2012 has already seen the biggest tech IPO in history and one of the fastest billion dollar exits in recent memory (curiously both involving the same company). But it’s also shaping up to be the year that sees some important strategic changes in the kids entertainment landscape.
Amazon gets into TV production and kids entertainment
Despite this being a massively important announcement, Amazon’s extremely clever move was generally under-reported. Amazon have a fulfillment and ecommerce operation which is second to none globally. Amazon’s ability to create and distribute merchandise with more efficiency than any other entertainment or licensing company may make them the one-stop shop for content producers everywhere (who generally only make money from such merchandise deals). Announcing their intention to get into content production and specifically kids content production must have caused a lot of rapidly assembled strategy meetings amongst TV companies worldwide.
FB denies it’s going to open up to under-13s (again)
Will they or won’t they? The long-held rumours about Facebook’s plans for the under-13 market suggest that a service will happen one day. Realistically it was unlikely to happen before the IPO and the most recent denial probably means it won’t be this year either. In the meantime, games will remain the social centres of activity for under-13s.
Disney now distributing full-length kids tv episodes on YouTube
Although this announcement is now a little old, it’s by no means less important. Reinforcing just how strategically important YouTube is to the family market, Disney are now releasing full-length episodes of their older shows for free. How long before their latest shows start to (officially) air here as well?
Republished with permission from the Fight My Monster blog.