with CJ E&M to launch three preschool series in South Korea this year, including Helen’s Little School and Emmy & Gooroo. In other Asian news, Fix&Foxi, an edutainment channel, is now being offered on i-Cable in Hong Kong.

In Europe, meanwhile, Xilam Animation revealed it has clinched a slot on CITV in the U.K. for its new 2D-animated Mr Magoo. And Atlantyca Entertainment licensed the animated series School of Roars to DeA Junior in Italy.

Distributors also bulked up their catalogs as they arrived at MIPTV, with 9 Story Distribution International snapping up the global rights for the new stop-motion series The Diary of Bita & Cora from Spain’s TV ON Producciones, and Imira Entertainment acquiring two new short-format comedy series.

Catch up on these stories and more on TVKids.ws, and visit WorldScreen.com, where you will also find our formats, drama and factual recaps, as well as a piece on the overall trends at MIPTV.