W.I.T.C.H. and Jetix
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One of The Walt Disney Company’s focuses of recent years has been franchise building. An example of this is how they took Lizzie McGuire, which was developed by the Disney Channel, and grew the franchise through books, CDs, apperal, and a feature film. The next franchise Disney is focusing on is W.I.T.C.H which stands for Will, Irma, Taranee Cornelia, Hay Lin. The story begins in Candracar where the Oracle announces that a new group of Guardians will e formed because The Veil, an invisible barrier that isolates the forces of evil is weak. We then move to a rainy day in a town called Heatherfield where Will has just moved to with her mom. She makes instant friends with Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin. Each girl has been having magical things happening to them and begins to learn about their new powers. One day, at Hay Lin’s house, they talk about what’s been happening to them when Hay Lin’s grandmother reveals that she was once a guardian and shows them the Heart of Candracar. The heart is an ancient crystal pendant which explains to the girls that they are each gifted with special magic powers. Irma has power over water. Cornelia has power over earth. Hay Lin has power over air and Taranee has power over fire. Will is the keeper of the Heart of Candracar and her magical powers are released when she holds the pendant in her hand. They discover their mission is to protect The Veil from the evil Prince Phobos in Metamoor, and along the way “discover the magic and power of friendship�?.
This property started off as a comic book in Italy in April 2001. W.I.T.C.H. caught on like wildfire and ended up being most successful children’s magazine launch in history, selling six million copies in the magazine’s first year. Its circulation has increased 500% since its launch and now has a circulation of one million copies per month in 46 countries. Now W.I.T.C.H. is headed to the United States. The American website recently launched at www.clubwitch.com, where you can learn about the story and see profiles of all five girls. Many Americans will get their first glimpse at W.I.T.C.H. during a trailer on the Lizzie McGuire: Totally Crushed, Lizzie McGuire: Star Struck, and Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time videos and DVDs (You can see it now on Taranee’s page of the website). The first four comic books come out in April. The Power of Five, The Disappearance, Finding Meridian, and The Fire of Friendship will be followed by one book a month. Looking in to next year, there is a W.I.T.C.H. television series in development for the United States and Europe.
W.I.T.C.H. is targeted towards tween girls. The franchise’s themes of friendship, transformation, fashion, adventure, magic, and empowerment are aimed to be a success with the demographic that Disney has found much recent success with. Disney has been having a harder time developing franchises for boys with the Power Rangers franchise aquired through the Fox Family acquisition being the main success. W.I.T.C.H.’s challenge is that the children’s comic book form being used to initiate the franchise is sort of a dead in the North America while still very alive in Europe. Disney will have to use its synergy machine to create awareness of the new brand. The franchise will probably take off when the animated series hits the Disney Channel.
W.I.T.C.H. is the first Disney franchise created by Disney publishing. The worlds largest children’s publisher is already at work on their second franchise entitled “Disney Fairies�? which is based upon Tinkerbell’s friends. (I know Tink is a pixie. I don’t know if they will explain the difference). W.I.T.C.H. is an example, of Disney’s desire to build franchises wherever they can be found. Most come from The Disney Channel(Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire), but now Disney Consumer Products is shouldering part of the burden by developing franchises in its divisions from Buena Vista Games’ Kingdom Hearts to publishing’s W.I.T.C.H. If successful, watch for W.I.T.C.H to appear anywhere Disney has an outlet.
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Another new Disney brand is launching February 14th called Jetix. Jetix isn’t a show or a bunch of characters; it is a programming block on ABC Family and Toon Disney. The schedule of the block is as follows:
ABC Family:
Monday–Friday
7 a.m., ET/PT, Digimon
7:30 a.m., ET/PT, Beyblade
8 a.m., ET/PT, Power Rangers Ninja Storm
8:30 a.m., ET/PT, Digimon
Saturday and Sunday
7 a.m., ET/PT, Medabots
7:30 a.m., ET/PT, Digimon
8 a.m., ET/PT, Best of Power Rangers
8:30 a.m., ET/PT, Power Rangers DinoThunder
9 a.m., ET/PT, Beyblade
9:30 a.m., ET/PT, Digimon
10 a.m., ET/PT, Movie (2-hour)
Toon Disney:
Saturday and Sunday
7 p.m., ET/PT, The Legend of Tarzan
7:30 p.m., ET/PT, Power Rangers DinoThunder
8 p.m., ET/PT, Digimon
8:30 p.m., ET/PT, Beyblade
Monday–Thursday
7 p.m., ET/PT, The Legend of Tarzan
7:30 p.m., ET/PT, Power Rangers Ninja Storm
8 p.m., ET/PT, Digimon
8:30 p.m., ET/PT, Disney/Pixar's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Friday
5–9 p.m., ET/PT, Toon Disney's Double Feature Movie
As you can see this is a boy focused block. This is Disney’s attempt to create a boy focused alternative to the Disney Channel that skews heavily on the girl side with shows like Lizzie McGuire, Kim Possible, and That’s So Raven. The only Disney branded shows at this time are Disney’s Legend of Tarzan and Disney/Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Disney hopes that this will change as Disney develops more boy focused franchises, especially with the next two Pixar releases of The incredibles and Cars. There is no question that the programming block is anchored by the Power Rangers. In addition to airing a Best of… show that features episodes from the 11 power rangers incarnations, Disney is launching the twelfth edition of the show call Power Rangers Dino Thunder. This version, which saw production move from California to New Zealand, features the yellow, blue, red ranger, and most importantly dinosaurs.
During the weekend editions of Jetix, viewers are invited to go to http://www.jetix.tv to play an enhanced TV game. After joing the team you can play Jetix Cards Live, which, to put it simply, is a card game you play live with your TV. Unlike ABC’s enhanced TV games for Monday Night Football and Celebrity Mole: Yucatan, this game continues each weekend as each individual player tries to collect all 60 cards. The idea is that the interactive element will offer something to boys aged 6 to 11 that draws attention to the Jetix lineup.
Jetix is a worldwide initiative for The Walt Disney Company and will be a part of Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America, and Fox Kids Middle East. Europe and the Middle East will start to air Jetix Programming block in April of 2004 and will transition to Jetix named-channels in the fall of 2004. Fox Kids channels in Latin America will be renamed in the summer of 2004. When the rebranding is complete Jetix will be available in 137 million television households in 77 countries and in 18 languages. If you listened to the Institutional Investor Conference presentations, you know that Jetix is considered an important part of Disney’s future by Disney executives. All parts of the company want to make inroads on the boy market and they hope Jetix will accomplish this goal.
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-- Posted February 13, 2004
-- Story by Benji Breitbart