Wide Eyes News from the Tube is written by a leading industry expert and is focused on providing a quick snapshot of the best opportunities in the television & animation market.
- The impact from the proliferation of new TV channels, new SVOD services, digital video channels such as YouTube and Amazon Prime, and internet influencers is really becoming evident in the rise of new properties from a variety of different sources.
- To illustrate the point there is an internet meme currently going viral that says “I want to meet a parent who has never heard the Baby Shark song so I can shake the hand of the luckiest person in the world”.
- The Baby Shark song was popularised on a Korean website launched by Pinkfong in 2015 and since that time has become one of the biggest children’s songs of all time being recorded by multiple artists over and over again and generating millions of dollars in YouTube ad revenue for the performers.
- Try mentioning the words Baby Shark to a parent of a pre-schooler and wait for the immediate reaction of horror.
- YouTube influencers are also getting in on licensing their brands onto consumer products with Ryan’s Toy Review and Hearts by Tiana both in the process of launching consumer product ranges relating to their incredibly popular on-line YouTube sites.
- Another extraordinarily popular YouTube star is JoJo Siwa and her ranges of merchandise have been sell outs in Australia for Designworks, Headstart, Hunter Leisure and Lake Press.
- Pusheen is an animated cartoon strip featuring a cute cat character, with a huge and active social media following across Facebook and Instagram, and is now supporting a wide range of merchandise in Australia.
- L.O.L Surprise! is a range of dolls unboxed on YouTube and has become the biggest selling toy line in most countries of the world including Australia over the last two years.
- L.O.L Surprise! merchandise is everywhere.
- On the electronic games front there is nothing bigger than Fortnite at the moment with a huge line of merchandise now available – check out the Fortnite megastore – amazing.
- So we are seeing a lot of licensed properties being created on the new digital platforms but traditional free to air TV is still a source of many of the most popular licensed properties.
- In the pre-school space the TV shows Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Hey Duggee, PJ Masks and The Wiggles are all enjoying on-going strong merchandise sales and continue to be right at the top of pre-school popularity.
- There are two new pre-school shows worth looking out for – Ricky Zoom from the producers of Peppa Pig and PJ Masks will launch in 2019 and Bluey an animated TV show featuring a family of Australian blue heeler dogs has just launched on ABC Kids.
- An animated TV series for an adult audience is Ricky and Morty, which is the most popular show on air for millennials, is also supporting a very successful range of merchandise and is a latter day South Park.
