Federation Kids and Family's Monica Levy on the rise of ready-mades
Monica Levy, co-chief of distribution at Federation Kids and Family, discusses how sales at the company have benefited from ready-made programmes amid a declining coproduction market.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for kids’ TV in 2025?
If 2025 is anything like 2024, our opportunities are large and wide for selling ready-made shows. Strangely enough, Federation had an incredible year for sales revenue in 2024.
On the other hand, putting together coproductions for kids, both live-action and animation, has proved challenging the last couple of years and unfortunately it looks as if this will continue in 2025.
What programming trends do you expect to see this year?
We have heard from many of our clients and buyers that young adult (YA) is coming back. Many of the channels are looking for original ideas for kids young and old, or they are seeking a formula that works for adults and will also attract kids.
How will demand for content evolve in 2025?
We hope it increases. As there have been fewer copros and the networks still need programming, we expect a further rise in revenue for ready-made shows. All that notwithstanding, it’s very difficult to predict the future for kids of major networks right now.
What impact will AI continue to have on the kids’ sector?
Dubbing and translating costs could be lowered considerably, which would definitely be advantageous for the distributors and the channels, although not for the dubbing companies. There is surely advanced AI for animation, however I am no expert in the domain.
How will the growth of the creator economy affect the kids’ industry?
Networks are looking for recognisable names and faces (of influencers, TikTok or YouTube stars) to brand kids’ shows. The creator has become as important as the creation. On a more concerning note, it is quite worrisome that the attention span of our young generation is becoming shorter and shorter and has become total ‘bitesize,’ reducing our collective potential to fully develop meaningful ideas.
What consequences might the continuing growth of YouTube have?
Although YouTube is the number one watched platform in the world, the monetisation structure is totally different to our traditional sales and revenue. It seems that until now, YouTube was not necessarily the culprit of a declining TV market as the usage of SVoD as well as linear remains quite different to the usage of YouTube
How might the rise in popularity of social gaming platforms like Roblox impact or influence the kids’ sector?
It just a matter of time until we see the gaming platforms transformed and adapted to kids’ animation and vice-versa.
How will your company be changing its strategy to adapt to the new landscape?
We will continue to be close to our clients, understand their needs and adapt our individual strategy on a case-by-case basis. We have an incredible high-end live-action series in production, as well as an animated series for six- to-11-year-olds and we will be present as always with our stand-out programming for all needs.
