12th June, 2011 Press Releases

Happy 10th Birthday LazyTown Radio!

11th June 2011. The first song was the original Icelandic version of “Welcome to LazyTown” and so Radio LazyTown was born on the 1st July 2011. Ten years later and FM 102.2 is enjoying more success than ever.
With its mix of LazyTown music, sketches and old Icelandic classics the automated 24 hour station still continues to command fantastic listening figures. Of those asked in a recent survey whether they had listened to RadioTown within the previous month an astonishing 37% said they had.
For many parents the station is their automatic choice for a car journey. Mother, Jane Smith, 35, (Note to Mani/Agust pls insert correct names and mother’s age) says, “My son, John and I always listen to Radio LazyTown in the car when I’m dropping him off at Kindergarten.  The funny thing is that I often realize that I’m still listening after he’s gone to school. And usually singing along.”  Four year old, John, says his favourite character is Ziggy. “ I like Ziggy’s jokes” he says smiling, “ I think he’s very funny.”

Now also available on the internet the station has stuck fast to its original principles by playing only Icelandic music and not having any commercial breaks. Station producer, Mani Svavarsson says, “Kids  today are bombarded with commercials.  With Radio LazyTown they can trust that their children are ad-free and receive a fun and healthy message.”

Over time Radio LazyTown has also adapted to audience requests. There is a story-time slot three times a day and the type of music varies according to whether it’s summer or winter along with the time of day. When a kindergarten teacher pointed out that small children usually rest at lunchtime the station began to play slower songs during that slot.

“It worked out perfectly.” Adds Svavarsson, “We are always open to ideas and have adjusted the programming as we go along. We’ve also given consideration to kids who might be staying in hospital overnight.  And of course many young children at home still wake up at night so we wanted parents  to know that they could switch on the radio and always find music that was appropriate for their kids.”

12th June, 2011 Press Releases

Exciting New Broadcast Deals for LazyTown

11th June 2011. LazyTown continues its success on air, with broadcast deals agreed with numerous TV channels across the world. In particular recent agreement with American children’s channel Sprout, which is the #1 kid’s network among moms of pre-schoolers, has selected LazyTown as a “flagship brand” with everyday HD episodes starting this September and a 2-hour branded afternoon block starting January 2012. LazyTown currently also airs on Vme, #1 Spanish network for preschool children, multiple times daily.

Cooking show

Currently a Cooking show with 13 episodes 9 minute long is being developed in co-operation with TVE Spain, Olive Oil Association and the Mediterranean Diet Foundation who are funding the production. “The LazyTown Cooking Adventure“ is a cooking show like you´ve never seen before as it will mix together puzzles, obstacles and simple healthy recipes. The format will be supported with a cooking book and extra video for online extension to the format. It’s now in pre-production, with filming taking place in 380 Studios in September and October 2011 with post-production completed in November.

Action Time

A new action packed show for kids – a magazine-style format delivered the LazyTown way. Each episode is themed around one healthy topic, such as sports, outdoor activities, or healthy eating. Episode themes range from basketball to SportsCandy (fruits and vegetables), encouraging children to make healthy lifestyle choices in LazyTown’s fun, fast-paced style.

The show stars the lovable Ziggy meeting real kids and introducing them to the LazyTown lifestyle.

There are 26 episodes 11 minute long available or 130, 1-minute sequences available as interstitials.

Turner Broadcasting Systems in the Nordics and France

LazyTown has after 5 years on Disney entered into a partnership with Turner Broadcasting Systems for Pay TV in France and the Nordic countries which will replace the Disney broadcast in the respective territories.

Italy: LazyTown moves to new terrestrial kids’ channel

Following a successful test run last year on the Italian channel Rai Tre, we launch in September on Rai Yoyo – the national public broadcast network’s dedicated digital children’s channel.

South Africa’s e.tv launches twice-a-week airings

In June, LazyTown will launch on e.tv, South Africa’s leading commercial free-to-air broadcaster, showing twice a week, on Sundays at 8.30am and Wednesdays at 3.30pm. E.tv Group Head of Multi-Channel Development, Monde Twala, says: “LazyTown is a welcome addition to e.tv’s children’s programming, and forms part of our new brand, Little e. The show forms part of our broader strategy of promoting a healthy lifestyle to our younger viewers, encouraging them to keep fit and eat correctly.”

Irish channel leads the way with Action Time

Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, has been the first broadcaster, after Iceland’s Channel 2, to acquire LazyTown’s new series, Action Time. It will launch in the Emerald Isle later this year. They have also re-licensed, once again, the original LazyTown series.

Sportacus Down Under

Australia’s prestigious ABC network has now licensed all 53 episodes of LazyTown. As well as being Australia’s national public broadcaster, ABC is also the leading broadcast platform for children’s programming. Episodes are being aired daily on ABC2, as part of the new “ABC 4 Kids” 13-hour-daily pre-school block.

Star TV, Greece, renew contract

Last September, LazyTown was launched in Greece by the national free-to-air broadcaster, Star TV and captured with approximately 50% share of viewers in the target audience group. It is currently being broadcast every Saturday and Sunday in their children’s block, and Star have recently renewed their licence.

LazyTown remains ever-popular in Germany

LazyTown has already been on air in Germany for five years. It continues to perform well on the Super RTL channel, and, as a result, has once again been re-licensed this year.

12th June, 2011 Press Releases

LazyTown Joins Forces with Youth Sports Direct

11th June 2011. For the first time in its history, LazyTown is set to launch an entirely new range of child-friendly products. Unlike traditional licensing products, Sports in Your Backyard is the result of innovative design collaboration between LazyTown and Youth Sports Direct.

The concept is to provide kids and parents with inspirational solutions motivating them to learn and enjoy sport in such a way that it stays with them for life. The product range manifests the LazyTown belief that children should be given the opportunity to be as active as possible through games and play. Sport is at the heart of the brand, and Sports in your Backyard is a strong communicator of that message. The sports being developed first are: soccer, Olympic-themed athletics, and bat sports, ball kit, basketball and golf, to name a few.

Along with an innovative version of the main equipment related to the relevant sport there is a support kit to increase variations of play as well as game cards, a DVD with inspirational material and a link to a website where kids can join the LazyTown Team and get more information as well as register their activities.

Examples of products that are part of the concept are the ThrowAll, the TriBat and the ActivSeat: Aimed at 3 to 11 year olds, the ThrowAll is designed to help children improve their throwing skills. The TriBat – as the name suggests – is based on a cricket bat and has three-sized surfaces (large, medium and thin) to aid kids in their batting skills. The ActivSeat is an inventive take on children’s seating.  A small cup type seat that rocks – in both meanings of the word! It enables small kids to watch the TV while remaining active. It also doubles up as fun activity where kids can jump, balance and build their own obstacle courses.

A UK-based company, Youth Sports Direct is already renowned for creating industry-leading educational materials and more recently innovative sports products. In particular, their range of Training Buddies. Designed to act as fitness training tools to improve posture and technique, they can be used to do a variety of exercise including squats and press ups. The first set of Training Buddies was installed outside at Loughborough University in Britain. Not simply sports products, the Buddies double up as fabulous art installations.

Now that LazyTown is onboard plans are in motion for a new scaled-down version of Training Buddies for children based on the LazyTown characters. Jo Simpson, Managing Director of Youth Sport Direct says, “We are passionate about the importance of physical activity for all children. The early years are a special time, and I knew that by working with LazyTown we could further support our joint missions. Important too is the fact that at Youth Sport Direct the profit we make is invested into future youth projects.”

The company has also supported over 20,000 schools by providing teaching resources, kit and sports equipment. “Quality is a key element of our work,” continues Simpson. “All of our products are developed with the users’ needs in mind and then tested and researched until we have the perfect solution.”

Training Buddies are ready to launch and the other products will be the first to launch under the Sports in your Backyard theme no later than spring 2012 coinciding with the Olympic-themed government campaign in UK (article p2). It marks the beginning of exciting times for both LazyTown and Youth Sport Direct with other developments in the pipeline. The aim is all about setting a new standard in activity products to engage children and their families.

Agust Ingason, Executive Vice President of LazyTown, says that Youth Sport Direct offered the high caliber partnership that LazyTown wanted. “I felt that the current offerings in the market were only replicating sports equipment as toys. The vision we had was to set a new standard in activity products for kids. We knew that they needed to be creative, energetic and irresistible so that children would want to experience them again and again. We concluded that YSD had such an impressive history, it was the company we needed to work with to achieve this. “

12th June, 2011 Press Releases

LazyTown takes off in the USA

11th June 2011. LazyTown has a new broadcast partner in the United States. Sprout, a parent-targeted 24-hour preschool destination available on TV, on-demand and online, has bought the rights to LazyTown Series 1 & 2 and LazyTown Extra, for both broadcast and its VOD service, with 18 million downloads per month. The channel’s Sproutonline.com website will also feature a host of LazyTown games and coloring pages, engaging viewers – and those who don’t have access to the channel via the TV – when the show is not on the air.

We believe that Sprout is the ideal partner to carry our message of fun, health and activity to America’s preschoolers – and, of course, their families. The channel, which is available in 50 million homes, uniquely follows the daily routine of a preschooler, from breakfast to bedtime, with its distinctive interactive programming and original hosted segments. LazyTown will be in great company, with classics Sesame Street®, Bob the Builder™, Barney & Friends™ and Thomas & Friends™, on Sprout’s roster of shows.

“Sprout is the perfect partner for LazyTown for several reasons,” says Gudmundur Magnason, Managing Director of LazyTown Entertainment. “Number one is how Sprout positions itself as a service for parents, rather than simply as entertainment for their kids. This is completely in line with LazyTown’s positioning as a tool to help parents raise healthier children. LazyTown will also cater to the older members of Sprout viewership, which is perfect from a licensing perspective.”

Andrew Beecham, Senior Vice President of Programming at Sprout agrees. “We are thrilled to have LazyTown join the Sprout family. At Sprout, we’re all about creating opportunities for preschoolers and their families to learn and share together. We believe that it’s never too soon to inspire children to embrace a healthy, active lifestyle and LazyTown’s fun, interactive approach to living healthy is the perfect recipe.”

LazyTown makes health fun for kids, and is also a tool for parents to raise healthy kids. The partnership with Sprout is directly on-brand for LazyTown as Sprout has a #1 Q-score amongst children’s television networks for moms with children aged 2-5 years, and is #1 for co-viewership (mothers watching with kids) for moms aged 18-49 with kids between 2-5 years. More parents and children will be able to watch and interact together with LazyTown than ever before.

LazyTown begins airing exclusively on Sprout daily from September. In January, a two-hour LazyTown block will be launched, as a co-production with Sprout.

The block will have links and interstitials from LazyTown as well as a full half-hour LazyTown episode. It contains new content produced both in the LazyTown studios in Iceland and on the ground in the US. The two-hour block will air in the afternoon.

This development coincides with LazyTown signing with New York management and licensing agency, Joester Loria. With their help, LazyTown looks forward to a fruitful year ahead for in the US.