TV Kids Festival Recap

Many themes emerged from our fantastic TV Kids Festival last week. The need for a greater focus on diversity and representation in kids’ content. The value of known IP. The complexities of working with streamers, from mulling whether to do a global rights deal or taking a more strategic, market-by-market approach to figuring out which AVOD services are worth the effort. The importance of coming up with new financing models. The best ways of managing creativity and talent. But perhaps the most apparent theme was just how much people in the kids’ business genuinely love working in the kids’ business. You could see it across every single one of our 20 sessions—involving a total of 32 speakers (plus two delightful children in the extended TV Kids family): a firm desire to elevate the content and find smarter, savvier ways of making shows that will amuse, entertain, educate and mold young minds across the globe.

Missed any of the sessions live? You can access the entire festival on-demand here: TVKidsFestival.com.

We, of course, opened the festivities with a panel seeking to answer the question all distributors want an answer to: What do buyers want? In the Hit Seekers session, WarnerMedia Kids & Family’s Adina Pitt, KiKA’s Sebastian Debertin, M6 Group’s Maud Branly and CBC’s Marie McCann highlighted what’s working for them and what they’re looking for. Pitt, VP of content acquisitions, partnerships and co-productions for the Americas at WarnerMedia Kids & Family, noted that the importance of alliances has been “amplified quite a bit because the ecosystem is broader, and the consumer requires that much more content than what we used to pick up. The frequency is greater, and the volume is greater.”

Debertin, head of international content acquisitions in the programming and management department at KiKA in Germany, noted that the pubcaster is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. “You can imagine the shopping list for programming gifts for the audience and ourselves is long and huge!”

Branly, children’s acquisitions director and international TV channels children’s programming director at M6 Group, said that the company’s need for content continues to grow. “In the last year, we acquired more nonlinear rights. We started to make acquisitions for exclusive SVOD rights. We have to adapt our acquisition strategy because the kids’ habits are changing very quickly.”

McCann, senior director of children’s content at Canada’s CBC, said that companies pitching to her should consider “we’re buying for a four-hour television block, so the scale is different. We’re not looking for hundreds of hours of content. We’re looking for marquee brands or highly original, unique offerings that are breaking ground somehow.”

DreamWorks Animation has a stable of marquee brands alongside new original IP, Peter Gal, chief creative officer for television, told delegates in his keynote session. “We try to have a healthy mix at all times. Sometimes it feels like the business is pivoting one way or the other. Sometimes, the market feels very driven by people only wanting known IP with a built-in marketing advantage. But a few months later, one of our buyers will surface and say, ‘We’re craving something new, we want to break new IP.’”

Fred Soulie, senior VP and general manager of Mattel Television, highlighted the gains at the toy giant’s content arm. “2021 was the biggest year on record for Mattel and Mattel Television on the content side. We debuted more than nine series and specials based on our iconic IPs.”

Taking a holistic, 360-degree approach to brand-building popped up in several sessions, including the keynote from Josh Scherba, the president of WildBrain. “We have a unique set of capabilities,” Scherba explained, referencing its “library of world-class IP, our best-in-class creative development, our production facility in Vancouver, our experience and expertise in digital distribution as well as traditional distribution. At WildBrain CPLG, we have global expertise in consumer products and licensing. All of those aspects give us the ability to take IP from the ground floor, amplify it, build it up and ultimately [get it] onto retail shelves.”

Olivier Dumont, president of eOne Family Brands, discussed the unit’s approach to developing new IP and managing known franchises from the extensive Hasbro portfolio. “Our slate covers the full spectrum of demographics and genders, always with a strong commercial angle to them. We’re looking to develop properties with significant licensing and merchandising potential.”

Similarly, Hans Bourlon, co-founder and CEO of Studio 100, discussed how the company has expanded its rich library into numerous avenues, including a successful theme park business. “Our group is unique in that we combine the production of live-action and animated series with the leisure business like theater shows and theme parks.”

Chris M. Williams, the founder and CEO of pocket.watch, showcased the company’s approach to developing IP for a digital-first generation. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of success taking YouTube content, repackaging it, reformatting it, upscaling it to more premium-feeling content, and then distributing it broadly across over 40 different platforms in 80 countries. Everywhere we put the content, it performs, always.”

We also took a deep dive into the burgeoning AVOD space. “The last few years for AVOD have been quite intense!” said Brenda Bisner, the chief content officer at Kidoodle.TV. “Kidoodle.TV has had a major role to play in that happening. As we look at the AVOD landscape, there is a need for a focus on differentiation, value-add and, of course, partnerships that are supportive. The focus for us is to keep growing and supporting families and kids globally while elevating our relevance in the AVOD space with our partnerships and brands.”

Eric Berger, the CEO of Common Sense Networks, outlined the strategy for Sensical, which just arrived on the scene last year, highlighting that it is the “only streaming platform designed around interest-based learning.”

Festival delegates also heard directly from the creators responsible for bringing joyous characters to kids across the globe, including the Oscar-winning Nick Park, who shared insights about his journey into stop-motion animation and the enduring appeal of Wallace and Gromit. Pierre Sissmann, chairman and CEO of Cyber Group Studios, and Coralie Boitrelle-Laigle, head of content for M6 Group’s kids’ channels in France, gave a behind-the-scenes look at the animated series The McFire Family. Joe Brumm, the creator of Bluey, discussed why the series is beloved by preschoolers and parents alike. Sonia Manzano, best known for her long run on Sesame Street as Maria, and Ellen Doherty, chief creative officer at Fred Rogers Productions, took TV Kids Festival viewers inside the new PBS KIDS show Alma’s Way. And Chelsea Beyl articulated the approach to bringing the charm of the iconic Disney animated feature Alice in Wonderland to preschoolers with the brand-new show Alice’s Wonderland Bakery.

We devoted an entire panel to overall trends in preschool, with Serious Kids’ Genevieve Dexter, Jetpack Distribution’s Dominic Gardiner, Dandelooo’s Emmanuèle Pétry-Sirvin and CAKE’s Daniel Bays participating in a lively discussion on crafting that perfect mix of entertainment and edutainment. We also looked at the latest developments in French animation with Cyber Group Studios’ Raphaëlle Mathieu, TeamTO’s Corinne Kouper and Zephyr Animation’s David Sauerwein.

Don’t miss the super engaging conversation between Deirdre Brennan, the COO of WildBrain, and Frank Falcone, the president and executive creative director at Guru Studio, on strategies for engaging kids today, including the importance of crafting new and innovative marketing plans to cut through the clutter. And get an inside look at Thunderbird Entertainment’s strategy for becoming a global content studio via this panel featuring Jennifer Twiner McCarron, CEO; Matt Berkowitz, president and chief creative officer; and Richard Goldsmith, president of global distribution and consumer products.

We presented this winter’s TV Kids Pioneer Award to Philippe Bony, general manager of thematic TV channels at M6 Group and president of Gulli, who put the challenges and opportunities of catering to kids like this: “Kids are changing faster and faster. What is fascinating is that now when you are launching a new show and start the first sentence on a white page, you know that you are working for the next generation. You need to be able to anticipate their behaviors, their tastes, their interests, which are changing so quickly. You know [it will be] several years before you can broadcast the show and that a lot of things will have changed. It’s interesting to try to anticipate that. You need to be lucky because you never know which way the world will go. So, it is really exciting to work for children and try to help them discover this new world.”

Watch all of these sessions at TVKidsFestival.com.