Hisense Strikes Licensing Deal for Toshiba TV Brand

Hisense strikes tentative 40-year licensing agreement for the rights to the Toshiba TV brand in buying 95% of Toshiba Visual Solutions Corp. for $114.4 million. Toshiba Corp., will control the remaining 5% of the company. The deal is expected to close by February, and comes as Hisense continues to battle with Sharp over the rights to the Sharp TV brand. Sharp sued Hisense earlier this year (Inside Licensing June 15) alleging Hisense “cut corners” on its Sharp-branded LCD TV line in failing to meet “the standard and quality” required under a 5-year license signed in 2015. Hisense, in a recent filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission, countered that Sharp had second thoughts about licensing its brand for the U.S. market and “began a multifaceted effort to recover or undermine the rights that Hisense acquired.” Indeed, the Trade Commission in September agreed to investigate Sharp’s complaint that Hisense is infringing its patents. Hisense has the rights for the Sharp TV brand for North, South and Central America.

Contact:

Hisense, Mark Viken, VP Marketing, 678-318-9060

Genius Brands’ Q3 Net Loss Narrows

Genius Brand International’s net loss in Q3 ended Sept 30 narrowed to $1.1 million from $1.5 million a year earlier as revenue more than doubled to $256,000. The increased revenue was driven by a 10% gain in licensing and royalties to $94,439 amid strong sales of SpacePop-related products. Television and home entertainment revenue rose more than 300% to $155,003 on strong sales of DVDs tied to Thomas Edison Secret Lab, Genius said. Deferred revenue also increased to $5 million from $3.1 million, including $3.4 million in payments from Sony, which has distribution rights for Genius programs. Genius recently completed post-production of the 30-episode Llama Llama series, which is slated to air on Netflix on Jan. 26. The bulk of licensing revenue for Llama Llama will come in late 2018 when the series expands to Nickelodeon, Genius has said (Inside Licensing Aug. 16). Genius also has started production on 52-episode Rainbow Rangers, which has Mattel as the master toy licensee.

Contact:

Genius Brands International, Andrew Heyward, CEO, 310-273-4203, andy@gnusbrands.com

‘Moon and Me’ Licensed Products to Launch in Fall 2018 in UK

Bento Box Entertainment’s “Moon and Me” preschool children’s series will launch late summer 2018 on Cbeebies in the UK with 20 episodes and a small number of licensed toys and books in the UK from Hasbro and Scholastic, says Andrew Kerr, of Bento Box’s Sutikki division. Hasbro and Scholastic will field less than a half-dozen SKUs, followed by another 12-15 items in spring 2019, says Kerr. The bulk of the merchandise – “Moon and Me” has more than 40 licensees in the UK – will arrive starting in late summer 2019, says Kerr.

The “Moon and Me” licensing program is Sutikki’s first since being launched as a Bento Box division in 2016. “We are conscious of not having too much product on shelf too early, particularly with a late summer launch,” says Kerr. “Moon and Me” will eventually have 50 22-minute episodes, starting with the initial 20 in late summer 2018 and another 12-15 that fall, says Kerr.

Contact:

Sutikki, Andrew Kerr, Partner, 647-389-0180, andrew.kerr@sutikki.com

Bon-Ton Closing At Least 40 Stores

Bon-Ton Stores will close at least 40 stores – which would be 15% of its total — through 2018 as it takes “aggressive action” to stem declining revenue, CEO Bill Tracy told analysts. Bon-Ton, which operates 260 locations, reported a $44.5 net loss in Q3 ended Oct. 28, up from $31.5 million a year earlier as revenue declined 7.6% to $545.3 million on a 6.6% drop in same-store sales. Many of the stores that will close are at the end of a lease or have “negative cash flows,” Chief Financial Officer Nancy Walsh said.  Bon-Ton is testing a new merchandise strategy that sharpens focus on private label brands at 10 stores with plans for expanding the format across the chain in first half 2018, Tracy said. Meanwhile, Bon-Ton says it’s “pleased” with the launch of FAO Schwarz shops in 186 locations as part of an agreement with ThreeSixty Group.

Contact:

Bon-Ton Stores, Nancy Walsh, Chief Financial Officer, 717-757-7660, nancy.walsh@bonton.com

EA Faces Backlash Over Star Wars Battlefront II In-Game Purchases

There is a “slightly higher probability” that sales of “Star Wars Battlefront II” won’t hit Electronic Arts’ forecast for 13 million units in the wake of the backlash over in-game purchases, KeyBanc Capital analyst Evan Wingren said Monday in a research note. EA late last week turned off the in-game purchase feature in the title in response to negative sentiment from gamers. The purchase allows players to save time by speeding the unlocking of major characters. While gamers were angered by having to buy additional features on top of those available with the title’s $60 purchase price, Wingren said they are being “under-charged.” Gamers are being charged about 40 cents per hour of entertainment based on them spending an additional $20 per month for micro-transactions and playing about 2.5 hours each day for a year, Wingren said. That compares to 60-65 cents for pay TV and 80 cents for a movie rental.  “If you take a step back and look at the data, an hour of video game content is still one of the cheapest forms of entertainment,” Wingren wrote in a research note. “Quantitative analysis shows that video game publishers are actually charging gamers at a relatively inexpensive rate, and should probably raise prices.”

Contacts

KeyBanc Capital, Evan Wingren, analyst, 800-314-9837

Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson, CEO, 650-628-1500