Sunny skies may have greeted MIPJunior attendees in Cannes last week, but the stark data released by Ampere Analysis on the kids\u2019 commissioning landscape before the market\u2019s official kick-off at the JW Marriott made clear that the segment will need an abundance of creativity to make it through the choppy forecasts.<\/p>\n
RX Global expanded the MIPJunior schedule this year with the Friday opening of the screenings library and an illuminating session moderated by WildBrain\u2019s Deirdre Brennan and featuring Keith Chapman, PBS KIDS\u2019 Sara DeWitt and Blue Spirit\u2019s Olivier Lelardoux. Before their discussion under the theme State of the Kids Entertainment Industry: Challenges & Opportunities, Cyrine Amor, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis, presented data on the\u00a0realities of those challenges<\/a>. Global commissions of kids\u2019 shows are down 48 percent since February 2022. Overall, kids\u2019 titles commissions fell 21 percent\u2014almost double the 11 percent decline in all genres. The cutbacks have been most significant at the U.S. SVOD and pay-TV services. U.S. public-service broadcast commissions were fairly stable, but pay-TV commissions slumped 53 percent and SVOD 33 percent. In Western Europe, PSB commissioning has fallen by 19 percent, while the SVODs and pay TV were fairly stable. The pressures on the market are causing commissioners to rely more on known IP, which accounted for more than 50 percent of new commissions in the U.S. and the big European territories. Amor also highlighted the shifts in distribution strategies and the challenges of discovery and referenced the importance of ubiquitous distribution, a key theme of the weekend\u2019s\u00a0panel on multiplatform distribution strategies with Banijay Kids & Family\u2019s Delphine Dumont, Moonbug Entertainment\u2019s Andy Yeatman and Spin Master Entertainment\u2019s Jennifer Dodge<\/a>, moderated by\u00a0TV Kids<\/em>\u2019 Kristin Brzoznowski.<\/p>\n \u201cOur fundamental philosophy is to meet kids where they are,\u201d Yeatman said. \u201cWe want our content to be wherever kids and families spend time. We know kids are platform-agnostic, so we try to have our shows be on as many of the major platforms where families spend time around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n At Banijay Kids & Family, Dumont noted the challenges around commissioners and buyers wanting exclusive rights. \u201cWe have to find common ground and ensure we retain as much as we can to exploit it successfully on digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n Dodge runs the entertainment unit of the toy company Spin Master. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s all about building brands and franchises and taking a franchise-management approach to how we look at each property or piece of IP and making content for every size screen, every platform imaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n Franchise management was also a key theme of the opening keynote delivered by\u00a0Ramsey Naito, the president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation<\/a>, in conversation with\u00a0TV Kids<\/em>\u2019 Anna Carugati. The combination of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation under Naito\u2019s remit \u201chas allowed us to embrace theatricals and series and franchise planning in a smart way. It allows us to launch a movie and think about how we are launching a series thereafter and how we may want to plan for character-driven movies that will continue to expand the universe and connect to an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n The value of a known brand was also highlighted by\u00a0Victoria Lozano, executive VP at Crayola, as she unveiled the vision for Crayola Studios in a MIPJunior keynote<\/a>. Crayola is expanding into the entertainment space with Crayola Studios \u201cbecause kids need a champion,\u201d Lozano said in her session, moderated by\u00a0TV Kids<\/em>\u2019 Brzoznowski. \u201cWho better than Crayola to step up and advocate for this, to help parents nurture that creativity and to make a societal paradigm shift in how creativity is valued and nurtured?\u201d<\/p>\n That recurring theme of known IP also emerged in the raft of deal news out of MIPJunior\u2014which welcomed 1,221 delegates from 63 countries\u2014and MIPCOM last week. Hasbro and ABC Australia signed a new broadcast deal to bring season one of\u00a0Transformers: EarthSpark\u00a0<\/em><\/a>to certain ABC platforms<\/a>.\u00a0The Smurfs<\/em><\/a>\u00a0animated series was picked up for a third season<\/a>, set to be broadcast globally by Nickelodeon and on local free-to-air in 2024.\u00a0Pocket.watch and the Kaji family-owned Sunlight Entertainment<\/a>\u00a0expanded the Ryan\u2019s World brand with\u00a0Ryan\u2019s World Pirate Adventures<\/em>, building on the successful Ryan\u2019s World Pirate YouTube videos. Atlantyca Entertainment extended its long-running partnerships with\u00a0Italy\u2019s Rai and Spain\u2019s RTVE for the beloved\u00a0<\/a>Geronimo Stilton<\/em><\/a>. Indeed, book and graphic novel adaptations and partnering with acclaimed authors remain key.\u00a0BBC and BYUtv greenlit a second season of the live-action series\u00a0<\/a>A Kind of Spark<\/em><\/a>\u00a0from 9 Story Media Group.\u00a0Lion Forge Entertainment scored a first-look deal with award-winning Nigerian creator and producer Roye Okupe<\/a>, founder of YouNeek Studios and creator of the YouNeek YouNiverse. They are already working together on the animated fantasy series\u00a0Iyanu<\/em>\u00a0for Max and Cartoon Network, based on the award-winning graphic novel\u00a0Iyanu: Child of Wonder<\/em>. CBC Kids came on board as a commissioning broadcaster for\u00a0Hop<\/em><\/a>, the new preschool comedy series from the creator of\u00a0<\/a>Arthur<\/em><\/a>, Marc Brown<\/a>.\u00a0CBeebies commissioned season two of Maramedia\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>Olga da Polga<\/em><\/a>\u00a0from best-selling children\u2019s author Michael Bond (Paddington<\/em>).<\/p>\n And while it is getting harder, breakout new ideas can still cut through and charm audiences. The second season of\u00a0Fia\u2019s Fairies<\/em><\/a>, from Little Moon Animation, is set to bow on RT\u00c9jr<\/a>\u00a0in February 2025. Designed to support new ideas, the\u00a0MIPJunior Pitch was won this year by\u00a0<\/a>The Adventures of Team Pom<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Data released by Ampere Analysis on the kids\u2019 commissioning landscape before MIPJunior\u2019s official kick-off made clear that the segment will need an abundance of creativity to make it through choppy forecasts, and the variety of keynotes and news that came out of the market showed the ways in which the business is rising to meet the challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":26167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[221,8563,1337,6621,1929,8136,166,2011,1465,4888,6342,6343,146,2567,3978,1156],"class_list":["post-26166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-9-story-media-group","tag-ampere-analysis","tag-atlantyca-entertainment","tag-banijay-kids-family","tag-blue-spirit","tag-crayola-studios","tag-hasbro","tag-mipcom","tag-mipjunior","tag-moonbug-entertainment","tag-nickelodeon-animation","tag-paramount-animation","tag-pbs-kids","tag-pocket-watch","tag-spin-master-entertainment","tag-wildbrain","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n