Viacom Plots Nickelodeon Turnaround; Nickelodeon Announces Plans To Premiere Six Brand New Animated TV Shows (Including "Monsters vs. Aliens") And New Live Afternoon Programming Block Soon!

UPDATE - Nickelodeon USA's brand new live afternoon programming block will be called "Nick Studio 10"! Official website - http://www.nick.com/shows/nick-studio-10

The entertainment news website C21Media is reporting the Nickelodeon News that, after Nickelodeon USA experienced a decline in advertising revenue, which hampered down Viacom Inc.'s first quarter 2013 total revenue, Nickelodeon has announced that they are aiming to launch six brand new animated television series which have been designed to appeal to a "purely post-millennial" audience, including new Nicktoon "Monsters vs. Aliens", Nick's all-new animated television series which will continue to follow the funny escapades of the beloved, well-meaning characters from DreamWorks Animation's 2009 blockbuster movie of the same name. "Monsters vs. Aliens" marks marks the third partnership between Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation. Viacom has also announced that Nickelodeon's flagship channel, Nick USA, is planning to launch a brand new live afternoon programming block in about a month's time (March 2013)!:

Viacom plots Nick turnaround

Viacom is putting programming at the heart of its recovery plan for flagging children’s channel Nickelodeon, aiming to debut six new animated series designed to appeal to a “purely post-millennial” audience.

During the firm’s quarterly earnings call, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said that Nickelodeon was “rapidly improving” even though the channel is struggling financially and was blamed for a 6% slump in domestic ad revenue within Vicaom’s Media Networks division.

Dauman said Nickelodeon posted three consecutive months of sequential ratings improvement in the quarter ending December 31 by putting more emphasis on event programming from strong franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents, and new properties like Peter Rabbit.

However, Dauman said that in the short term, the channel’s objectives were to reclaim its Saturday morning leadership, strengthen its weekday afternoon block and improve its preschool viewership, in order to boost longer-term growth of its older audience.

“That last point is particularly critical as the network hits the generational reset button. Nickelodeon’s long-term strategy is to refine its programming filter for an audience that is purely post-millennial,” said Dauman.

Among the new shows to which Nick is pinning its hopes are Monsters vs Aliens, based on the hit DreamWorks film, and the recently launched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Viacom said it also aims to introduce a live afternoon block in about a month and that its efforts to centralise Nickelodeon’s leadership in Los Angeles under Russell Hicks would help to get programmes to screen faster.

Over at MTV, Dauman said Viacom also aimed to roll out “more and more new original programmes” aimed at the millennial generation. He said MTV had also started to answer the question “What’s next after Jersey Shore?” with Catfish: The TV show, which he claimed was “the number one new cable series of 2012, with MTV’s core 12 to 34 demo.”

Excluding the Nickelodeon networks, Viacom said its domestic channels – which also include MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central – returned to positive ad sales growth in the quarter. However, it predicted that Nickelodeon’s ratings improvement “will help us significantly improve our overall ad sales performance.”

Media Networks revenue fell by 2% to US$2.39bn during Q1. Total revenue dropped 16% to US$3.31bn, while operating income slipped 22% to US$797m, partly due to lower filmed entertainment revenue.

Andrew McDonald
01-02-2013
©C21Media

TAGS: Financial results
GENRES: Children's, Children's Pre-School
SHOWS: Fairly OddParents, Monsters Vs Aliens, SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
PEOPLE: Philippe Dauman
COMPANIES: MTV, Nickelodeon, Viacom
SECTIONS: C21Kids
COUNTRIES: US

Dan Schneider Signs New 3-Year Development Deal At Nickelodeon

The entertainment industry news website Variety is reporting the exciting Nickelodeon News that Nickelodeon TV show creator Dan Schneider, the creator, writer, and producer of hit Nickelodeon shows such as "iCarly", "Victorious", "Drake & Josh", "The Amanda Show", "Zoey 101", "Kenan & Kel", "All That" (plus "What I Like About You", which Nickelodeon UK showed in the mid-2000's), and the Nickelodeon Movie "Good Burger", and founder of the television production company "Schneider's Bakery Productions, Inc.", has signed a brand new three-year development deal with Nickelodeon! The first Nickelodeon Project he'll undertake under his new agreement with Nickelodeon will be the brand new live-action original comedy show "Sam & Cat", which will feature Nickelodeon Stars Jennette McCurdy ("iCarly"'s Sam Puckett) and Ariana Grande ("Victorious"'s Cat Valentine) reprising their roles from their respective hit shows, and will feature the pair as unlikely roommates who become teen entrepreneurs by starting their own after-school babysitting business. Nickelodeon commissioned "Sam & Cat" to become a full series and ordered 20 episodes of the show in November 2012:

Dan Schneider in development deal at Nick

Viacom cabler will rely on hitmaker as it seeks to rebound

SchneiderIn the effort to stem the ratings slump at Nickelodeon, the kidvid cabler is turning to its most reliable live-action hitmaker: Dan Schneider.

The prolific producer has struck a hefty three-year development pact with the Viacom cabler. The first project under the new pact is "Sam and Cat," which aims to build on the fanbase by uniting characters from two past Nick comedies from Schneider: "iCarly" and "Victorious."

Jennette McCurdy in "iCarly"Schneider has been a pioneer in integrating Web content and social media into the fabric of his shows. He'll be doing much more of that in the future as producers in all genres look to harness the power of second-screen activity to drive buzz and engagement among fans. For Nick shows, getting traction on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms is vital to reaching its core tween and teen aud.

Ariana Grande in "Victorious"
"I'm always trying to bake Web elements into the DNA of my shows," Schneider told Variety.

He first began playing with TV-to-Web plugs back in 1999 on Nick's "The Amanda Show," when star Amanda Bynes' character would frequently reference the AmandaPlease.com site that featured related show content.

"When we set out on a new project, we're not just creating a TV show, we're creating a multiplatform (property)," Schneider said. "But as powerful as the Internet is, it's still not more powerful than TV. It all starts with the show."

"Sam and Cat" stars Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande as characters they played on "iCarly" and "Victorious," respectively, who launch a babysitting biz. Production on 20 episodes got under way earlier this month, and the show is set to premiere later this year.

Schneider, who started in the biz as an actor, boasts nearly 445,000 Twitter followers. When new episodes of his shows air, he's usually live-tweeting along with some of his actors in an effort to make fans feel like they have a personal connection to the cast and producers.

Schneider's roster of past Nick shows include "All That," "Kenan and Kel," "Drake and Josh," "Zooey 101." He produced the Bynes sitcom "What I Like About You" for the WB Network from 2002-06 but otherwise has stayed in the Nick stable. After such a long tenure, he has the kind of control over his shows that he knows would be hard to command anywhere else.

"There are very few people in the entertainment business who have the level of creative control that I do," he said. "Nickelodeon has always been generous in giving me a lot of latitude."

Schneider, repped by WME, is also committed to the tough assignment of courting the oh-so-fickle tween demo, as well as the challenge of working with actors who grow up on air. He prefers the specificity of developing for the Nick crowd because it has such broad reach with its target audience despite its recent viewership declines.

"Even with very popular (adult) primetime shows, you can't count on everyone to have seen them," Schneider said. But when a show hits big on Nick, "You can be sure that there isn't a kid in the country who hasn't at least heard something about it," he said.

Also, from The Futon Critic:

Dan Schneider has struck a hefty three-year development pact with Nickelodeon beginning with his "iCarly" and "Victorious" spin-off "Sam and Cat" (Variety.com)