Kabillion

World Screen Weekly, May 18,
2007

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH Date: January 8, 2007

OWNERSHIP: Majority ownership in Kabillion is held by Taffy
Entertainment, a MoonScoop Group company. Other partners in the venture include
Germany’s EM.TV and REMIX Entertainment.

NUMBER OF
SUBSCRIBERS/DISTRIBUTION: VOD currently in
13.3 million digital cable households, broadband worldwide (streaming video
available in the U.S. only)

DESCRIPTION: Kabillion is a multiplatform destination for 6- to
11-year-olds and consists of a video-on-demand (VOD) service on digital cable.
It launched earlier this year in all of Comcast’s VOD-enabled households.
Kabillion also offers a broadband video channel on Kabillion.com. On the
website, kids can find the same programming available on the VOD service, as
well as video games, favorite sports and music content, message boards, viewer
polls, podcasts and more.

CEO: Bill Schultz

EXECUTIVE VP, AD SALES: Bob McPhee

VP, PRODUCTION: Stevan Levy

MARKETING DIRECTOR: Deb Pierson

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: As the service’s tagline states: “Kabillion—it's not
just a show…it's what you want, when you want it!” Kabillion caters to today’s
kids who consume entertainment with a multiplatform approach. “Just having a
linear network will only grab a little bit of their attention and if they want
to experience entertainment on an iPod, or on a computer, or on a DVD, you’ve
got to go into those other places,” explains Bill Schultz, the CEO of
Kabillion. “If you combine this with the fact that Comcast is the leading VOD
provider in the U.S. and our company, Taffy Entertainment, has a library of
more than 3,000 half-hours of programming, it was a good fit for us and Comcast,
so we created the Kabillion brand.”

Kabillion is a gender-neutral
brand for 6- to 11-year-olds. “We have six or seven different series on the VOD
service and we premiere original cartoons several times a year,” explains
Schultz. “We also take the same programming that we have on VOD and offer it in
a broadband streaming fashion on Kabillion.com. And we’ve developed games and
activities and bulletin boards with messages and stories and funny photos, in
some cases developed on the same content."

Kabillion.com is COPPA compliant
and CARU compliant, making it a parent-trusted site. Two-thirds of the content
on Kabillion.com is related to the programs featured on Kabillion VOD.

For the time being, the majority
of the programming on Kabillion is supplied by Taffy Entertainment, and there
are some shows from partner EM.TV. Kabillion does, however, air acquired
product, such as Bobby’s World, which
is currently the number one show on the service. “We’ve had a huge response to Bobby’s
World, (created by and starring Deal or
No Deal’s Howie Mandel)” explains Schultz.
“It attracts a dual audience: we’re getting the 6 to 11 kids who are new to it,
but we are also getting the 25-year-olds who grew up with it. That’s an
acquired show and we’re looking at additional acquisitions and partnerships.”

Kabillion is also looking for
partnerships with advertisers. “We are ad-supported, which means that rather
than charging a subscription for the VOD service or charging a user fee for the
broadband, it’s all free to the consumer,” says Schultz. “So we are working
with advertisers to put together multiplatform campaigns that help them reach
their audience effectively in innovative ways. We’re not selling 30-second
commercials; we’re selling sponsorships. So it’s a unique format, it’s ‘how can
we create an experience for your targeted consumer’ that takes into account the
way they like to consume entertainment—whether it be video games or
whatever. We produced a brand new series featuring LA Galaxy & Olympic
soccer star Cobi Jones teaching kids how to improve their game, all under an
exclusive deal for one of our sponsors.”

WHAT’S NEW: Management is expanding Kabillion’s distribution. “There
are deals in the pipeline for other digital platforms and also for more
households. By the end of the year, the game plan is for Kabillion to be
available in nearly all digital cable households in the U.S.,” says Schultz.

“On May 24, we will offer a
24-hour sneak preview of our brand-new 2-D animated series I Got a Rocket on the broadband platform,” continues Schultz. “Rocket officially launches with multiple episodes on both
platforms on June 1, along with the I Got a Rocket online video game. This way kids can experience the brand
as a linear cartoon on the VOD; or as a streaming cartoon on Kabillion.com; or
they can play the Kabillion version of the I Got a Rocket video game.”

WEBSITE: www.Kabillion.com

—By Anna Carugati