THE annual Asia Television Forum which kicks off on Nov. 28 in Singapore looms as a crucially important event for producers and distributors of children's programming.And not just as a venue to close or announce deals that were initiated at MIPCOM 2007.Generating revenues in Asia from the established channels as well as the IPTV, VOD and mobile TV 'new kids on the block,' has become even more vital as the BBC and ITV and some other European broadcasters have cut back on acquiring and producing children's programming."The biggest issue for kids TV producers in Australia is the uncertainty surrounding funding sources - both internationally and within Australia. "Conventional methods of obtaining international funds (pre-sales/distribution deals/ co-pros) necessary to finance series have been put to the test over the last three years or so," says Southern Star Entertainment's Noel Price, one of the region's most experienced kids' producers."The traditional sources of funds have been rapidly drying up as free-to-air terrestrials all over the world - especially in the UK and Europe - are having their budgets cut or having to comply with increased local quotas or leaving kids programming to specialist channels, which in turn have smaller budgets and schedules often dominated by US product. The situation isn't impossible yet but it does meanthat financing shows, which has always been hard, is now very hard and will only get harder."Compounding the challenges facing many indies, the US market seems, in general, as resistant as ever to acquiring children's programming from offshore."To get a foreign series on TV in the US has always been extremely difficult," says Linde Steverink, Marketing & PR at Netherlands-based Telescreen. "Many of our classic hit series like Alfred J. Kwak, Moomin and HCA the Fairytaler have hardly reached American consumers. Though these series have been aired in all other countries in the world, it is a hardship to get programs sold and scheduled in the US on a commercially attractive basis. At the moment it has become tougher to gain support from the US for foreign series. Nickelodeon might make a difference as they have a specialized eye for Europe and its children market."Steverink agrees that acquisition budgets at some European broadcasters have dried up, but points out producers can still secure funding from European subsidies such as the EU's Media support program.Spain's Imira Entertainment (formerly Icon Animation) has been successful in securing financing, both in co-productions and pre-acquisitions, in the international market.Typifying Imira's resourceful deal-making, the company coproduced Lola & Virginia with TV3 & ETB in Spain, France 3 and Millimages in France, and pre-sold the series to Nickelodeon Latin America. Aimed at 6-12 year-olds, the series has been sold to more than 40 territories including those covered by Nickelodeon Asia, supported by a licensing and merchandising strategy, including online and mobile."This is actually a strength the company developed over the years, as it is able to properly introduce new projects to key broadcasters and secure their support. This has been done for projects originating from our own company, but also on projects brought forward by other producers, including from Asia," says Christophe Goldberger, Head ofDistribution and Marketing at Imira Entertainment. The firm changed its name to reflect the company's growth into new genres such as live action and new media.At MIPCOM, distributors generally found that buyers' budgets for kids programming for 2008 were stable with this year."The pan-regional buyers are still very keen on animated comedy for the 7-to-11 target age. Outside of the pan-regional broadcasters, the appetite for pre-school seems to be stronger in Asia than any other region in the world," says Josh Scherba, Director of Sales at Canada's Decode Entertainment.Following the market in Cannes, Decode concluded a bunch of major deals with Asia including: Disney India acquired The Latest Buzz, Naturally Sadie and Urban Vermin; ATV Hong Kong stepped up for My Spy Family and Super Why; and TrueVisions Thailand nabbed Bo On The Go and Franny's Feet."We are working through several offers in Korea on Super Why and will have an announcement to make soon," Scherba adds.Stephen Driscoll, VP international sales at UK-based All3Media International, found most buyers of kids' fare are focused on long-running series which can be stripped across their schedules as opposed to short running titles.At MIPCOM, All3Media unveiled the new season of the BBC Serious strand's Serious Ocean (10x 30'), which will be completed in May 2008. The sixth season of the Serious strand will follow teenage adventurers as they sail around the southern-most tip of South America. Previous seasons were sold to TVB Hong Kong, TrueVisions Thailand, TV12 Singapore and NHK Japan. "We hope to announce new deals for this series at the ATF," says Driscoll. In Cannes the firm also launched Indian School (10x30'), which was snapped up by BBC Knowledge for Asia and India. "On the whole, acquisition budgets seem to be maintained for children's content – inventory is high though and buyers are quite selective," says Joanne Azzopardi, Sales Executive - Asia & South Africa, Southern Star International. "The teen demographic (with either comedy or a mystery/adventure slant to the content) seems to be of great interest, and animation continues to be popular." Southern Star International's latest children's offerings include tween animation series G2G, pre-school animations The Beeps and Sea Princesses, and new seasons of pre-school live action hit Hi-5 and Raggs. "There is strong interest pan regionally in G2G and The Beeps and terrestrial interest in Singapore and Malaysia for Sea Princesses," says Azzopardi. Raggs will be launched in the first quarter of 2008 in Singapore on Kids Central, and Hi-5 continues to air in Asia on Nickelodeon, Kids Central and NTV 7 in Malaysia. SSI is also securing pre-sales for the third and fourth seasons of The Adventures of Bottle Top Bill (animated at its Singapore studio) in Asia for pan regional rights.While IPTV, VOD and mobile TV services are proliferating, many sellers of kids programming are sitting on the sidelines, either waiting for license fees to rise from a low base, or to see which players which emerge the strongest.Typifying that approach, Azzopardi says, "There is lots of activity, however we are waiting for these areas to develop further before we actively pursue selling our content via IPTV and mobile TV."Imira's Goldberger notes, "As kids are getting hooked to mobile phones at an increasingly early age, mobile rights are gaining value on the market. For example, our international hit series Lola & Virginia was licensed to Malaysia's RTM through E-MAS with a mobile partnership also in place in the region." All3Media's deal to sell Indian School to BBC Knowledge included IPTV rights."IPTV, VOD and other new media are certainly becoming much more important in the way we do business," says Ryan Gagerman, DIC Entertainment VP & Regional Manager, Asia Pacific."More and more companies are asking that these be included in their rights. We are in discussions with a few companies who wish to exploit our catalog, specifically in mobile, IPTV and VOD."At MIPCOM, DIC launched two series, Dino Squad and Sushi Park, for which episodes will start to be delivered in late 2007 for airing in 2008."The responses we received on both shows, particularly in Asia, were tremendously positive. We are currently in negotiations with several broadcasters, and plan to have announcements around ATF," says Gagerman.Dino Squad fits the bill for buyers who were looking for action-adventure programming, Gagerman says, and Wacky World of Tex Avery is ideal for Asia as it's based primarily on visual humour. Gagerman points out that as a major, US-based producer/ syndicator/international distributor, DIC finds financing its shows is less of an issue than it is for independent studios. "Our focus is to develop great content that has global appeal, and work with broadcasters around the world to secure placement. Also, it's important to keep open lines of communication with broadcasters to find out what content THEY need. We're always looking to work with our broadcasters; sometimes it requires unconventional means to meet each other's goals," he says."Overall there is a need for fresh and new-fangled kids entertainment aimed at kids aged 6 to 9," says Telescreen's Steverink. "Pre-school programming seems to be a little overcrowded. Furthermore, we feel that buyers in countries suchas Japan and Korea are havingdifficult times to really commit and invest, while in territories like India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia/New Zealand, there's more willingness to truly dig in and commit."Telescreen spent a year stitching together a patchwork of international partners for Alien Clones from Outer Space, an animated comedy series (52 x 13'; 52 x 11') based on the the popular Alien Clones books by H.B. Homzie. The series follows 10-year-old twins Barton and Nancy Jamison as Alien Clones from the planet Ungapotch land in their hometown and move intotheir attic.The firm has signed agreements with co-production partners in Malaysia, Canada, Australia, Holland, and the US. The series was acquired by ABC Australia and is due to air on ABC Kids in October 2008.Part of the animation will be done in Canada and Malaysia and the rest of the production will be divided between the US and Canada. The only other partners the firm was willing to divulge at press-time were AC Productions LLC and Los Angeles-based Suppertime Entertainment.On Nov, 1 Telescreen began production on Frog & Friends (26 x 7'), an animated series based on the internationally published (over 40 countries) and awardwinning books by Max Velthuijs, aimed at kids aged 4-7.. Steverink describes the Asian market as "challenging," and says Telescreen and its partners are focusing on how best to estimate and secure revenues. And the exec notes that rapid economic growth in countries like China and India has not translated into bigger acquisition budgets for program.Video piracy is still sapping the legitimate industry's revenues in Asia, impacting kids' programming as well as adult fare. "Piracy is enormous, except in markets such as Japan and Korea," says Steverink. "This issue is improving, but very, very slowly. VOD exploitation might be a solution here." At the ATF, Imira Entertainment will introduce to the Asian market Go!Go!Pig (52 x 2'), which follows the adventures of a comical, gluttonous pig and his trainer, a strange green cat who, just for kicks, talks the pig into winning sporting gold medals for him; and Rat-Man, a comedy targeted at kids aged 6-12. Based on the Italian publishing super hit of the same name and airing on NickelodeonItaly, Rat-Man is the ultimate mouse anti-hero struggling between what he thinks he is: a superhero, and what he really is:a mouse in tights. Imira concluded a pan-Asian pay TV deal for Rat-Man with HBO Family, and is confident the show will appeal to free-toair broadcasters in the region.Also on its slate is healthyeating property Vitaminix, which gets consistently good ratings across Asia on Nickelodeon; and adventure-comedy Lucky Fred (52 x 12'), for which the company is seeking coproduction partners in Asia.Surveying the Asian market, Goldberger says, "There is a general tendency towards local content and Asian productions in general, but European kids animation with a strong track record such as Lola & Virginia, Vitaminix or Rat-Man, are still safe acquisitions for children's slates."Indeed, co-productions are flourishing in Asia, particularly for animation. Among collaborations fostered recently by the Media Development Authority of Singapore are:- Clang Invasion by Singapore's Scrawl Studios, Canada's Decode Entertainment, Hong Kong's Agogo Media and MDA. The series has been pre-sold to Canada's YTV."We are very pleased with our co-production partners on Clang Invasion – Agogo and Scrawl Studios – and hope to find further projects to collaborate on in the future," says Decode's Scherba. "In addition we are in discussions with potential partners in Korea but to date we have not secured any deals."- Future is Wild by Singapore iVL Animation, Canada's Nelvana and MDA, for US Discovery Kids (which premiered the show in October) and Canada's Teletoon.- Master Raindrop by Singapore's Big Communications, Australia'sFlying Bark Productions, New Zealand's Flux Animation andMDA. This 3-D animated series will be distributed internationally by EM.Entertainment GmbH and broadcast on Australia's ABC in 2008.- The New Adventures of Nanoboy by Scrawl Studios, Agogo Media and MDA. It is distributed internationally by Canada's Cookie Jar Entertainment.- The Fist of Light by Singapore's Peach Blossom Media and UK's Steve Walsh Productions. Korean animation has broken through the barrier which often blocks foreign content from reaching the US. The animated series Eon Kid (a.k.a. Iron Kid) debuted on Sept. 22 on the Kids' WB! Saturday morning block and earned a 1.9/8 rating on Oct. 13, becoming the No. 1 rated show out of 40 shows targeted at the same audience.Playmates Toys, Inc. has sold its entire line of Eon Kid toys including action figures, vehicles, transforming figures and role plays to nearly 2,000 Wal-Mart stores and all Toys'R'Us stores for sale next January. Co-produced by Korea's Designstorm Animation Studio together with BRB Internacional, Manga Entertainment and Daewon Media, Iron Kid is a made-for TV 3D action adventure about a boy named Marty, who used to live a simple life in the vast desert with his stepfather, Charlie and pet robot dog named Buttons. Combining eastern martial arts action and the traditional, popular genre of robot fantasy, it features more than 100 robots, each with its own special ability derived from Chinese kung fu, Japanese sword fighting, American boxing and Korean tae kwon do.The show has been enjoying international success, screening on Canal Clan, TVE-2 and Jetix in Spain, Jetix Latin America and KBS in Korea. Spanish public broadcaster TVE will soon begin airing the series on weekends on its first channel, TVE-1, and it will also debut in open-broadcast format in Italy, Portugal, Russia, Bulgaria, Middle East, Ecuador and Turkey.

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