FitzRoy Media

September 23, 2009 World Screen
Hamp Hampton
President & CEO
 

What are some of your top properties for MIPCOM?

Out of My Mind, a unique comedy for tween-aged girls that incorporates live-action and animation and features a 14-year-old teenage girl athlete who faces the typical challenges of a teen and with her animated inner girls influencing her choices in her everyday life, the perils of a teenager can be confusing but outright funny.

When eight disparate fruit are catapulted from the back of a produce truck they must band together to survive the perils of the side of the road. In the process, they make one nutty fruit salad. Inspired by the popular fruit drink of the ’60S, Funny Face boasts bad puns and hilarious sight gags. But most importantly, the 25 one minute episodes offer NO SUBSTANCE WHATSOEVER. A show that harkens back to the day when cartoons just had to be funny and a watermelon could get hit by a speeding car and live to joke about it. The Funny Face characters were originally introduced via packets of a drink mix introduced by Pillsbury in 1964 as a challenger to Kool-Aid. The character’s silly, smiling faces made them instantly popular with school age kids, and, spurred by their appearance in television commercials, the brand developed into a full-fledged craze. Plastic mugs, backpacks, finger puppets and other products featuring the characters remain popular collectibles to this day.
 
Revenge of the Geeks is an exciting studio game show, in search of the nation’s next genius kid. Revenge of the Geeks is prime-time TV and/or web content for the entire family-witty and entertaining, funny and fast-paced action. Revenge of the Geeks presents 12 of the country’s brightest children with a variety of fascinating challenges in an all out search for the nation’s next genius kid.
 
 

Why will these programs appeal to buyers?
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Almost all buyers are looking for strong but relevant family content that can translate well in foreign territories and there is  a need for well-written content that can stand out from the pack of just "so-so" written shows that tend to utilize the latest animation gimmicks. Funny Face, HeathCliff and Daktari Park are brands with a legacy, maintaining years of equity and recognizably built into them. This is especially with today’s parents, who grew up with these brands as part of their childhood. 
 
 

What are some of the trends you’re currently seeing in this market?

 

The first is that more platforms are available to launch new content that compete with broadcasters on an even basis in some cases. The time of seeking only one medium is no longer here. The second trend is for programming that nurtures family viewing or co-viewing habits—content that the entire family can enjoy is gaining popularity across all markets. I also see a growth in broadcasters looking for game shows for kids. This certainly falls into the co-viewing experience, but in regards to niche, it’s an area that I think is expanding enormously.  
 
 

What are your goals and expectations MIPCOM?

Like all distributors and producers we seek to secure new program sales, for FitzRoy’s library of properties, we are particularly focused at this market on broadcast partners for our animated series Funny Face and look forward to introducing international broadcasters to one of our newest projects, an animated series based on the Daktari Park brand, which we only announced having the project at The Licensing Show in June. This market offers us opportunity to seek new introductions with potential strategic partners in the areas of Internet and wireless content providers, a very important focus for us for many of our properties. And, we see this year’s MIPCOM as a time for us to lay the groundwork for the sales of broadcast, DVD and PPY rights for our upcoming HeathCliff animated feature film.