The Official Pocoyo Blog

Youtube issue, (my comments to Dave Christie, Denise and Kei´s question)

First of all, sorry for the delay in answering the previous post...I was on vacation with no computer around...and as i am so "s...l...o...w" even when i do get one....!

I have considered the question you asked me, a very interesting one, and I am going to try to express my point of view (POV) about this issue. I also think that it could generate an interesting debate, and that it could help to understand the vision of the creators/coproducers/licenses of a TV series (and probably of a movie).

I imagine that your question is simpler than that, basically is "Youtube, ok or not, do not lecture us, David" But using the opportunity your question gives me, I am going to think outloud a bit about this issue...

To start with, I think we all understand that when Youtube, Emule (or any of the systems that allow the emission/distribution of media product without the explicit permission of the owners of the product,) broadcasts a movie or an episode, this means a shortcome in the direct profits of the product, which is what we commonly called piracy, and it is a huge challenge for the development of quality audiovisual products and because of that, to the future of this industry.

I am 100% against piracy...

but it is not as simple as that...

I am going to try to divide this post in four parts. My vision as a creator, my vision as a coproducer of the series and partner of Zinkia Enterteinment, the POV the licensers can have, and at the end, my conclusions (ha, ha... it is as if I were preparing a lecture)

From the POV of the creator: for a TV series like Pocoyo, Youtube is an extraordinary tool for the transmission of its ideas, after all, although Pocoyo has been sold to many countries, it is not present in every single one of them, and in some it is not shown in "open" time..Some, like

Japan

, are now showing it on Pay TV, and that greatly reduces the number of viewers. Besides, being as it is a preschool oriented series that lasts only 7 minutes per episode, it is easy to miss the TV slot meaning that unless you tape it you will miss it, and that is why Youtube is an amazing way to get to know about the series.

Thanks to Youtube, there is a community in

Japan

who became familiar with Pocoyo, and I know for a fact that many more people have discoverd Pocoyo like that. Those of you who are regular readers of the blog know already which is our fundamental philosopy for the developmento of Pocoyo, so in that sense, the more people that get to know the series, the better.

Personally, I like Youtube, I like it a lot. But I can also see that it could kill my job and that of many people if we become complacent...

From the POV of coproducer and partner of the company: In Zinkia, more than 40 people work devoted to the Pocoyo series, some directly like animators, musician, illustrators, technicians, and so on... and others indirectly like financers, lawyers, and even the cleaning crew... In

Granada

there are also lots of people involved, executive producers, educational advisers, script writers... And besides there are general costs like rent, trips, insurance, servers, render farms, light, computers, tables, chairs and so on and so forth...

As you can see, the economic challenge is enormous, we are talking about a year and a half of work per season (we are in the second one), not counting the time we need to get to an agreement among coproducers, broadcasters, etc, and the time needed to get to move the pilots, the development of those, as you have seen in the "genesis" etc... you get the idea, don´t you?

As an enterprise, we have the obligation to recover the investment and to generate profits to be able to finance the following seasons, our next challenges, and of course for the partners of this very risky gamble... otherwise they would decide to take their money to a bank and invest it in a zero risk product, don´t you think?

If an audiovisual product doesn´t generate enough profit, you cannot maintain the product even if it is very beautiful and very good.  (I understand 'enough profit' to mean something that is proportional to the effort and entrepreneurial risk, as I said before, otherwise the investors would choose much more secure projects or a bank product).

All of this is the case with Pocoyo and for any other audiovisual product you can think of, and of course, following this train of thought, you can understand that systems like Youtube can hurt the enterprise and put the jobs of the professionals that are part of big productions in great danger.

In that sense, the issue with Emule is horrible, and, although webs like Youtube don´t yet allow  professional quality broadcasting, we have no doubt that they will in the near future, and we can imagine they could then become the TV channels of the future, but without the cost of having to pay the rightfull copyright owners and producers, and that is the key issue... for a low cost product this could be a great showcase for your product, that could be financed with sponsors, but for a big production it is not feasible.

From the POV of the licensers: This is an even more curious case. Licenser is the person or company that buys the rights for a specific type of product in one or more parts of the world. They buy the rights for books, videos, games, toys, etc. Here we have two groups, the owners of licenses for tv channels and home-videos, who naturally are completely against this type of broadcasting (Youtube, Emule, etc) because it goes directly against their bussines model, and the rest of the licensers who benefit from major exposition of the product since they will then sell more merchandise thus using the piracy as another way of no-cost advertising.

Conclusion: Seeing all of this, it seems that having a few (just a few!!!) episodes from our series in those non-official circuits (that could be called pirates) is in general a positive thing, but I am saying this for our series, which has more than 100 episodes and gets more profits from merchandising than from TV licenses. For any other audiovisual product, we have to stop and think if we are benefiting or hurting them, and in 99% of the cases it is hurting, not benefiting.

In any case, having a few episodes of Pocoyo in low resolution, like in Youtube, if we put it on a scale, and if it´s not all, but a few, it could be more positive than negative, but that is not always the case with all products, as I just said. I am not encouraging you to put any more episodes in Youtube, but the ones that are there, are ok there, let's use them to get more people interested in the series.

Any opinions?

What Pocoyo is all about...

These are the values we have used to design Pocoyo, from the beginning these have been our references whenever we have had any doubts or when we have thought about the direction of the series.  They might seem a bit presumptuous, but they are our guide… This post might be a bit boring.  It is not that we are this “profound” all the time (the exact opposite!) but it might be of interest to some of you to know about the pillars on which we have built our series.

A universe of human values. The concept of Pocoyo goes way beyond the screen, reaching out into the lives of children, parents and carers, and promoting a philosophy of curiosity, openness, interest, understanding, tolerance, respect and love which we believe are all fundamental human values.

Quality means confidence. To ensure longevity of the concept, the optimum quality of production values in the series has to be reflected in every application of the Pocoyo brand: innovative and imaginative products for children and adults that can be trusted and that contribute to the development of children. 

Something to be proud of. We want parents and carers to be proud of the choices they have made for the children. Pocoyo represents an aspirational ideal, the kind of world they would love their kids to experience and discover, and one they will want to share with family and friends.

Pocoyo is just like them. Pocoyo is a child just like any other, he often laughs, he sometimes cries, and he loves playing and having fun, but he also represents the child in all of us and the child we would all like to be. He lives in a world of magic and imagination, surrounded by his friends, and with limitless opportunities to discover new and exciting things– who wouldn’t want that for their kids?

Memories are a gift for life. From day one, we hoped that Pocoyo would become a lasting and treasured memory for children. The timelessness of the concept, the universality of the ideas and the spirit of the characters themselves make these stories that can be told, remembered, and enjoyed time and time again.

Learning how to learn. Pocoyo is more about learning how to learn than about teaching specific lessons. We open the door to a universe of happiness and laughter where anything can happen as Pocoyo and his friends discover everything around them, making children want to do the same in their own world.

Expressing every emotion. Pocoyo himself, his friends and the other characters he meets and gets to know all have one thing in common: you can immediately see, understand and appreciate. All of our soft, touchable and huggable characters are highly expressive, emotional and demonstrative, letting children truly feel what they feel.

The next level in interactivity. Thanks to simple and powerful images which provide a feast for the eyes, characters you can reach out and touch, catchy and upbeat music that makes you want to get up and dance, and studied use of narration to clarify and convey meaning, Pocoyo sets a new standard in interactivity, getting viewers to really relate to our characters and become part of their world.

Icons for new generations.  Visual simplicity and modernity, catchy, upbeat melodies that have true hit potential, and ideas that inspire and delight make Pocoyo the ideal concept to create a living world of shapes, forms and objects which is just as colourful, bright and powerful as the one on screen. Designs and music that adapt seamlessly to any kind of application – books, multimedia, didactic toys and more – retaining and adding to their meaning and potency. The universal nature of Pocoyo also has the power to appeal across generations and reach segments beyond the core target.

A universe without limits.  The only limit is that of our imagination: anything that exists today, may exist tomorrow, or can be conceived in our wildest dreams has a place in Pocoyo’s world. The freedom that this confers means Pocoyo is endless in both possibilities and time – as long as there are things to be discovered, new friends to meet and stories to be told, Pocoyo will be there to share them with children and their parents for years to come.

And, of course, Pocoyo is the most fun ever!. Pocoyo makes kids laugh out loud, sing and dance, jump up and down, squeal with surprise, and want to see more and more of our little star and his friends. We want Pocoyo to be a synonym for wholesome, responsible and fun entertainment and to become the icon of choice for not just one new generation, but for one after another.

Pococuriosities: Clown

One of the characters who didn´t make it to the series was this clown.  “Payaso” or “Clown” (we never gave him a name) was going to be a secondary character.  He had a very serious disposition, with his long arms and legs and his huge hands and exaggerated expressions.  He carried a suitcase full of the most incredible things! 

Granada and CITV rejected him from the start saying that he was too adult a character.  We fought against this (as always! :-D), and we even went to the point of doing more infantile designs, getting rid of the skinny legs and resolving other problems.  To be honest now, when I look at him, his appearance doesn´t really fit well with the other characters in the series, so I think we made the right decision … “Clown” does have his funny points though, have you seen his inflatable black and white rubber ring and his tie?! … You never know, they might become fashionable one day!