Sep 26, 2007

NEW OUTLETS, TECHNOLOGIES BOOST KIDS’ BIZ

Children's programming producers and distributors face one of the most challenging markets in television. Declining budgets, reduced license fees, growing regulation of advertising on kids programming and the growing popularity of games, the Internet and alternate media among younger viewers are just some of the industry's well known problems. Yet, producers coming into this year's MIPCOM Junior say the kids market is the strongest in years. "The kids business is always difficult and was especially so a few years ago when there were doom and gloom predications that a lot of the indies just wouldn't survive," Foothill Entertainment chairman and director Greg Payne said. But a number of indies continue to thrive, he said, providing the market with a much greater diversity of ideas and content. "Today I think there is a lot more optimism about the business," Payne said. At MIPCOM, Foothill will be talking to buyers about developing a kid's property based on the popular Whac-A-Mole game.