Multimedia's Relevance to Children's Television Producers
Today's kids have "multimedia" minds.
by Bill Sweetman, November 1995
A seminar entitled "Interactive Media for
Children" was held at The Alliance for Children
and Television's annual Awards of Excellence and
Festival, held in Toronto October 27th and 28th. The
following is an expanded version of Bill
Sweetman'spresentation.
Should producers of children's television care
about multimedia? The answer is most definitely
"Yes!". Today's children are the multimedia
generation. Interactive multimedia mirrors the
non-linear way that kids think. They want to be the
ones in control. They want to work at their own pace.
They want to explore. It's not that today's kids have
shorter attention spans; they have
"multimedia" minds.
Here are some statistics to consider:
In a recent survey, it was revealed that 3 out of
10 Canadian households have personal computers. On
average, kids in those households watched an hour
less of television per week. Their most popular
activity on the computer? Playing games.
Kids are also going on-line, logging on to America
Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and the Internet. 16% of
US children, ages 8 to 12, use on-line services at
home and 47% of US children, age 12 to 15, think that
it is "in" to use on-line services.
It's time to take multimedia seriously. It's time
to exploit the opportunities.
Any discussion of multimedia business
opportunities for children's television producers
must focus on content, and the most valuable type of
content is content that is unique to you, content
that builds upon its own identity, and content to
which you have the rights. (If you really want to
make money in this new medium, consider becoming a
lawyer!) It may be cliched, but it's also true:
content is king.
No one knows exactly what form the so-called
"information highway" will ultimately take,
nor when this will happen. The only thing certain is
that the companies that will survive this media
revolution will be the ones that imagine, develop,
and own the radically new types of content that will
be delivered via the new technology. There is little
profit to be made in the "distribution" of
this content.
In fact, distribution is due for a major upheaval
as new interactivetechnologies, such as the Internet,
allow content providers to bypass traditional layers
of "distributors" and deliver their content
directly to their customers.
Your first step should be to explore new business
opportunities that can be built from your existing
content, and then create new content for traditional
(linear) and interactive media.
Let's talk specifics.
It may not be popular with teachers and parents,
but the video game industry is gigantic. Sales will
top 10 billion US dollars this year, 1 billion
dollars more than all the revenue from Hollywood
movies put together. You don't have to be a rocket
scientist to figure out that kids are crazy about
video games. Approximately 70% of US homes with
teenagers have a video game system, and Canada is not
far behind. Why? Because video games are interactive
and interactivity is the key to making successful
entertainment for today's kids.
Video games are becoming more and more
sophisticated, integrating high quality graphics and
animation with feature-film quality production
values. Take a look at some of the recent titles for
state-of-the-art game systems like the Sega Saturn or the Sony PlayStation and
you'll quickly see that video games have come a long
way since PacMan.
Regardless of the technology involved, the most
successful video game titles combine entertainment
with interactivity. The same is even true for
"educational" software; if it's not
entertaining and interactive, it doesn't sell and it
doesn't educate. Whether it's a video game or a
television show, kids still want to see distinctly
drawn characters in compelling, original scenarios.
That's where children's television producers come in;
they are experts at entertaining and educating kids,
and those skills will always be in demand.
The video game industry is highly competitive.
Production requires specialized craftspeople,
high-tech equipment, and average budgets of $500,000
and higher. Because of this, there's more of a
hit-driven Hollywood mentality when it comes to
choosing content. The most "bankable"
content is thought to come from film and television,
where (the thinking goes) it has already proven
itself in the commercial marketplace. If only it were
this easy. While the video game version of Jurassic
Park for the Sega Genesis system has proven quite
successful, the version for the 3D0 system was a
flop. More recently, the trend has been to use film
and television talent (writers, directors, and
producers) to create video game content, rather than
to adapt existing film and television content.
There are a number of opportunities for television
producers in the video game industry. The primary one
is licensing successful branded content to video game
developers. This content could be a show, a
character, or an environment. This licensing would
best be done on a project-by-project basis, and only
for content that has proven itself successful in the
North American market; unfortunately, there is no
such thing as a Canadian multimedia market.
This type of licensing could also apply to future
content that you develop and/or produce. Keep in
mind, however, that the idea is not to take existing
video footage and try to make it interactive. The
market has shown, time and time again, that it is
seldom possible to create something compelling from
so-called "re-purposed" material,
especially if it's intended for a younger audience.
The trick is to capture the spirit, the attitude, the
look and feel of the original property, yet all the
while focus on making an entertaining and interactive
product that features unique characters and a
compelling experience.
Another avenue for children's television producers
to explore is the Internet.
The Internet is not some passing fad. It is an
entirely new medium -- the fastest growing medium of
all time -- and its popularity and capabilities will
continue to rapidly develop over the next few years.
In just two years, the Internet has gone from a
text-only medium to one that features video, audio,
and animation.
No, television is not going to be replaced by the
Internet, but the youth audience for television will
continue to diminish. The reason? The Internet will
be fully interactive long before television will be,
and kids gravitate towards whatever medium allows
them to interact.
One of the most successful uses of the Internet by
a children's television producer is by Halifax's
Andrew Cochran Associates. Their Theodore
Tugboat Web site based on the television
series (http://www.cochran.com/theodore/) is one of the
most popular destinations for kids on the Internet.
Tens of thousands of kids around the world are fans
of the Theodore Tugboat character even though they
have never seen the television show. This is just one
of many examples of how a "small player"
used the Internet to beat out the likes of Disney,
Nickelodeon, and YTV to become a significant player
in this new medium.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention
interactive television, although I've always thought
the term was an oxymoron. Interactive television is
not just around the corner as some would have you
believe. The hardware people are still battling one
another to see who will provide the "boxes"
that will allow consumers to interact with their
television. There are a number of large interactive
television trials under way (including a significant
one just north of Toronto) but it has yet to be
proven just what exactly the market for interactive
television is and who will pay for its
implementation.
For interactive television to be accepted on a
wide basis, the technology needs to be
"transparent" to the user. In other words,
it'll need to work as easily as the phone service.
Most people have trouble figuring out how to get
their VCR displays to stop flashing
"12:00"; how are they going to cope with
something that could be infinitely more complicated?
More importantly, why would they want to?
Whatever direction the fabled "Info
Highway" ends up taking, content -- movies,
television, video games, and music -- will be what
drives it. The focus of children's television
producers should be on further developing their own
unique and compelling content, brand identity, and
understanding of interactivity for the day when the
highway is finished.
Bill Sweetman is MultiMediator's Founder.
(An abridged version of this article originally appeared in Playback.)
