Apparently a down economy means no one can resist an online wedgie, available in online form from Brandissimo! © Brandissimo.

David Snyder, CEO, Brandissimo!

In this current economic climate, our goal is to continue to push our team creatively -- making good things great and great things even better. It's our way of protecting and motivating our artists and producers. "Worry" isn't a good energy when you're trying to crack kids up. In this environment, it's key for us to be open with our creatives about the state of our business and the security of their jobs and keep them motivated and excited about the work. On the client side, we're applying this energy to current customers by over-delivering on our efforts to entertain kids and build brand equity. We don't want our clients to be able to imagine life without us!

We're finding that companies are still looking for smart, creative solutions for their businesses. For example, with the NFLRUSH Zone, traffic continues to grow as we add creative solutions such as new games and multiplayer games. Our bet is that online environments with fresh, fun and funny content, will continue to add users. We believe families who spend more time at home as a result of the economy are ultimately finding these alternatives and our numbers show more and more kids are flocking to the site. At our Urbaniacs.com site, we're seeing an increase in business since we've upgraded and improved the site with new games. Wedgie Toss 2: Back in the Crack has been a huge hit, proving to us that even in hard times, when the chips are down, there's nothing more redemptive and exhilarating than a good online Wedgie Toss! Successes such as these have led to a great referral business and we are actually growing this year, which is incredibly fortunate. For us, it all comes down to taking great care of our customers and delivering fun content on a strict budget.

Cake has had a successful year, breaking Skunk Fu (top) and Total Drama Island (bottom) into the lucrative U.S. market. © 2007 Cartoon Saloon (left) and © Cake Distribution Ltd.

Genevieve Dexter, Partner & Commercial Director, Cake Ent.

Whilst our quarterly profit and loss account is being cushioned by substantial gains in the exchange rate from the Euro and dollar to the pound, we are however having difficulty in making big pre-sales in Europe. This compounds the difficult situation in the U.K. as a result of losing both the ability to sell to two platforms, and ITV as a main player in the kids' arena. As we are small and experiencing early growth, it is difficult to assess the impact as of now.

Luckily for us, the U.S. has been our largest market this year, where in a commercial environment there is always money available for shows that are breaking ratings records. In our business when you look back on your accounts for the year, there are always just three or four deals that made the difference. Since we are a small company as I mentioned, it is difficult to see how we can economize on overhead, so we are looking carefully at each investment and trying to balance it with one or two new shows where we don't have to [invest].

As the animation cycle is slow and orders that were placed over a year ago are still in production, I feel that we will be hit with the recession in the next year in a more serious way, and will rely on good fortune and specific business opportunities to save us from the impact.

Frank Saperstein of E1 sees a silver lining in the recession: people find TV cheap entertainment.

Frank Saperstein, SVP, E1 Television, E1 Kids and Animation

The recession is definitely having an impact on the television business. Consumers are spending less, which has caused the advertisers to buy fewer commercial spots or spend less on the advertising spots that they do buy. This has trickled down to the broadcasters' bottom line and I see that they are financing fewer projects and giving smaller episode orders and lower license fees to the few precious series that they are producing.

At E1 Kids, we are being even more selective of the properties that we are putting into development and are focusing on projects with very strong broadcaster interest or with a broadcaster tied from early on as our development partner. Another focus is fully monetizing the properties that we currently have in production by doing everything possible to get second and third season orders so we can fully realize potential revenue through our international sales, home video, music and L&M divisions. I believe the next 12-24 months will see broadcasters ordering fewer series and is a time when producers will need to be very wise about how they devote both their financial and human resources. The silver lining is that when people don't have a lot of money to go out they tend to stay home and watch more TV.