Billion-Dollar Babies

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Anne Becker]
Disney Channel’s Little Einsteins is one of the hottest preschool shows on TV. Disney’s bet on Little Einsteins reflects one of kids programmers’ highest hopes these days: Hook ’em early and keep them loyal as they grow. The TV series is the second act of the country’s most popular line of infant DVDs, Baby Einstein. Today, two out of every three mothers in the U.S. own a Baby Einstein product, and Disney executives project that the brand and its extensions will bring in $1 billion annually by 2010. Each of the Baby Einstein videos and DVDs is set to soft classical music, designed to “expose little ones” up to 2 years old to music, art and language through puppetry and film of real kids. With titles including Baby Mozart Musical Festival and Baby Van Gogh World of Colors, Einstein gained popularity with parents enchanted that their infants were mesmerized by symphonies. After spinning off Baby Einstein into some 500 consumer products from bath puppets to dessert plates, Disney is now putting its corporate muscle into making Little Einsteins a bankable phenomenon on television, using the same type of classical music and art to reach 2- to 5-year-olds and convince moms that TV can be good for kids. Disney has tripled the number of Baby Einstein video and DVD titles to 21 and sold more than 20 million units. To date, the Baby Einstein brand, stamped on books and products in 30 countries, has brought in more than $500 million. Disney hopes that Little Einsteins will command a chunk of the estimated $20 billion in annual worldwide retail sales of licensed products for preschoolers.
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