Month: March 2022

Hearst Media Production Group and Toonz Media Group has announced a partnership to produce new animated productions. Hearst Media Production Group, a business unit of Hearst Television, is a producer and distributor of television programming with more than 30 series and hundreds of hours of content annually on leading broadcast station groups and networks – and in 97 countries – and on connected TV and streaming platforms, with a library of more than 4,000 hours of programming. Through the new partnership, Hearst Media Production Group brings its distribution prowess to engage U.S. audiences with Toonz’s prolific slate of children’s animation productions including brand new titles like Paddypaws, Sunnyside Billy, Kingdom of None and Aliens In My Backpack.

A recent study indicates that the toy industry has dramatically improved the play value of their products over the last 10 years, highlighted opportunities for improvement both overall and in specific toy categories, and probed parents’ experiences with holiday supply chain issues. Titled “US Toy Industry Play Value Report Card: After the Toys Come Home”, the survey was fielded by play expert and founder of Funosophy, Nancy Zwiers, and the Michael Cohen Group, a prominent New York-based research firm. The Michael Cohen Group also conducted the original 2011 study of the same name. Respondents to both studies include a statistically valid, nationally representative sample of parents of children between the ages of two and six years old. Participants were asked to share their thoughts on the amount of time their children played with different types of toys in the two weeks following Christmas.