Little Princess

TV Kids Weekly, December
12, 2006

NAME: Little Princess

ORIGIN: Little Princess is based on the international
best-selling children’s picture books by award-winning author/illustrator Tony
Ross and has been charming parents and children alike for over 20 years.

CREATORS: The series is produced by Illuminated
Film Company, founded by Iain Harvey, the executive producer of The Snowman and When The Wind Blows.

TV SHOW: The first series of Little Princess consists of 65 11-minute episodes
produced in 2-D high definition animation and targets 2- to 6-year-olds. The
second series is already in production and delivery of episodes is expected for
September 2007.

Little
Princess is full of
energy, charm and questions about how the world works. As with most little
children she has an irrepressible curiosity and is delightfully stubborn when
things don’t go her way! However demanding Little Princess gets, you can’t stay
angry for long once she puts on her big smile and tries to make it all better.

Spontaneous,
inquisitive and endearing, Little Princess invites little ones and those who look after them to
laugh and learn!

EXECUTIVE
PRODUCERS: Iain Harvey
and Lee Marriott

COMMISSIONING
BROADCASTER: Little Princess
premiered in October
on Milkshake!, the
preschool block airing FIVE, the commercial broadcaster in the U.K. Repeats of
the first season will be airing on FIVE until the beginning of January. The
series also airs on Five Life, where it is stripped daily Monday to Friday
mornings. FIVE commissioned the second series of Little Princess prior to the first series’ premiere in
October.

TV SALES: Little Princess has been sold to broadcasters in 95
countries, including ZDF Germany, France 5, RAI Italy and ABC Australia.

MAJOR TOY
LICENSEES: The Little
Princess property
launched at London’s Brand Licensing show in October. TV tie-in books and DVDs
of the first season will be released in Spring 2007.

OTHER
PRODUCTS: Worldwide
sales of Little Princess books exceed 3.5 million copies, of which more than 2 million
copies have sold in the U.K., published by Andersen Press and Harper Collins.

Apparel,
stationery, activity and sticker books, playsets and plush are planned for 2007/2008.

STRATEGY
FOR ROLLOUT: While Little
Princess targets
preschoolers, recent audience information from FIVE, which commissioned the
show, reveals that the series also appeals to the 6-to-9 age group and to an
equal number of boys and girls, explains Justine Bannister, the head of
international distribution and acquisitions at TV Loonland.

The property
is based on the best-selling books by Tony Ross. “She’s very distinctive
looking; no other show looks like Little Princess,” says Bannister. “It does look like a
book-based property. I think it’s something broadcasters feel very safe with.
So many deals were done with public broadcasters, the Germans, the
Scandinavians, the Australians, the Italians. It’s one of those shows that
broadcasters take a look at and say, ‘It’s a book-based property, it’s a
well-known brand, we’ll take it.’”

Bannister
points out that many commercial broadcasters also picked up the show, and that
will help with the licensing and merchandising. Little Princess lends itself particularly well to
apparel and stationery, and products will first be introduced in the U.K. “Most
of the licensing products will be released on the back of the second season,
which will be delivered at the end of next year,” continues Bannister. “It’s
all rather early days because Little Princess as a brand was launched at Brand
Licensing in October, but plans call for apparel to roll out first, and baby
apparel will be introduced at Marks & Spencer.”

Bannister and
her team are also working on deals in the U.S and Latin America.