Hasta La Motion!

Genius Brands, the global brand management company that creates and licenses multimedia entertainment content for children, has announced a unique content partnership between its Genius Brands Network.

The partnership includes the Kid Genius Cartoon Channel and Baby Genius TV reaching 80 million U.S. households, and Tankee – the first safe, digital destination for kids aged six to 12 to enjoy gaming videos. Tankee’s original gaming videos will be available on Genius Brands’ Kid Genius Cartoon Channel and Genius Brands’ Award-Winning children’s series will launch on Tankee.

Edison

Genius Brands’ chairman and CEO Andy Heyward said, “We pride ourselves on being a forward-thinking company, and this new partnership with Tankee offers us the opportunity to engage our audience across all mediums further, broadening our coverage into the gaming space with our content launch on Tankee’s award-winning platform,” “The children’s media landscape has evolved so rapidly and dramatically over the past five years. With content platforms becoming increasingly diffused, we identified a vacuum in the market our Kid Genius Channel viewers are clamoring for, and we are thrilled to bring Tankee’s dynamic productions based on wildly popular video games to our streaming service.”

 Beginning July 2019, Genius Brands Network will launch a roster of Tankee Originals, including Minecraft Journey to the End, Octodad Dadliest Catch, PixARK Adventure, and Fairy Horse Quest, delivering a total of 75 episodes on the Kid Genius Cartoon Channel, which targets kids aged six to 11. 

Fairy Horse Quest

Additionally, Tankee will launch content from Genius Brands’ Kid Genius Cartoon Channel across its free entertainment app, including the award-winning Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club and Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab.      

 “We are honored to be partnering with Genius Brands and bringing Tankee Originals to 80 million households. We created Tankee, the free entertainment app for kids six to 12, to give kids the videos they love from their favorite games like Minecraft while helping parents protect their kids from inappropriate content. We share in Genius Brands’ mission to give kids entertaining and age-appropriate shows in a safe environment and couldn’t be more thrilled to see Tankee’s original programming on the award-winning platform,” added Tankee co-founder and CEO  Gerald Youngblood. 

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Technicolor announces the opening of a studio in Los Angeles dedicated to creating a seamless pipeline for feature projects – from concept art and visualization through virtual production, production and into final VFX.

As new distribution models increase the demand for content, the Technicolor pre-production studio provides the tools, the talent, and space for creatives to collaborate from day one – from helping set the vision at the start of a project to ensure that the vision carries through to production and VFX. The result is a more efficient filmmaking process, saving time and resources and empowering creatives to realize their vision quicker and make better movies.

The Technicolor pre-production studio is headed by Kerry Shea, an industry veteran with over twenty years of experience, holding executive positions at Method Studios, The Third Floor, Digital Domain, Jim Henson Company, DreamWorks Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Credited on more than 60 feature films including The Jungle Book, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Shea has an extensive background in VFX and post-production as well as live action, animatronics and creature effects.

The Technicolor pre-production Studio will be comprised of key departments with the objective to provide storytellers with control of their projects from inception through final delivery:

• The Business Development Department will work with clients, from project budgeting to consulting on VFX methodologies, to help plan and prepare projects for a smooth transition into VFX;
• The VFX Supervisors Department will offer creative leadership across all aspects of VFX on client projects, whether delivered by Technicolor’s industry-leading studios or third-party vendors;
• The Art Department will work intimately with clients to understand their vision – including characters, props, technologies, and environments – creating artwork that delivers on that vision and sets the tone for the rest of the project;
• The Virtual Production Department will partner with filmmakers to bridge the gap between filmmakers and VFX through the production pipeline. Working both on the ground and on-location, the department will deliver a fully integrated pipeline and shooting services with the flexibility of a small, manageable team – allowing critical players in the filmmaking process to collaborate, view, and manipulate media assets and scenes across multiple locations as the production process unfolds.
• The Visualization Department will work closely with clients to deliver visualizations that will assist in achieving on screen exactly what they envisioned.

“With the advancements of tools and technologies, such as virtual production, filmmaking has reached an inflection point, one in which storytellers can redefine what is possible on-set and beyond. I am passionate about the increasing role and influence that the tools and craft of visual effects can have on the production pipeline and the even more important role in creating more streamlined and efficient workflows that create memorable stories,” said  Shea.

Although the pre-production studio is standalone from Technicolor’s industry-leading visual effects brands – MPC Film, Mill Film, MR. X and Technicolor VFX – it can work seamlessly in conjunction with one or any combination of them, designing the perfect plan regardless of project size, format, creative aesthetic or budget.

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One Take Media has acquired rights for two seasons of the global hit 3D animation series Boonie Bears and Boonie Bears Bust for SAARC countries. The series include 208 episodes available in English, Hindi and other languages.

Boonie Bears is designed for children aged four to 12, is set in a lovely wooded wonderland in rural Northeast part of the world.Season one tells the story of two brave and mighty bears- Briar and Bramble who try to protect their homeland from the destruction of a sly and persistent woodman Vick. 

In this war between bears and the wood-man, the audience will find a glimpse of wit and smart actions of two lovely forest protectors. Filled with non-stop comedy, Boonie Bears will surely show bears in a whole new light, as you’ve never seen them before.

Boonie Bears season two will see the battle between the bear brothers and the logger which has not ended yet! This time their fight with Logger Vick has turned into a chase around the forest and a town which they are accidentally trucked to. From the mysterious forest into the traditional town, the bear brothers stay one step ahead of the marauding Logger Vick who is determined to hunt them down. Our two bears savor every bit of their long and wonderful journey which is dotted with the occasional spot of trouble and friction, but more often than not, laughter and hilarity.

Commenting on the acquisition, One Take Media founder and CEO Anil Khera said, “It has been our endeavour to bring high quality content to kids. We are very happy to collaborate with a brand like Boonie Bear, which is a pioneer in quality kids content. Our viewers are in for a treat. Children will love Boonie Bears not only for the funny and thrilling stories but also for the universally acknowledged, positive values like friendship, courage, and growth the brand conveys.”

One Take Media is one of the leaders in providing value Added Services to DTH, Telecom and Cable industries. Their services include Hollywood Movies, Kids Animated Content, Kids Nursery Rhymes, Hollywood Movies dubbed in Hindi and regional languages, Celebrity based Cooking show and Korean TV series.

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Good days are here for the fantasy sports industry! The allegation that ‘fantasy sports is gambling’ has been dismissed by the Bombay High Court and declared as the ‘game of skills’.

Public interest litigation (PIL) was filed at the Bombay high court recently by an independent petitioner, advocate Gurdeep Sachar against the fantasy sports entity, Dream11. The PIL had claimed that the promoters of Dream11 were encouraging gambling and also not paying Goods and Services Tax (GST). It had pled the court to initiate criminal proceedings against the gaming platform.

The ruling passed by the division bench of judges Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre noted, “The petitioner has lost sight of the fact that the result of the fantasy game contest on the platform of Dream11 Fantasy Pvt Ltd is not at all dependent on winning or losing of any particular team in the real world game. Thus, no betting or gambling is involved in their fantasy games.”

The Bombay High Court added that the issue of tax evasion would only arise if Dream11 was involved in gambling and since that claim has been dismissed there is no possibility of GST evasion or erroneous classification, which was claimed by the PIL.

According to a 2019 KPMG report, the 2017 High Court judgement has contributed to the growth of fantasy gaming in terms of a larger number of platforms started entering the market with similar formats and also leading to wider user adoption. The number of fantasy sports operators in India have witnessed a seven-fold growth since 2016, with 70 operators in 2018. The number of fantasy sports users in India has also grown 25 times to 50 Mn users in 2018 from mere 2 Mn users in June 2016, according to KPMG.

Major operators in the fantasy sports segment include Dream 11, MyTeam11, 11Wickets, StarPick and Fantain. Among these, Dream11 was reported to have the largest user base of 50 Mn, as of February 19, 2019.

If one is still unclear as to whether fantasy sports can be bracketed as gambling, one needs to simply turn to what Raonuz a cricket API founder and CEO Anto Kaspar have to say in regards to it: “Does investment require luck or skill? Is Warren Buffett the luckiest person on the earth? Is the sharemarket mainly for gamblers? The most logical answer would be, it’s certainly not luck. Well, luck may play a minor role, but it is skill & persistence that gives durable success. Fantasy cricket is no different from investment in share market. In both cases, you bet on someone and you have no control over their success or failure. In both cases, the result is uncertain and your analytical skills help you choose the one who has a higher percentage of success. One’s knowledge of cricket and one’s analytical skills play a major role in durable success. Predicting the outcome of Flip-A-Coin requires luck, predicting the outcome of 240 events (number of balls in a T20 match) which have happened 100’s of times before requires analytical skills and field knowledge about the game. The players should necessarily have enough analytical skills about the game which will only bring success in their games. According to researchers, they have devised an algorithm to generate fantasy teams from the same pool of players that is available to users. The algorithm was designed to follow the rules of each game. The researchers ran thousands of games and looked at the results /scores between the actual fantasy players against the computer-generated fantasy player. Therefore, the fantasy league is not merely limited to gambling alone, instead, it requires a lot of analytical skills and knowledge about the game in order to be successful in the fantasy league. Only skilled players will taste success.”

With the Bombay High court verdict, the industry is happy and is aiming to maintain the growth pace. As fantasy sports game Gamezy founder and CTO Prithvi Singh said “We are happy and welcome the decision taken by the Bombay High Court. This move would be an impetus to the fantasy sports market in India. Fantasy gaming users can now continue to enjoy the sport without any apprehensions. The nature of this sport basically arises out of user’s superior knowledge, judgement and attention thus labelling it as skill based games. Additionally, users have protection guaranteed under the Article19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.”

Deeper engagement in fantasy sports is driving consumers to spur a greater passion for it in India by the developers and the federation. “WorldCup is a special tournament, all Indians wait for this for four years. Fantasy sport gave these fans an option to express themselves off the field” said fantasy sport game My11Circle head of business, Saroj Panigrahi. Thus the prediction of KPMG that fantasy sports platforms to cross 100 Mn by 2020  seems to be plausible in the near future.

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