By Mark Seavy

Faced with a highly fragmented audience and a heavier reliance on well-established IPs, licensing programs for new children’s content are facing more challenges than ever.

It’s not necessarily a new trend, but one that has recently picked up speed as YouTube, creators, influencers, and streaming services increasingly compete with the likes of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network as the conduits for new content. And Kidscreen Summit, once a launchpad for new content, was discontinued by parent company Brunico Communications.

That shift is forcing content owners and producers to take a more “holistic” approach that builds engagement across platforms to create long-term brand affinity, said Josh Scherba, President and CEO at WildBrain. WildBrain is home to properties like Strawberry Shortcake, In the Night Garden, and Teletubbies, which marks its 30th anniversary next year and is launching a new licensing program at Licensing Expo.

“The biggest shift we’ve seen is the fragmentation of the content ecosystem,” Scherba said. “Where kids’ entertainment once relied on a relatively small number of broadcast gatekeepers, today’s audiences are discovering content across YouTube, FAST, and AVOD. It creates both opportunity and challenge for new IPs. On one hand, there are more routes to reach audiences than ever before. On the other, there’s far less centralized scale and budget to fuel the awareness needed to propel licensing programs.”

These changes in the content distribution landscape have made it a “heavier lift” for new IPs to get the exposure needed to support a licensing program, said Kristin Lecour, Vice President of Consumer Products at the production company 9 Story Media Group. 9 Story was acquired by Scholastic Corp. in 2024, five years after it agreed to distribute 460 half-hours of classic animated and live-action content from Scholastic Entertainment.

That acquisition enabled the combined 9 Story and Scholastic to establish itself as a “one-stop shop” for children’s content, Lecour said. And while 9 Story remains free to produce and distribute content outside Scholastic, for the time being it is focused on the publisher’s portfolio. This includes a reboot of Clifford the Big Red Dog in 2027 featuring 26 new 11-minute episodes on PBS that will likely draw from an existing base of about 20 licensees.

Meanwhile, 9 Story is relaunching Super Why!, which debuted in 2007 on PBS Kids. The company began laying the groundwork for a return with the release of three-minute episodes of Super Why! Comic Book Adventures in 2023 and seven-minute versions last year. Super Why! has a small number of licensees, including Really Big Coloring Book.

Yet 9 Story is also shifting some distribution emphasis to YouTube (including the Paris Hilton-inspired Paris & Pups) and is also seeking distribution for one of Scholastic’s lesser-known IPs, author Maddy Mara’s Dragon Girls book series that debuted in 2022 and has released 18 titles.

“Digital platforms have changed the equation,” Scherba said. “You can now launch, test and grow content directly with audiences, particularly on YouTube and FAST, where engagement data provides real-time feedback and can help build momentum organically. From a licensing perspective, that means programs are increasingly being built off demonstrated audience engagement rather than upfront broadcast reach. It may take longer to reach critical mass, but when it happens, it’s often more data-driven and globally scalable.”

Yet scale remains a challenge, especially in the case of new IPs.

For example, former Topps executive Ira Friedman’s Craniacs collectibles recently released a third trading card series in February and has a licensing agreement for comics with Titan Publishing. But it signed a development agreement with animation production studio Titmouse Inc. in 2024 and continues to search for distribution.

“Streamers are not as ubiquitous as they were and children are watching on YouTube,” said Friedman, who launched Craniacs with Garbage Pail Kids trading cards designer Joe Simko. “There are still children looking for content and new things getting on air, but it is a challenging proposition to get distribution. These are home-grown IPs and there is only a certain number of slots available and money to spend on bringing a new show to air. We are going at a very organic pace, and we are looking for our IP to heat up in a natural way and licensing is an important part of the strategy.”