TV Kids July 2025 by World Screen

TV Kids Summer Festival Recap

PARAMOUNT’S LOUISE BUCKNOLE Louise Bucknole, senior VP for kids and family in the U.K. and Ireland at Paramount, outlined her programming strategy at Milkshake! across acquisitions and commissions.

CBC’S MARIE MCCANN Marie McCann, senior director of children’s content at CBC, discussed how the pubcaster is using YouTube and the crucial role of co-pros in her programming strategy.

CREATIVE SPIRIT With Martin Pope, joint CEO of Magic Light Pictures, and Grainne McNamara, VP of development for live action and animation at BBC Studios Kids & Family, the TV Kids Summer Festival explored trends in how development slates are being crafted.

INDIE GAINS The TV Kids Summer Festival featured a superpanel on boutique providers of kids’ and family fare, delivering insights from Dandelooo’s Emmanuèle Pétry, Serious Kids’ Genevieve Dexter, MIAM! animation’s Hanna Mouchez and Tulipop Studios’ Helga Árnadóttir.

NICKELODEON’S ASHLEY KAPLAN Ashley Kaplan, executive VP of unscripted and digital franchise studio at Nickelodeon, spoke about the brand’s first YouTube original series, Kid Cowboy.

DISNEY’S GINO GUZZARDO Gino Guzzardo, VP for multiplatform content at Disney Branded Television, offered up some valuable perspectives on producing compelling short-form content.

LIVE-ACTION APPEAL Successful strategies for teen live-action shows, and the crucial role of partnerships in getting them off the ground, took center stage in a session featuring ZDF Studios’ Oliver Grundel, Cottonwood Media’s David Michel and ZDF’s Nicole Keeb.

POCKET.WATCH’S CHRIS M. WILLIAMS Chris M. Williams, founder and CEO of pocket.watch, took part in the TV Kids Summer Festival with a keynote on franchise-building from the creator economy.

GOING DIGITAL FIRST Offering two very different perspectives on creating YouTube content, 9 Story Media Group’s Elianne Friend and digital-native outfit TheSoul Publishing’s Francesco Miceli took part in a TV Kids Summer Festival session moderated by Emily Horgan.

SIGMA GIRL MEDIA’S AMY TAKAHARA Netflix alum Amy Takahara, who has set up her own consultancy, Sigma Girl Media, joined the TV Kids Summer Festival to discuss navigating the evolving ecosystem.

TREND-WATCHING WITH DUBIT The conference portion of the TV Kids Summer Festival wrapped with Dubit CEO Ian Douthwaite and team members Laura Dudley-Gough and Benjamin Sumner revealing new research on kids’ media habits and tips for how IP owners can explore opportunities in gaming.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher

Mansha Daswani Editor-in-Chief

Jamie Stalcup Managing Editor

Kloudia Sakowski

Associate Editor

David Diehl Production & Design Director

Simon Weaver Online Director

Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Director

Genovick Acevedo Sales & Marketing Manager

Ute Schwemmer Bookkeeper

Ricardo Seguin Guise President

Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP, Strategic Development

Website: www.tvkids.com

Paramount’s LOUISE BUC

Louise Bucknole, senior VP for kids and family in the U.K. and Ireland at Paramount, outlined her programming strategy at Milkshake! across acquisitions and commissions.

CKNOLE

Social media and YouTube are often the entry point for kids into new brands. We have been releasing full episodes on YouTube. We have short-form and other assets on Milkshake! on YouTube to drive that engagement and awareness. Linear and VOD are still key—we have to drive those ratings. We’re a commercial business. But we understand that the engagement from kids happens in different ways. The linear block on 5 in the morning is so important because it’s part of their routine of the day. In the afternoon, they can then catch up on our 5 VOD platform, or they might want to go onto YouTube. Kids will go wherever is suited to them.”

CBC’s MARIE MCCA

Marie McCann, senior director of children’s content at CBC, discussed how the pubcaster is using YouTube and the crucial role of co-pros in her programming strategy.

ANN

At the end of the day, it starts with the kids—the people we’re serving. This is who we work for. Our content has to reflect who they are, what their family life is like, what their experiences are, what their preferences are. We always have to make ourselves new. We have to stay engaged. We do direct audience engagement. We don’t just study clicks. We study kids and families. Our country is becoming increasingly diverse. We have to create content that authentically tells the stories of the classrooms today. If we don’t, we are Tyrannosaurus rex. We’re done. So, it is a business imperative to understand who kids are today and what they want.”

SPIRIT Creative

With Martin Pope, joint CEO of Magic Light Pictures, and Grainne McNamara, VP of development for live action and animation at BBC Studios Kids & Family, the TV Kids Summer Festival explored trends in how development slates are being crafted.

—Martin Pope

Fo r us, it’s much more about fo cus. What can we do? What does the audience want? How can we deliver for the audience? It’s less about the market. How are we going to deliver and get to that audience and make sure that they are enriched? In the end, we’ll find the money. We’ll find the broadcaster. If it’s really good, we will make it work. It’s much more about, are we telling the right story in the right way for that audience? ”

If you believe in the story that you want to tell, it might not be what the market is looking for right now, but if you have that passion ignited in you when you see something, just keep going with it. You can find the money. It is out there. It just might take a little longer than it did before. So, stick with it and keep going.”

—Grainne McNamara

Indie

GAINS

The TV Kids Summer Festival featured a superpanel on boutique providers of kids’ and family fare, delivering insights from Dandelooo’s Emmanuèle Pétry, Serious Kids’ Genevieve Dexter, MIAM! animation’s Hanna Mouchez and Tulipop Studios’ Helga Árnadóttir.

We’re finding investors that believe in our long-term strategy....[and] setting up productions in other countries as well. It’s a challenging puzzle.”

We’ve got to be looking for equity finance. Private equity has got to be the way forward to allow you to build a business in an SPV around a property.”

—Genevieve Dexter

—Helga Árnadóttir

We’re using real-time [animation] to reuse premium assets we’ve produced and budgeted in one season and trying to produce additional content.”

—Hanna Mouchez

Usually broadcasters have spent for this year and the next year and even the next year, so it’s being patient and per severing. It’s being careful about how you make things in a beautiful way and believing in your property for the generations to come.”

—Emmanuèle Pétry

Nickelodeon’s ASHLEY KAP

Ashley Kaplan, executive VP of unscripted and digital franchise studio at Nickelodeon, spoke about the brand’s first YouTube original series, Kid Cowboy .

PLAN

YouTube is important, but it’s not a great place to make money. The strategy for Kid Cowboy is to build it into the next major franchise. We start on YouTube. We introduce the IP there— the world, the characters, the music. We get kids as excited as we can. Once they are, we can move beyond the YouTube content. We can do more narrative, long-form storytelling. The goal here is not just to build large YouTube channels. The goal is that this becomes the next PAW Patrol, with a long-form series, theatricals, toys and consumer products. I believe the next PAW Patrol will be born on YouTube.”

Disney’s GINO GUZZA

Gino Guzzardo, VP for multiplatform content at Disney Branded Television, offered up some valuable perspectives on producing compelling short-form content.

ARDO

I try to hook a viewer in their mind before they’ve even clicked on your video. Once they tap on it, then you have to deliver on that promise, otherwise they’ll jump off and then the algorithm will pay attention—the click-through rate was high but the retention’s low, they’re not delivering on whatever they promised the viewer that got them to click. And then we won’t get recommended to more people. So, find that hook that is baked into the conceit and then deliver on it to hold a viewer the whole time.

If you follow that process over and over again, over the years, you can’t help but perform better because you’re using the audience to tell you how to optimize.”

APPEAL Live-Action

Successful strategies for teen live-action shows, and the crucial role of partnerships in getting them off the ground, took center stage in a session featuring ZDF Studios’ Oliver Grundel, Cottonwood Media’s David Michel and ZDF’s Nicole Keeb.

It’s amazing to see how a teenage brand can resonate on various platforms and side by side.”

—Oliver Grundel

In the construction of a complicated co-production, in development, adaptation and execution, you need confidence and trust in each other. It’s costly and time-intensive, but if you do it right, you have a long shelf life with your properties.”

—Nicole Keeb

We’re talking about 15 buyers in the world, and five to six buyers who can make the show happen and prebuy or co-produce it. The financing is so hard to put together. You don’t just need to have a buyer that’s interested, you need them to be interested for this fiscal year! It’s probably competing against animated shows or YA shows. It’s always a little bit of a miracle pulling these shows off the ground.”

—David Michel

pocket.watch’s CHRIS M. W

Chris M. Williams, founder and CEO of pocket.watch, took part in the TV Kids Summer Festival with a keynote on franchise-building from the creator economy.

WILLIAMS

The early adopters [of creator content] will see the most success. We’ve been very successful with our partners at Hulu, Peacock and Prime Video, who’ve expanded their portfolio of our creator content and are making investments with other creators. All the major global players certainly have or are formulating strategies around digital creators. The local players, particularly internationally, will be slower to adopt. I expect that flood to come after. [They] will realize that in order to compete with YouTube, they’re going to have to adopt some of these strategies and embrace creator content.”

FIRST Going Digital

Offering two very different perspectives on creating YouTube content, 9 Story Media Group’s Elianne Friend and digital-native outfit TheSoul Publishing’s Francesco Miceli took part in a TV Kids Summer Festival session moderated by Emily Horgan.

With YouTube dominating 80 percent of the market, it’s something we can’t ignore. Our digital-first content slate has many products underway because we must be in charge of our own destiny and meet kids where they are. We are first rolling it out [on YouTube] but also have in mind to put it on AVOD platforms such as Tubi, Roku, Peacock, Pluto and the rest.” —Elianne Friend

The online world has a diff erent type of cycle compared to the one in more traditional media. So, you need to be fast, agile, analyze trends, jump on them quickly and pivot when needed. It’s also important to work on packaging. You don’t just need to produce great content, you need to be able also to package it correctly, starting from thumbnails and using the metadata. It provides users with the right amount of information to be able to discover your content and to cross-promote your content.”

—Francesco Miceli

AMY TAKAH Sigma Girl Media’s

Netflix alum Amy Takahara, who has set up her own consultancy, Sigma Girl Media, joined the TV Kids Summer Festival to discuss navigating the evolving ecosystem.

HARA

It’s about knowing your audience and being very specific with that target.

It’s also starting out with something that’s more of a brand and trying to build awareness ahead of time before going straight into content. It used to be that content could launch and drive brand and toy. And that’s not necessarily the case anymore. It’s other aspects of entertainment that can reach kids, whether it’s games or live events or just getting out in front of the audience… and have them know and be familiar with your brand. Content can be a part of that, but it’s all about building out a brand, an IP, versus just creating content now.”

DUBIT Trend-Watching with

The conference portion of the TV Kids Summer Festival wrapped with Dubit CEO Ian Douthwaite and team members Laura Dudley-Gough and Benjamin Sumner revealing new research on kids’ media habits and tips for how IP owners can explore opportunities in gaming.

—Ian Douthwaite

The cost of producing a game in Roblox is so much less than animation. There are plenty of ways to be on that platform, from having a full-on game around your IP to pop-up games, which you can integrate into an already popular game. Or you can create fashion items, which is a cheap way of getting onto that platform. With gaming, you are potentially hitting a new audience as well, so you can create awareness of the brand or IP easily. ”

Kids spend over 22 percent of their week on digital activities, which is second only to the amount of time they spend sleeping per week. ”

For children of all ages, gaming can have a positive impact on their mental well-being. This ranges from being able to connect with friends socially, having fun with them, allowing them to escape and relax, be creative, learn and achieve things.”

—Laura Dudley-Gough

—Benjamin Sumner