Gaspard de Chavagnac joins Fox Kids France as managing director, replacing Ronan Lunven who left the position in November. Prior to FKF, de Chavagnac worked for eight years at Canal+ Group. He also was EVP for the finance and development at Canalsatellite and project manger for Canal+ International Affairs. He reports to Paul Taylor, group managing director for Channel Europe and EVP of Fox Kids Europe.
Broadcasters have increasingly been making adjustments to their programming during horrific events when topics or references might be seen as upsetting to children. AWN polled a number of TV outlets catering to kids to see if any had decided to reschedule any episodes that seem questionable or inappropriate when many children are alarmed by the bombings and combat waging on in Iraq. Kid's WB! is not making any changes. Others responded:
Kids' WB! will add three new animated series to its Saturday morning and weekday slates with shows to roll out throughout the year, starting in summer 2003. The network will be sharing more series with sister cablecaster Cartoon Network and is combining the ad sales units of each it was announced Tuesday, February 25, 20003, at the joint Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network upfront sales presentations in New York City.
This Summer Kids' WB! has added a new anime series, MEGAMAN: NT WARRIOR, to air in the U.S. Saturday mornings this summer 2003. Currently airing in Japan on TV Tokyo since March 2002, MEGAMAN: NT WARRIOR is a top-rated animated television series produced by ShoPro Entertainment. "We are excited to be working once again with the creative team that helped bring POKÉMON to Kids' WB!," said John Hardman, SVP at Kids' WB! "The newest incarnation of this beloved and time-proven character is sure to captivate kids and delight audiences everywhere.
KidScreen Summit is the only event that brings together executives from all spectrums of the kids & tweens industries, providing you with the tools and contacts to turn your kids entertainment property into a total brand experience. Designed to provide inspiration, information and incredible networking forexecutives in the following industries: programming, licensing, consumer products, production & distribution, marketing, brand management,publishing, animation, IP development and retail.NEW FOR 2003
- "30 Minutes with..." sessions
Donna Friedman Meir will be leaving her position as executive VP of Kids' WB! as she has been named president of kids' programming and production for National Geographic Television & Film. The announcement was made by National Geographic Television & Film president Tim Kelly. "Donna has the talent and expertise to bring the best of National Geographic to the next generation and further expand our reach into the kids' entertainment market.
Fox Kids Europe N.V. (FKE) has announced that Bruce Steinberg will succeed Ynon Kreiz as chief executive officer. Kreiz had previously announced his resignation effective in December 2002, and Steinberg will take over the position immediately, reporting directly to the supervisory board of Fox Kids Europe.
Independent animation studio Cartoonland in San Francisco recently completed 2D animation for a new commercial for Fox Kids Denmark. In the spot, a 2D animated boy is watching television with a live-action picture. He flips the channels and as soon as he reaches the Fox Kids channel the scene explodes into 3D animation and the boy flies through space with hundreds of Fox cartoon characters.
Kids' WB! will broadcast its Flash-animated comedy series ¡MUCHA LUCHA! with a Spanish simulcast, beginning on Saturday, December 14, 2002. The network, in conjunction with its affiliates, will provide Hispanic viewers the ability to watch the series in Spanish via Second Audio Programming (SAP). This irreverent comedy celebrates the Latin culture and explores the Mexican phenomenon known as "Lucha Libre." Kids' WB! recently announced it will pick up a second season of the series, which follows Rikochet, Buena Girl and The Flea as they study and live the "Code of Masked Wrestling."
Showing great faith in its new line-up of original series, Kids' WB! has already announced it will order second seasons for freshmen series OZZY & DRIX, ¡MUCHA LUCHA! and WHAT'S NEW SCOOBY-DOO, all from Warner Bros. Animation, plus new seasons of YU-GI-OH! and POKEMON from 4Kids Productions, Inc. for the upcoming 2003-2004 schedule. In making the announcement, Donna Friedman Meir, executive VP, Kids' WB! said, "These early pick-ups are testament to our confidence and appreciation of the wonderful creative teams behind each of these shows.
ELECTRONIC MEDIA ONLINE is reporting that U.S. broadcast network UPN will be dropping Disney's two-hour animated block beginning in 2003, opting instead to give the time slots back to stations. The kids' block airs weekdays on various UPN affiliates and features such series as DIGIMON and DISNEY'S RECESS. Disney has been programming the block since 1999. The two-hour slot will likely be handed back to affiliates for syndicated or local programming, effectively removing at least one network from the broadcast 'toon wars.
Former Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids Network president Maureen Smith has joined TLC Entertainment as a partner in the network. She joins co-founders and partners George Taweel and Rob Loos. Among Smith's most immediate objectives are to increase the company's library of intellectual properties, oversee marketing and brand management for each, and to fully exploit its media assets across all applicable platforms including television, home video, video on demand, publishing and feature films.
Click 3xi, the interactive design division of New York-based Click 3x, recently designed a series of interactive television games that teach young children about science. Developed for the Crayola Kids Club, an interactive television service from the Hallmark Channel and Crown Interactive, Click 3xi designed the interface and provided scores of computer-animated elements illustrating the outcomes of all the potential choices that can be made during game play. The studio worked hand in hand with the Hallmark Interactive staff, who designed the game architecture and handled the programming.
On Saturday, September 21, Kids' WB!'s new 2002-2003 season dominated the Saturday morning competition to rank number one in kids 6-11 (5.7/25), beating Nickelodeon for the first time since March 18, 2000. The network also led all competition for the morning in boys 2-11 (6.0/26), boys 6-11 (8.0/32) and tweens 9-14 (5.0/25). Taking the top six program spots in the key demographic of boys 6-11, the network beat the combined performances of Nickelodeon (5.4/23) and Fox Box (1.8/7). Among kids 2-11, Kids' WB! also outperformed ABC Kids (1.7/8) and Fox Box (1.1/5) combined. Kids' WB!
Nickelodeon has extended its licensing agreement with Centrum Kids to launch a line of Centrum Kids Jimmy Neutron multivitamins. Centrum originally partnered with Nickelodeon to offer RUGRATS chewable multivitamins for kids, and will now present a new line featuring the characters Jimmy, Carl, Cindy and Goddard from the Oscar-nominated film JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS and the Nickelodeon series THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS. Animated characters have always featured prominently in the kids vitamin arena.
September 14, 2002 marks the premiere of kid-friendly programming on most network and some cable stations. The Kids' WB will kick off the season with a "Scoob-Tacular-Saturday Sweepstakes," which offers kids the chance to win one of thousands of prizes throughout the morning. The network will introduce three new series to the fall schedule: the all-new WHAT'S NEW SCOOBY-DOO?, the buddy-cop comedy OZZY & DRIX and the new Mexican wrestling comedy ¡MUCHA LUCHA!, which had an early sneak-peek debut on Saturday, August 17. Kids' WB!
UK-based distributor Indigo Kids has signed a deal to distribute Toonz Animation India's new project THE ADVENTURES OF TENALI. Indigo will take worldwide television, video, DVD and licensing rights, excluding India and Singapore, as part of an ongoing agreement with the studio, which includes Asian distribution rights for HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR MONSTER, a co-production with UK-based Treehouse Productions and Canada-based Vivamundo. Based on a character from Indian folklore, THE ADVENTURES OF TENALI (26 x11-minutes) takes a trip through history to a world of monarchs and palaces.
Fox Kids Europe (FKE) has announced that chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz will leave FKE at the end of his employment agreement on November 23, 2002. In the remaining period, Kreiz will continue supporting the integration of certain FKE operations into majority shareholder The Walt Disney Company. Kreiz has successfully managed FKE since its inception in 1997. He led the expansion of FKE across Europe and the Middle East and during his tenure FKE initiated a successful IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange.
Fox Kids UK has announced the line-up for its new season of programming and it includes several UK television premieres and a second season of the battling robots show MEDABOTS, which is currently one of Fox Kids UK's top-rated shows. Among the UK premieres are the anime series SHIN CHAN, acquired from TV Asahi, and PIG CITY, a Cinegroupe production that features the adventures of a country bumpkin pig in the big city.
Kids' WB! is introducing a Flash animated series to U.S. broadcast television with the premiere of ¡MUCHA LUCHA! on August 17, 2002. The series explores the Latino cultural phenomenon known as "Lucha Libre" and follows Rikochet, Buena Girl and The Flea as they study and live the "Code of Masked Wrestling." ¡MUCHA LUCHA! was created by Eddie Mort and Lili Chin and produced by Warner Bros. Animation under the creative supervision of Alfred Gimeno, Joel Kuwahara and Michael Ryan. The series features the voices of Carlos Alzaraqui, Candi Milo and Kimberly Brooks. "Kids' WB!
Great for kids who love to draw. Learn how basic drawing principles make your cartoon drawings come to life. Draw your favourites from TV or create your own! THEN -- Let's get animated! Put down that GAMEBOY and pick up your pencil! Create your own flipbooks featuring your own characters as well as other optical toys!
This workshop is for ages 8 - 12 years. Spend 2 weeks, Monday to Friday (days), 10am to 12pm and 12:30 to 2:30 daily, in our air conditioned studio. We are conveniently located in downtown Toronto, and easily accessible by public transportation.
Kids' WB! has committed to airing 39 all-new episodes of theanime-adventure series YU-GI-OH! from U.S. producers 4KidsProductions, Inc. The second season pick-up brings the series' totalcommitment to 65 episodes, airing both on Saturday mornings andweekday afternoons beginning in fall 2002. "YU-GI-OH! is on a roll,most recently delivering Kids' WB!'s highest rating and share in ourtarget demographic of boys 6-11, and we're thrilled to add 39 all-newexciting episodes to the schedule," said Donna Friedman, executive
Sunbow Entertainment and The N, Noggin's new network for tweens, have signed a co-development deal for the anime comedy KAPPA MIKEY. Targeted at 9 14 year old kids, the series mixes comedy and action in a satire of anime-style animation and American cluelessness about foreign culture. The series was created by Larry Schwarz, founder of the kids entertainment company Rumpus. Sunbows parent company, TV-Loonland, holds the worldwide television and video distribution rights to KAPPA MIKEY.
4Kids Entertainment has announced the fall line-up for its recently acquired block of kids' programming on the Fox network. The new Saturday morning kids block, dubbed FOX BOX, will air between 8:00 am and 12 noon beginning September 14, 2002. The line-up is geared towards the key young boys demo, and includes the debut of a new series based on Nintendo's video game star KIRBY and a 21st century update to the '80s classic TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES.
The Kids First! Film Festival is a traveling celebration of the best in kids film and television. This program includes American premieres of many of the programs, including the animated theatrical feature Millionaire Dogs, and the theatrical premiere of Disney's new restored print of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Place: El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA
Saturday May 4, 12:40pm to 8pm
Schedule:Programs Recommended for 2 to 6-year-olds
12:40 - 12:50Welcome 12:50 - 2:20 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh -
