Ludorum

September 23, 2009 World Screen
Charlie Caminada
COO
 
 

What are some of your top properties for MIPCOM?

 

Chuggington series two, Dennis & Gnasher, Marvo the Wonder Chicken.
 
 

Why will these programs appeal to buyers?

 

Chuggington: Raises the bar in preschool entertainment; offers a high level of edutainment where social and moral messages are made fun; Bright, colorful, top-quality CGI animation represents this 21st century series. It has sold into over 165 territories with leading broadcast partners around the world already secured. It’s achieving outstanding ratings in key territories where launched—CBeebies, Super RTL, Canada’s Treehouse, ABC Australia. Major investment in the online and new-media content and capabilities allows broadcasters a variety of methods to cross-promote and exploit the property in these changing and sophisticated delivery methods.
 
Dennis & Gnasher: A refreshing celebration of childhood as adults experienced it; where without violence, encouraging high living consumption or bad habits in children, our heroes are just boys being boys—building, inventing and getting up to mischief in a cheeky and charming way. It’s a new take on old-fashioned fun. The humor which is driven by strong narrative, great stories, bold graphics and musical score which majors on guitar, bass and drums, positions the series as fast-paced, action-packed and contemporary with specific appeal to a 6 to 10 audience. Creative input and script writing from the U.S., U.K. and Australia provides translation of humor and cultural appeal to global audiences. A major online program is being to accompany series, which can support our broadcaster partners worldwide in cross-promotional and marketing opportunities.
 
Marvo the Wonder Chicken: A hysterical series involving the ultimate “show” chicken! The world’s greatest wannabe, never afraid of a challenge to achieve the greatest, longest or highest of stunts. Classic slapstick comedy shorts in the tradition of Looney Tunes updated for 21st century. Without carrying any dialogue, the visual humor of the series translates exceptionally strongly, making this a laugh out loud property with huge global appeal. It’s done in a format of 2 minutes, no dialogue and broad audience appeal across full family entertainment, allows flexibility of scheduling in both traditional broadcasting and new-media opportunities.
 
 

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

 

It seems as many buyers are faced with budget cuts and stricter requirements in their programming targets, it is important that we are ensuring our properties raise the bar to offer a high level of quality and content. The success we have seen with Chuggington has been based on striving toward achieving this and the results have proved this an effective strategy.
 
We are definitely seeing a high demand towards comedy-based adventure series in the older children’s target (particularly for boys), where humor must translate for a global audience appeal. As we bring more material of our brand new series, Dennis & Gnasher to MIPCOM this year, we hope to see this ‘traditional meets contemporary’ series fit perfectly to this current trend amongst many children’s content buyers.
 
The trend for broadcasters to experiment with and exploit new-media rights outside of traditional broadcast continues to grow at an ever-increasing pace. Buyers now look to acquire a number of rights to cover all platforms for the linear broadcast of their channel across TV, online and mobile platforms. Therefore, it is essential that we are observing these developments in our broadcast partners and can adapt to their changing requirements.
 
 

What are your goals and expectations MIPCOM?

 

Having sold Chuggington series one into over 165 territories with A-list broadcasters, we will be launching series two and our exciting new badge-quest mini episodes this market with a view to extend our strong relationships with current broadcasters and look at further new opportunities for this series.
 
Coming armed with final episodes and following the exciting launch on CBBC of our new series, Dennis & Gnasher, we will be taking this series to the international market to both introduce and conclude sales with broadcasters from all over the world.