With so much children’s fare spread across a plethora of television channels, the competition for eyeballs continues to intensify. In order to keep the hard-earned attention of viewers, producers of children’s programming are increasingly taking their programs to where their audience spends its non-television time: the Internet. Interactive games, trivia quizzes, fan clubs and chat rooms give young web-watchers the opportunity to get involved with their favorite shows and characters on a deeper level, while being entertaining and educated.

After six weeks online, the animated tv series Monster by Mistake, The Online Adventure garnered more than 300,000 hits. The average user is on the site for 11.2 minutes playing games, exploring the series’ 3D sets from the perspectives of their favorite characters, and checking out the latest clips of coming episodes.

A Cambium Entertainment/Catapult Productions coproduction, Monster By Mistake, about a young boy who turns into a monster every time he sneezes, hit the airwaves in September of this year, about a month after its online counterpart.

The Online Adventure was created using a combination of Flash and Shockwave, allowing for realtime animation. The tv series is the first to use Houdini exclusively, which Dan Fill, Cambium’s director of development and new media producer, says makes the series cutting edge – and therefore a perfect candidate for the Internet. Because the series is 3D, the production team is able to take the sets from the series, render them out and retrace them easily onto the Internet.

Fill says the Web element of the series extends the Monster by Mistake experience and helps the brand as it contains ‘a ton’ of information about the show. Web-watchers are part of a virtual clubhouse where they can sign up for games and activities and receive an online magazine that is e-mailed each week the show is on air.

‘From a financial perspective, it is important to have an online component to children’s programming,’ says Fill. ‘Licence fees are getting so low for tv shows around the world and there are so many channels, that if you really want to distinguish yourself, you have to do this. Eyeballs are going on the Internet, so we might as well cover both areas.’

Funding for the $200,000 online adventure came partially from Telefilm Canada and the Bell New Media Fund. Monster by Mistake does not have a merchandising component yet, but Fill says something should be coming down the pipe soon.

Also in the works is Chilly Beach, an animated series born online (www.ChillyBeach.com) that Cambium is in the process of developing into a television series.

Internet developer Infopreneur created the South Park-style series about a bunch of beer-drinking, hockey-playing guys in a small Canadian community where it snows all year round.

devinetime.com

Toronto’s Devine Entertainment recently launched a new interactive website, devinetime.com, to complement its series of tv movies, The Inventors’ Specials. The online component, a coproduction with generationNet, takes seven- to 12-year-olds on an interactive journey through the history of invention.

The site features the history of 100 inventors over five centuries, games trivia and clips from The Inventors’ Specials. Its marketing component, the Devine Storefront, offers all 21 films for sale along with 12 albums.

The total investment for devinetime.com was $700,000. Half the money came from the prodco and the rest was funded by Bell New Media and Bell Stentor Fund. The site hit cyberspace in early October and a week later was named the Yahoo site of the week.

One devinetime.com activity gives kids a chance to build their own airplanes, while learning about gravity, drag and other aspects of flight. Each person in the ‘flight lab’ gets four fuselages, propellers and jet engines. If the junior Wright Brother (or sister) constructs the plane incorrectly, it will crash and burn; if they choose the right combination of parts, the plane will take off.

‘We are trying to entertain kids about science and invention, but after we have entertained them we hope they have learned something,’ says Devine Entertainment’s David Devine, who feels that not many sites have relevant, quality content for young people.

Devine is hoping to get anchors – major communications cosponsors – involved with the site. The flight lab, for example, could be sponsored by an airplane manufacturer; if Thomas Edison was the subject at hand, perhaps General Electric could come on board to sponsor an activity focused on the invention of the light bulb.

The Inventors’ Specials series originally aired on hbo in the u.s., and is now airing on ytv and tfo in Canada, as well as in 55 markets on pbs and the Odyssey Channel in the u.s. – all of which will up the number of people eyeballing the pages of devinetime.com.

‘I think the Internet is as important as the invention of the radio or the first television broadcast,’ says Devine. ‘If you want to compete in entertainment, you have to be online.’

Storystudio.com

Wendy Anderson, creative director for Incredible Story Studio Online, says that a successful kids property on television depends on an online component.

‘Kids are now stepping into this interactive medium really quickly and many parents will say their kids spend more time on the computer than they do in front of the tv,’ she says.

Incredible Story Studio, a coproduction between Regina companies Minds Eye Pictures and Verite Films, is a series written by kids for kids. The show, which airs in 30 countries around the world, was launched along with the website three years ago.

Storystudio.com features animation and sound built with macromedia flash, flash movies, sound effects, an online Story Studio newsletter and profiles on the young writers, actors and stories showcased in the series. Various sections allow kids to build their own comic strips, learn about writing stories or get involved with the television show. There is also a section for parents and teachers explaining what is going on at the Incredible Story Studio and how to purchase a story guide. The studio recently conducted its first online chat, with the Incredible Story Studio boss Camille Devine.

Anderson says Minds Eye uses the feedback it receives via e-mail to find out who the popular characters are, what stories kids like, what they would like to see changed, and how they would do things differently if they could.

‘We are not setting it up so we are watching kids in a Big Brother way,’ she says. ‘It’s a fun site and it is there to provide fun for the kids and an opportunity to get them involved in writing good stories.’