Stuart Snyder

President & COO
Young Adults & Kids Media Group
Turner Broadcasting

In today’s crowded multichannel landscape, Cartoon Network is a beacon for boys, with a schedule known for fun, often irreverent, action-packed animation. As Stuart Snyder, the president and COO of the animation, young adults and kids media group at Turner Broadcasting, explains, Cartoon Network is moving from strength to strength—expanding into live action, reaching out to girl viewers, building new brands and keeping classics like Scooby-Doo alive and well.

TV KIDS: It’s hard to believe—Scooby-Doo is 40 years old! How has Cartoon Network kept the franchise fresh?
SNYDER: Scooby is absolutely multigenerational. What has kept the franchise fresh, frankly, is Scooby himself and these great characters, who have lived and prospered for decades. It is a show that offers comedy, a little bit of a fear factor and a little bit of mystery. It’s the combination of the engaging storytelling and of course Scooby himself, who is lovable and cute, that really have made Scooby-Doo an amazing evergreen character and property. Working with our partners at Warner Bros., we have been able to offer the television series and a number of made-for-DVD specials over the years both on Boomerang and on Cartoon Network.

TV KIDS: What prompted the decision to get into live-action programming?
SNYDER: What prompted the decision are kids today. We’ve done extensive research at the network. We really focus our content for boys—although we don’t look to alienate girls, we look to embrace them—and we do a lot of engaged research with boys. We really feel we have the pulse on what’s going on with boys. Through those dialogues and that research, it was confirmed that boys really want to see more of themselves on our network. They are watching all television, not just one genre. Our core identity will always be the best animation you can find anywhere. Our audience is saying they love animation, but they also love watching live action. So our challenge is to give them live action that fits our brand—that means we are looking to embody the humor, the outrageousness, the boy-oriented stuff that boys relate to. We want to make real TV for real kids.

So as we continue to maintain a heavy commitment to animation, we are moving into the live-action genre and we started with reality programming. We got some great traction with two new shows. Dude, What Would Happen is really doing well with the boy [market] and the girl market—the girl audience is growing every week. And the other show that is popping is called Destroy Build Destroy.

Then we have two live-action pilots that we will be reviewing in the next two months. The first one is Unnatural History, produced in association with Warner Horizon Television, and the second is Tower Prep, executive-produced and written by Paul Dini.

TV KIDS: What new animation series have you greenlit recently?
SNYDER: In 2009-2010, our programming announcements represent the largest, most diverse development slate in our history. On the animation front, we greenlit 164 new half-hour episodes of new and returning shows.

There are three new action-animated series: Ben 10: Evolution, as the Ben 10 franchise continues to be extremely popular; Generator Rex, from Man of Action, the creators of Ben 10; and Sym-Bionic Titan, from creator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack).

Next we have the comedies Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, commissioned from Pendleton Ward, Stoked from CAKE and the second in the Total Drama franchise, Total Drama Action. It follows Cartoon Network’s number one show of 2008, Total Drama Island, also from CAKE.

We have a lot of returning shows: Flapjack, Batman: The Brave & The Bold, of course we have Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which has been extremely well received—in fact, last year it was ranked number one on all of television with boys 6 to 11. The premiere of Star Wars was the most watched premiere in our history.

TV KIDS: How are the development teams in the U.S and in Europe working together?
SNYDER: The U.S. team and the international team collaborate on a regular basis. We work together, we communicate, we share projects, we look for projects together when we attend conventions, which we attend on a worldwide basis. We are doing more and more together than ever before. An example would be Bakugan, which is an animated show we did with Nelvana and Spin Master. Star Wars: The Clone Wars was also a worldwide collaboration.

TV KIDS: Which Cartoon Network properties are generating the best merchandising and licensing revenues?
SNYDER: Our biggest brand is Ben 10. We’ve had the original show, spin-offs, one extremely popular live-action movie, Ben 10: Race Against Time, which was the highest-rated event on our network back in the fall of 2007. This fall Ben 10: Alien Swarm, the new live-action movie, premiered and we will have another new series based on Ben 10 coming up later on.

Ben 10 is our biggest, most popular brand for boys. It’s had four years of double-digit growth. It is a top five brand in multiple territories around the world and in 2008, in fact, it was the number one selling toy brand in the U.K., Spain, Southeast Asia, Australia and South Africa, just to name a few. Bandai America sold more than 22 million action figures and 9 million Omnitrix watches worldwide. Ben 10 was also the bestselling video game franchise and the most successful kids’ DVD franchise in our history of originals. We’ve launched more than 175 new products with another 225 slated for 2010.

The other property I would highlight is Bakugan. We partnered with Spin Master and Nelvana to serve as the exclusive agent for Bakugan. In 2009 LIMA named it “Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year” and “Best TV, Film & Entertainment-Hards Goods Licensee of the Year,” and we’ve signed more than 40 deals with blue-chip partners like Colgate, McDonald’s, Random House and Scholastic, just to name a few, but Bakugan truly has become a toy phenomenon. It’s a top boys’ property in the toy category.

Generator Rex and Sym-Bionic Titan are the two shows that we are very much targeting as the next big properties in terms of action figures.

To watch a clip of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, please click here.