Cartoon Digital, the European TV challenge for OTTs

During Cartoon Digital, taking place in these days in Cagliari, the designer, novelist and director from Cagliari, Igort, one of the best talents of the illustration that the island has spread throughout the world, and director of Linus, the historic comic book magazine founded in 1965. “Thinking in images in the magical world of Oblomov”, the title of his speech on Oblomov Edizioni he founded and directed, a Sardinian publishing company part of Teseo’s LaNave publishing house.

220 participants, 36 speakers. 22 countries: these are the figures of three days on digital animation and content for the connected screens, starting with the heads of European public TV stations, which will discuss the challenges they have to face compared to the big OTT platforms (Over- The-Top) – that is, companies that provide, through the Internet, services, content and applications, without going through traditional channels, thus operating solely via the network – on competition in subscription-based services with periodic fees and on how to connect their own programs with their audience, wherever they are, to complement their digital offer. In 2023 it is expected that around 70% of households will have an OTT service subscription generating revenues for OTTs in Europe up to $ 23 billion in 2023, or more than twice as much as 2017. The UK is the largest consumer of these services, followed by Germany and France. In total, subscriptions to SVoD services have exploded with almost 100 million subscribers in Europe (compared to 50 million in 2017).

Just from the success on an OTT comes Warriors, a series of fantasy adventure novels for boys aged 8 to 13 with 400 million views on YouTube, the subject of tomorrow’s case study with Jeremy Banks of Coolabi, one of the main international groups independent and rights owners, with over 40 million books sold to date, licensed in more than 30 languages, which is bringing the “Warriors” brand beyond books: the development of the brand now includes a feature film. To David Heyman, the producer of the saga “Harry Potter” and “Paddington” the option on the film to be realized. A step that has become inevitable, given that since the launch of the book series, fans around the world have created fan art, animations and content that collectively receive over 400 million views on YouTube. Not to mention the over 500 YouTube channels dedicated to the Warriors. Jeremy Banks and Maurice Wheerel of Kids Industries will explain how the brand has been redesigned to grow exponentially.