It’s Wednesday. (Jomo’s Version)

I’m not a big enough Swiftie to incorporate a Taylor Swift pun in every sentence of this week’s newsletter, but this weekend we saw worlds collide as Taylor Swift made an appearance at the Chiefs-Bears game in Kansas City causing it to be the highest-rated broadcast of the weekend and No. 1 among women of all ages.

Additionally, the strike era might be coming to a close as the AMPTP and WGA announced a deal. Hopefully, this signals that a deal with SAG-AFTRA is on the horizon and Hollywood can settle some Bad Blood.

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Spin Master Entertainment’s Unicorn Academy to debut on Roblox

This past week Spin Master Entertainment announced that they will premiere their upcoming film Unicorn Academy in Roblox before launching it on Netflix in November. The move is designed to build interest in the new IP based on a book series by Julie Sykes. A Unicorn Academy series (8 x 22 minutes) is also launching in November that builds off the events in the movie.

The 72-minute Unicorn Academy film has been airing every two hours on metaverse game developer Gamefam’s popular Roblox Game “Twilight Daycare” since September 22. The film will continue to run until October 1.

“Twilight Daycare” saw a +19% day-over-day increase in visits on September 22, for the launch of the film. Additionally, the experience saw a +6% increase in estimated session length during the launch weekend versus the weekend prior.

Gamefam, a metaverse game developer and publisher, is also responsible for Roblox collaborations with Netflix for “Sonic Speed Simulator”, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for “TMNT Battle Tycoon”, and the NFL for “Super NFL Tycoon”. They have also organized metaverse concerts for The Chainsmokers, Bebe Rexha, and Saweetie’s Super Bowl concert.

Spin Master has a history of experimenting with content premieres on Roblox. The company has been premiering episodes of Bakugan on the platform as early as 2021. In September of that year, the toyco launched an episode of Bakugan: Geogan Rising. In 2022, Spin Master followed that up by streaming 100 episodes of Bakugan: Battle Planet on their dedicated Roblox experience “Bakugan Battle League”. This past August, two new episodes of Bakugan premiered on Roblox in Gamefam’s All-Star Tower Defense game a month before the launch of the series on Netflix and DisneyXD.

See Also: Dubit’s David Kleeman breaking down how the metaverse can support an IP’s lifecycle

Beyond Spin Master, Gamefam also partnered with Netflix to debut the season premiere of Sonic Prime in the developer’s “Sonic Speed Simulator” in December of 2022. The Roblox experience has had over 800 million visits to date. The series premiered on Netflix on December 15, 2022, and debuted in the Netflix Global Top 10 TV with over 27 million hours viewed in its first week and remained there for three weeks. Sonic Prime’s second season launched in July of this year and hit the Global Top 10 TV twice. Details for Sonic Prime’s third season are slated to release today during Netflix’s Drop 01 virtual showcase on live streaming platform Twitch.

The partnership between media companies and Gamefam exemplifies the confidence kids execs have in the metaverse to foster IP. Roblox as a platform has immense reach and its high engagement allows kids to build community around an IP. It will be exciting to see how other IPs follow suit to engage the next generation of viewers.

📰 In Other News

• Karl Jacobs, YouTuber & MrBeast collaborator, is launching a comic book series

• The economics of Pokémon is evolving

• Amazon is bringing Ads to Prime Video, an Ad-Free tier is coming soon for an extra fee

• Unscripted kids content is seeing an increase as production companies look for cheaper alternatives

• Ryan Kaji is going from YouTube to the Big Screen! The Kidfluencer is getting a movie that is to launch in late 2024

• The FIRST black woman to puppeteer on Sesame Street is releasing a children’s album

📺 Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month Content Merchandising: Netflix, Prime Video, and Max

Hispanic Heritage Month kicked off on September 15th, but merchandising highlighting content featuring Hispanic characters, actors, and stories is lacking across top SVOD services. Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ll take a look at how top streaming services are highlighting (and how they’re not highlighting) content celebrating Hispanic voices and stories in the kids’ space.

Note: Review of Merchandising on Netflix, Prime Video, and Max occurred on Monday, 9/25/2023 through web access on Google Chrome, the platforms were navigated using a Kid’s profile if available. The aforementioned services may have shifted their content strategy before or after the publication of this newsletter and the experience may vary across mobile, CTV, etc.

Netflix

Although 1 in 3 US Hispanics utilize Netflix on a daily basis, the homepage of a Netflix Kids account shows no reference to Hispanic Heritage Month. Although it can’t be accessed on the homepage, Netflix does have a page dedicated to Latino voices and stories called: “Our Stars, Our Stories” which can be accessed through an external link.

The Netflix collection features two rows of series and films accessible through a Netflix Kids profile: “Latinos Con Todo” and “Watching Juntos: Family Viewing”. A similar condensed page can also be found by searching “Hispanic Heritage Month” in the app’s search bar but without the merchandised rows.

Across the two rows, the collections feature a total of 38 unique titles, with 15 films, 19 series, and 4 series specials.

15 of the 38 titles are merchandised in a foreign language with 9 in Spanish and 6 in Portuguese. The foreign language titles range from docuseries about Argentinian fútbol teams to reality competition series and tween dramedies.

Max

Similar to Netflix, Max (formerly HBO Max) does not have any Hispanic Heritage Month / Latino Heritage Month merchandising available on the homepage of a kids’ profile. But in a general audience profile, a “Nuestras Voces” collection is available for browsing. However, none of the rows in this collection are programmed with family audiences in mind.

Despite the platform lacking a kid-friendly collection of Latino-focused titles the platform has strong titles featuring Hispanic and Latino characters and stories like “The Book of Life”, “Stand and Deliver”, and “Victor and Valentino”.

Prime Video

Amazon’s Prime Video also lacks dedicated merchandising for Hispanic Heritage Month but unlike the other two SVOD services, Prime Video does not have any collections on the platform celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month even in the general audience section of the platform.

Off-platform, Amazon does have an article “18 movies and shows to watch on Prime Video this Hispanic Heritage Month” to highlight some of the content on the platform including “The Book of Life” (which is only available for rent or with a Max subscription) and PG film “A Million Miles Away” which is not available to watch on Kids profiles.

Despite not having any dedicated merchandising for Hispanic Heritage Month, the “Celebrate Diversity” collection does include content featuring Hispanic and Latino characters including Nickelodeon’s “The Casagrandes” and PBS Kids’ “Alma’s Way”. Other series featuring Hispanic and Latino characters and stories on Prime Video include “Dora the Explorer”, “Rosie’s Rules”, and “Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum”.

🎬 Releases on my Radar

• 9/21 - Young Love on Max

• 9/22 - Spy Kids: Armageddon on Netflix

• 9/25 - Little Baby Bum: Music Time on Netflix

• 9/27 - L-POP on Disney+

• 9/28 - Dino Pops on Peacock

• 9/29 - Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie in Theaters

• 9/29 - Dora and the Fantastical Creatures (w/ Paw Patrol) in Theaters

• 9/29 - Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury on Netflix

• 9/29 - Interrupting Chicken (S2) on Apple TV+

• 10/01 - Toy Story Funday Football: Falcons vs. Jaguars on Disney+ and ESPN+

• 10/02 - Fright Krewe on Hulu and Peacock

• 10/02 - Mickey and Friends Trick or Treats on Disney+ and Hulu

• 10/02 - Strawberry Shortcake and the Beast of Berry Bog on Netflix

• 10/04 - Haunted Mansion on Disney+

• 10/05 - Monster High 2 on Paramount+