Follow the numbers driving the industry.
Featuring: VW scandal, University of Texas, Peppa Pig, Halloween retail, U.K. toy sales, and more…
FAST-FOOD
Are Licensed Toys in Fast-Foods Kids’ Meals an Endangered Species?
October 2, 2015
This week, Wendy’s announced that it will no longer offer licensed toys as part of its kids’ meals. In so doing, Wendy’s became the third fast-food chain since 2011 to discard the proven business model of using licensed toys in kids’ meals to…
Toys and Games
Hulk Car Races Across Retailers’ Holiday Toy Lists
September 18, 2015
On the evening of Labor Day, 105 days before Christmas, Toys ‘R’ Us unveiled its Holiday Hot Toy List for 2015, and was quickly followed by Target and Kmart. It wasn’t, however, the earliest “hot holiday toys” proclamation. That distinction went to…
TV LICENSING
‘Days’ Marks 50 Years with Photobook
September 18, 2015
Ratings are up for once-endangered daytime dramas. Daytime TV families the Bradys, the Hortons and the DiMeras of fictional Midwestern town Salem are about to again be captured the old-fashioned way…
FALL TV SEASON
Awareness High of New ‘Muppets,’ ‘Supergirl’ TV Shows
September 14, 2015
New fall programs with the highest ratings and consumer intent to watch are based on properties that are already established…
Experiential Licensing
Who Lives in a Pineapple on Broadway?
September 8, 2015
The SpongeBob Musical will open at Broadway in Chicago’s Oriental Theatre on June 7, 2016, where it will play for a month in preparation for its run on Broadway (in New York) in the 2016-2017 season. The SpongeBob Musical will be produced by Nickelodeon with songs from…
TV Programming
Sesame Street Makes Room for HBO
September 8, 2015
In a move that means more TV exposure, HBO will be the exclusive first-run subscription TV partner for the next five seasons of iconic preschool series Sesame Street and new series from Sesame Workshop. PBS will also continue to air Sesame Street, but in a 30-minute rather than full-hour version, with new episodes available to public TV after an exclusive window on HBO services…
New Licensing Model
Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Merchandising Campaign: Bigger & Earlier than Anything Before
September 8, 2015
The timing between movie release and merchandising is a perennial challenge in movie licensing. Historically, merchandise associated with an anticipated blockbuster appears on store shelves around six weeks before release. But several of the entertainment executives we interviewed last spring for The Licensing Letter’s 2014 Annual Licensing Business Survey predicted…
Movie Licensing
Disney Opens 15 Week Merchandise Window for Star Wars
September 4, 2015
When The Licensing Letter spoke to entertainment executives for our Annual Licensing Business Survey back in the spring, several sources predicted that movie-based licensed merchandise this fall would begin to appear in stores earlier than ever, with end-of-year movies loading merchandise into stores as soon as September. The expected leader of that trend: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which competitors also predicted would mount the biggest licensing campaign in history…