Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Sneak Peek At First Episode Of Nickelodeon's Brand-New Animated Preschool Literacy Series "Wallykazam!"

To celebrate and promote Nick USA starting to premiere and show the networks brand-new animated preschool literacy series "Wallykazam!" on Monday 3rd February 2014 at 1:00pm (ET/PT), Nick USA's publicity office has unveiled a all-new online streaming video clip which gives a super sneak peek at the first episode of the new preschool TV show, "Naptime for Borgelorp", which you can watch below here on NickALive!:

nick wallykazam naptime clip 1 640x480 1600 m30W from Jessica Wilson on Vimeo.


In the video clip, whilst Wally and his pet dragon Norville babysit Ogre Doug's hyper and unpredictable pet Borgelorp, Wally gets Borgelorp to chase after a magical floating sock to tire him out for a nap. However, Borgelorp catches the sock in a patch of purple flowers, which Ogre Doug said Borgelorp isn't allowed to eat. To draw Borgelorp's attention away from the purple flowers, Wally and Norville discuss what else Borgelorp might like to eat. The pair decide that sand might not taste nice, but a sandwich would be very tasty, so Wally conjures up a sandwich for Borgelorp to eat! Phew! That could have been really bad if he ate those purple flowers. It could have been a disaster!

In "Wallykazam!", Nickelodeon invites preschoolers to discover the magic of words. "Wallykazam!" follows the adventures of a troll named Wally and his pet dragon, Norville, who live in a forest with giants, goblins, ogres, sprites and other mythical creatures. Wally uses his magic stick to make words come to life on screen that start with a specific letter, sound or rhyme. Each episode features a new set of magic words that Wally uses to playfully transform the world around him.

"Wallykazam!" is Nickelodeon's first preschool series that embeds a literacy curriculum into a full-length story, introducing skills such as letter and sound identification, rhyming, vocabulary development and comprehension strategies. Celebrity guests featured in season one include Vanessa Bayer ("Saturday Night Live"), Weird Al Yankovic, John O'Hurley (J. Peterman in "Seinfeld"), Kate Micucci (Lucy in "The Big Bang Theory") and Alanna Ubach (Amy Hobbs in Nick at Nite's "See Dad Run", Manny Rivera / El Tigre in Nickelodeon's "El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera", and Boo, Cletus, Fresca and the voice of Miss. Daisy in Nickelodeon Movies Oscar-winning animated film "Rango"). Created by producer/writer Adam Peltzman (Emmy Award-winning "The Backyardigans" and "Bubble Guppies"), the series will air regularly weekdays at 1:00pm (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon USA.

In the series premiere episode, "Naptime for Borgelorp", Wally babysits Ogre Doug's hyper and unpredictable pet Borgelorp. Ogre Doug gives Wally two instructions: get Borgelorp to take a nap and, most importantly, make sure he doesn't eat any purple flowers. Wally uses magic words to help tire out the rambunctious creature and desperately tries to keep him away from purple flowers, but Bobgoblin has other plans. The words introduced in the episode start with the letter "S" and include somersault, soar, sandwich and symphony.

Nickelodeon's award-winning website for parents and preschoolers, www.nickjr.com, features the networks official "Wallykazam!" webpage with letter tracing activities, a word wheel craft, "Wallykazam!" board game, puzzles, coloring pages, and more. Parents can also visit NickJr.com's Creativity Center and "send a letter" to Wally for a chance to see their child's artwork on TV. Beginning Monday 3rd February 2014, the full series premiere episode will be available on the site and free for download on iTunes the week of Monday 27th January 2014.
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Sneak Peek At Upcoming "Sam & Cat" Special "The Killer Tuna Jump"

To celebrate and promote Nick USA premiering and showing the brand new one-hour special episode of Nick's original buddy comedy series "Sam & Cat" titled "#TheKillerTunaJump" "#Reunion Special", which guest stars Nathan Kress from "iCarly" and Matt Bennett & Elizabeth Gillies from "VICTORiOUS", on Saturday 18th January 2014 at 8:00pm (ET/PT), Nick USA's publicity office has unveiled a all-new online streaming video clip which gives a super sneak peek at the special, which you can watch below here on NickALive!

In the video clip, Sam Puckett (Jennette McCurdy), Cat Valentine (Ariana Grande), Dice (Cameron Ocasio) and Jade West (Gillies) devise a plan to motorcycle jump over Dice's 25-foot tank full of vicious man-eating tuna fish to save Dice from losing money in his investment:

“#TheKillerTunaJump: #Freddie #Jade #Robbie,” premiering Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8:00p.m. (ET/PT). from Jessica Wilson on Vimeo.


In the all-new hour-long event, Nickelodeon Stars Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande will reunite with their former "iCarly" and "Victorious" co-stars Nathan Kress, Matt Bennett and Elizabeth Gillies, who will be reprising their characters from "iCarly" and "VICTORiOUS", of which "Sam & Cat" is a spin-off from - Freddie Benson, Robbie Shapiro and Jade West, respectively.


In the hour-long special, despite Cat's fear of a personality clash, Jade (Cat's good friend from Hollywood Arts) and Sam meet and hit it off like old friends, leaving Cat feeling left out. Nona (Maree Cheatham) advises Cat that where she comes from, if someone steals your friend, you steal one of theirs. Cat takes this to heart and takes Sam's phone to call Freddie, Sam's hometown friend and ex-love in Seattle. She lies to Freddie and gets him to rush down to LA under the guise that Sam has been in an accident. When Freddie arrives at the girls' apartment, he finds himself in the middle of a roommate quarrel. In order to even the score, Sam befriends Cat's dear friend, Robbie, and the girls' jealousy spirals out of control. Sam also learns that she has to jump over a tank full of vicious man-eating tuna fish with her motorcycle. The special will also see actress Mary Scheer reprise her character role of Marissa Benson, Freddie's Mom.

Jade: You always keep a sandwich in your pocket?

Sam: I try to.
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Nickelodeon USA To Launch Brand-New Interactive Preschool Television Channel Called "My Nick Jr."

The The Wall Street Journal is reporting in the following article from their official website, wsj.com, the exciting Nickelodeon News that Viacom Media Networks, the parent company of the Nickelodeon brand, has unveiled plans to launch a brand new interactive preschool television channel in the USA called "My Nick Jr." that can be programmed according to parents' tastes and provide access to hundreds of episodes of popular Nickelodeon Preschool shows from Nickelodeon's archives such as "Dora the Explorer" in a novel TV-delivery approach that combines elements of streaming services Pandora and Netflix Inc.!

The new "My Nickelodeon Junior" interactive channel will be available in coming months to customers of Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS TV service, with Viacom planning to roll the network out to other U.S. pay-TV operators later, the companies say.

It will be adjacent in the TV menu to Nick's main "Nick Jr." preschool channel that is home to "Dora", "The Backyardigans", "Bubble Guppies", and other series targeted at a preschool audience.

TV viewers have two basic options nowadays: They can watch a channel with programming scheduled by a TV network, or sift through video on-demand services to find a show they like. The My Nick Jr. technology introduces a third way to deliver TV — giving each household a customized channel.

Parents will be able to personalize the content that airs on My Nick Jr. by indicating their relative preference for seven themes such as "word play", "super-sonic science", and "get creative".

Based on those preferences, My Nick Jr. will choose content to air from hundreds of episodes in the Nick Jr. library.

Children can rate shows by clicking on smile or frown icons, and the service will tweak the programming lineup accordingly. Parents can get reports on what their children watch and can program the channel to shut off after a set time period. The channel won't be ad-supported.

The new service highlights how media companies and pay-TV operators are trying to modernize TV viewing at a time when consumers want greater control over what they watch and services like Netflix and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Instant Video are offering compelling alternatives to cable television.

Terry Denson, Verizon's vice president of content strategy and acquisition, said My Nick Jr. will help the company compete against these streaming-video services. He said other media companies and distributors could launch their own interactive channels.

For Viacom, streaming outlets are customers — it licenses shows to them. But the company also wants to ensure that the pay-TV ecosystem — which provides the bulk of its revenue and profit through carriage fees and advertising — is healthy and technologically advanced.

Viacom hopes the new channel will help it negotiate higher carriage fees and give characters in its shows greater exposure, helping its consumer products licensing business.

One risk for the media company is that the new channel could draw viewers away from existing Nickelodeon channels. In the U.S., the flagship Nickelodeon network has a preschool programming block that averaged 570,000 viewers among children 2 to 5 years old in 2013.

Like Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Junior and Comcast Corp.'s Sprout, the Nick Jr. channel caters to a preschool audience and shows repeats of episodes aired in Nick USA's preschool programming block. Viacom said it gained confidence before the U.S. launch by testing the service in France, where it thought the stakes of failure would be lower.

"You haven't seen that cannibalization effect" in France, said Bob Bakish, president and chief executive of Viacom International Media Networks. "Now it's starting to roll out around the world."

The interactive channel was a good fit for CanalSat, a unit of Vivendi SA, that was looking for ways to differentiate itself from the array of free over-the-air channels competing in France's TV market. It fit nicely with CanalSat's other efforts to personalize TV viewing, such as technology that recommends shows to viewers based on what they've previously viewed.

"The future of pay TV relies on personalization," said Claire Basini, marketing director of CanalSat. "We were convinced of the potential" of Viacom's service, she said.

Viacom could potentially extend the idea of a personalized channel to its other properties like MTV, executives said.

It is unclear how widely other companies will adopt the approach. One constraining factor: Many consumers still have set-top boxes hooked up to their TVs that can't support interactive services like My Nick Jr.

Verizon and AT&T have the most advanced TV set-top boxes since they are the latest entrants in the market. Eventually, Verizon will add support for mobile devices, so consumers can launch My Nick Jr. from a tablet or smartphone — a feature that is available on CanalSat.

From WSJ.com:
Viacom to Launch Customized Kids' TV Channel

My Nickelodeon Junior to Combine Elements of Streaming Services Pandora and Netflix

Viacom Inc. plans to launch a children's TV channel in the U.S. that can be programmed according to parents' tastes and provide access to hundreds of old episodes of shows like "Dora the Explorer," in a novel TV-delivery approach that combines elements of streaming services Pandora and Netflix Inc.



'Dora the Explorer' episodes will be available on My Nickelodeon Junior. Nickelodeon/Everett Collection

The new "My Nickelodeon Junior" interactive channel will be available in coming months to customers of Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS TV service, and Viacom plans to roll it out to other U.S. pay-TV operators later, the companies say.

It will be adjacent in the TV menu to the main "Nick Jr." channel that is home to "Dora," "The Backyardigans," "Bubble Guppies," and other fare targeted at a preschool audience.

TV viewers have two basic options nowadays: They can watch a channel with programming scheduled by a TV network, or sift through on-demand services to find a show they like. The My Nick Jr. technology introduces a third way to deliver TV—giving each household a customized channel.

Parents will be able to personalize the content that airs on My Nick Jr. by indicating their relative preference for seven themes such as "word play," "super-sonic science," and "get creative."

Based on those preferences, My Nick Jr. will choose content to air from hundreds of episodes in the Nick Jr. library.

Children can rate shows by clicking on smile or frown icons, and the service will tweak the programming lineup accordingly. Parents can get reports on what their children watch and can program the channel to shut off after a set period. There won't be ads.

The new service highlights how media companies and pay-TV operators are trying to modernize TV viewing at a time when consumers want greater control over what they watch and services like Netflix and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Instant Video are offering compelling alternatives to cable television.

TV networks and pay-TV operators also are developing sophisticated mobile-TV apps and beefing up video on-demand offerings.

Netflix and Amazon have become particularly popular as an outlet for children's programming.

Terry Denson, Verizon's vice president of content strategy and acquisition, said My Nick Jr. will help the company compete against these streaming-video services. He said other media companies and distributors could launch their own interactive channels.

"It's a way you can quash the momentum of over-the-top players in the marketplace," said Mr. Denson, referring to Web-based video options such as Netflix. "There's no reason they should own that space—we should own that space."

For Viacom, streaming outlets are customers—it licenses shows to them. But the company also wants to ensure that the pay-TV ecosystem—which provides the bulk of its revenue and profit through carriage fees and advertising—is healthy and technologically advanced.

Viacom hopes the new channel will help it negotiate higher carriage fees and give characters in its shows greater exposure, helping its consumer products licensing business.

One risk for the media company is that the new channel could draw viewers away from existing Nickelodeon channels. In the U.S., the flagship Nickelodeon network has a preschool programming block that averaged 570,000 viewers among children 2 to 5 years old in 2013.

Like Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Junior and Comcast Corp.'s Sprout, the Nick Jr. channel caters to a preschool audience and shows repeats of episodes aired in that block. Viacom said it gained confidence before the U.S. launch by testing the service in France, where it thought the stakes of failure would be lower.

"You haven't seen that cannibalization effect" in France, said Bob Bakish, president and chief executive of Viacom International Media Networks. "Now it's starting to roll out around the world."

The interactive channel was a good fit for CanalSat, a unit of Vivendi SA, that was looking for ways to differentiate itself from the array of free over-the-air channels competing in France's TV market. It fit nicely with CanalSat's other efforts to personalize TV viewing, such as technology that recommends shows to viewers based on what they've previously viewed.

"The future of pay TV relies on personalization," said Claire Basini, marketing director of CanalSat. "We were convinced of the potential" of Viacom's service, she said.

Viacom could potentially extend the idea of a personalized channel to its other properties like MTV, executives said.

It is unclear how widely other companies will adopt the approach. One constraining factor: Many consumers still have set-top boxes hooked up to their TVs that can't support interactive services like My Nick Jr.

Verizon and AT&T have the most advanced TV set-top boxes since they are the latest entrants in the market. Eventually, Verizon will add support for mobile devices, so consumers can launch My Nick Jr. from a tablet or smartphone—a feature that is available on CanalSat.
Thanks to Twitter user ‏@Cameronskooner for alerting me to the news!
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