MIPCOM: The Week in Kids

TV Kids Weekly recaps what you might have missed at MIP Junior and MIPCOM.

There was record attendance at this year’s MIP Junior, with 1,079 participants and almost 1,100 programs available to screen. Much to the delight of kids’ distributors, more than 560 buyers were on hand.

A highlight of the two-day event was the MIP Junior Kids’ Jury, in which children from the International School in Nice screened programs in three separate age categories and selected their favorites. Cyber Group Studios won in the preschool category of children ages 3 to 6 for Patch Pillows, while Fantawild Animation won with kids 7 to 10 for Hick-City and 1440 Productions took the win with teens 11 to 14 for Dig Deep Creek.

The kids’ activity didn’t stop when MIP Junior wrapped either. At a press breakfast, Sander Schwartz, the president of kids and family entertainment at FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), discussed the gains made by the division over the past two years. When FME announced its expansion into kids’ fare two years ago, "it was our goal to position [the company] as the leading independent supplier of kids and family content for television and other media," Schwartz said. Today, "we have 12 series at various stages of production with partners around the world, network and producer and other talent partnerships."

FME also announced a deal with Canada’s Fresh TV for the worldwide distribution rights (excluding Canada) for television, brand licensing, home entertainment and other ancillary rights for Grojband. FME revealed details of a plan to relaunch Mattel’s action-figure brand Max Steel as a television property for boys, with Nerd Corps Entertainment set to handle the animation.

Also making headlines, the first project to come out of the recently announced partnership between FME and Animation Collective, Black Dawn, a live-action and animated series, was unveiled. Along with co-producing, FME will have exclusive worldwide distribution, home entertainment and licensing rights to the series.

Co-productions continue to be key in the kids’ industry, as evidenced by the number of alliances announced at this market. Singapore’s Scrawl Studios signed a co-production pact with France’s Cyber Group Studios for the CG animated series Zou, which has been presold in 50 countries. Nickelodeon Latin America inked a development agreement with SOMOS Productions for a new teen telenovela to be unveiled at NATPE 2012. Edebé Audiovisual Licensing signed up the German broadcaster ZDF and the Canadian studio Yowza Animation as co-production partners on its series Four and a Half Friends.

Nicole Keeb, the head of international co-productions and acquisitions for children’s and youth programming at ZDF, commented: “We are very happy to be on board of Four and a Half Friends, because we believe in light detective stories for kids and on top: this series is based on a very popular German book property, which helps to create a certain awareness.”

Indeed, brands based on existing properties continue to shine in the kids’ space. Many of these shows have been given an updated look and feel, including the use of CGI and 3D, to appeal to a new generation of viewers. At the market, Studio100 Media sold the exclusive free-TV rights for the newly re-mastered 3D series Maya the Bee, Vicky the Viking and Heidi to Radio Television Suisse (RTS).

Patrick Elmendorff, the managing director of Studio100 Media, said, “With generations watching these series, its popularity and high recognition factor, we are confident that we will be able to build on their success with RTS and offer audiences in French-speaking Switzerland these truly amazing and vibrant shows.”

Another hot trend has been the inclusion of digital extensions for shows, with everything from social media, dedicated websites and apps enhancing the viewing experience for kids. Shaftesbury and its digital media division, Smokebomb Entertainment, announced their first original mobile app series, Totally Amp’d. The 9×7-minute episodes are built for smartphone and tablet devices, so that along with watching the Totally Amp’d "appisodes," viewers can interact with the story and its characters and create their own content through a variety of activities.

“Totally Amp’d is the first of its kind for the digital generation,” said Daniel Dales, CEO and executive producer at Smokebomb Entertainment. “By combining a traditional storytelling approach with interactive activities, it raises the bar for kids’ entertainment by immersing viewers in the action like never before.”

While many kids’ distributors used the market as a launch pad for their new shows, a number of companies took the opportunity to acquire for their slates. Moonscoop, for example, added to its catalogue the Toonzone Studios shows Action Dad and YooHoo & Friends for select territories. The recently greenlit animated comedy Teenage Fairytale Dropouts was picked up for worldwide distribution by CCI Entertainment. Entertainment One (eOne) Family scored the second season of the Amberwood Entertainment and One Animation preschool show Rob the Robot. The new deal extends eOne’s existing TV and home-entertainment agreement with Amberwood for season one.

Read these stories, and more on TVKids.ws.