Licensed children's books have gained an increasingly high profile at the Bologna Book Fair, reflecting licensing's greater importance in the juvenile book industry throughout Europe. Licensed titles dominate children's bestseller lists in many European countries, as they do in the U.S.

Jean-Michel Biard, head of French agency V.I.P. Licensing, attends 20 to 25 trade shows a year to sell licenses, and five or six more to seek book properties for TV and licensing development. "The best fair of all is Bologna," he said, noting that he has taken a stand there for the last few years. "There's a lot [of licensing], more and more."

In the U.K., HIT Entertainment's Bob the Builder is licensed to BBC Publishing. Consumers have purchased 1.3 million copies of Bob's 26 book titles and buy 120,000 copies per month of magazines based on the preschool property, according to Tim Collins, HIT's director of consumer products.

Meanwhile, of the 10 bestselling children's books of 2000 in France, three were tied to Pokémon and one to a French film, Kirakou, with three other slots held by Harry Potter.

"We look to our film and publishing arms to lay the groundwork in a [foreign] territory," said Michael Harkavy, Warner Bros. Consumer Products v-p worldwide publishing, Kids WB! Music and interactive entertainment. "Because publishing is a medium similar to film or television or music, it really helps promote the brand and creates a presence. That makes it a driver. It is unique."

"[Publishing] gives year-round visibility in a variety of retailers," Collins added. "If parents see [a property] in book form, it gives it credibility."

Biard estimates that publishing typically accounts for at least 10% of a licensed property's total revenue in France. In the U.K., that percentage is usually lower. For Bob the Builder, publishing plays a significant role but represents less than 10% of licensing income, according to Collins.

Territorial Differences

Licensing strategies are usually consistent from country to country. "The trends are starting to become more similar than different," said Rita Rubin, senior v-p of international licensing at United Media, licensor of Peanuts, Dilbert and the Dutch literary property Miffy. As in the U.S., Europeans face a glut of new animation, a proliferation of TV channels, a preference for TV over film properties by most licensees and an increasing "sameness" in the properties available. European retailers are also similarly reluctant to support a TV-based license until it has been on the air for a year or two.

The strategy for taking a license into publishing depends on the characteristics of the property, the licensor's objectives and, especially, the broadcast schedule in a given territory. Biard noted that while he licensed the property Zorro, popular in both France and Spain, to six different companies for 20 titles, Disney chose to create a 50/50 joint venture with Hachette in Paris to handle all of its publishing in the same territory.

Licensing tactics across borders may vary depending on local tastes and shopping habits. "There are formats that are unique to different territories," said Michelle Kanter, director of published products for The itsy bitsy Entertainment Co., North American licensor of Teletubbies and other European properties. Hardcovers work better in some territories than others, while specialized formats may be unique to one region, such as foam books that snap onto the front of a stroller, an established preschool category in the U.K.

Harkavy pointed out that mass market coloring and activity books, a mainstay of U.S. licensed publishing, are a relatively new and slightly higher-priced category in the U.K. Monthly children's magazines, virtually nonexistent in the U.S., are a key children's product in Europe, while comic books account for 50% to 60% of children's publishing revenues in France. "The next Astérix [a classic French comic book], coming out in March or April, will sell three million books," Biard said. "Even Harry Potter is not selling that." On the book side, he added, "The Disney line is absolutely strong, the strongest by far."

Art styles sometimes vary from one territory to another, although licensors strive for brand consistency. Kanter said the new Teletubbies Baby artwork BBC Publishing is using in the U.K. looks different from Scholastic's in the U.S. "We've done more illustrated books [in the U.S.] than they have," Kanter said of Teletubbies. "They've done more photographic books."

Nancy Cushing-Jones, president of Universal Studios publishing rights, noted that the number of formats differs from country to country. In France, she said, it is typical to authorize a multibook program for a given property, while in less populated Scandinavia the same license would often generate just one or two titles.

Even if the same formats are licensed, distribution differs. In Italy, Spain and Portugal, kiosks and newsstands are important channels for licensed children's books and magazines, while hypermarkets account for the bulk of sales in France.

In the U.S., licensing tends to be a mass market rather than trade phenomenon. Suzanne Ross-Bain, a British licensing consultant, said the U.K. used to be similar. "[Licensing] was seen as more downstream," she explained. "But now mainstream publishers [such as Puffin and Collins] are achieving success with licensing. It's no longer considered a bad thing." She added that books tied to properties such as Pokémon are of increasingly high quality, which makes booksellers receptive.

Many U.S. properties that succeed in publishing at home do well in Europe, too, with the U.K., Germany and France typically the top three countries in terms of sales. But there are exceptions. Tom & Jerry, a Warner Bros. property that has not been licensed much in the U.S., is among the top licenses in the publishing category in Scandinavia and Russia, according to Harkavy, and was one of the first properties licensed into publishing in Europe by its then-licensor Turner Home Entertainment.

Pan-Europeanism

While pan-European licensing deals can be cost-effective for the licensee, they are not always viable. "When you talk socks or hats or toys, it doesn't matter; they can be sold across Europe," Biard said. "But in publishing, no."

"It can be done," Collins countered, explaining that the master licensee would normally publish co-editions with local publishers in territories where their distribution is weak. "It comes down to the strength of the publishers. Many countries have local publishers that are very strong."

A handful of houses are positioned as pan-European publishing licensees. One is Denmark-headquartered Egmont, which publishes licensed books and magazines for children and teens across Europe. It distributes in 20 countries and 30 languages and holds licenses for many American and European properties. Other licensees with Europe-wide capabilities include Germany's Carlsen Verlag and Italy's Panini, the latter for comics and sticker books.

Most territories host several local licensees. In Germany, for example, Dino Entertainment markets TV tie-in books, comics, magazines and merchandise in the German-language territories, as well as, more recently, in France and Italy. Nearly 100% of its list is licensed and includes Teletubbies drawing books, Simpsons children's translations, a German licensed line called Tiere, Freunde für's Leben (Animals, Friends for Life), magazines based on the local German property Pumuckl and merchandise for Harry Potter, The Simpsons and Digimon.

Kanter reported that itsy bitsy is trying to work more closely with all the publishers of a given property around the world (even when the agency only has North American rights). For example, rather than itsy bitsy and Scholastic looking at what BBC Publishing has already done with Teletubbies in the U.K., they are striving to come up with formats that will work in both countries. "Many things do translate," Kanter said. "If you can get in on the ground floor, in the development stage, that's key."

United Media has begun to store the film for its licensed titles in Denmark, which speeds the process of licensing and reduces costs for licensees. "That has helped us so much," Rubin said. When pitching licenses at Frankfurt or Bologna, Rubin has discovered that the film's physical presence in Europe helps make the sale.

Licensing Out

In Europe, literary properties are, more often than in the U.S., licensed into other merchandise categories, even without TV support. Book-based properties such as Babar and Astérix (France), Tintin (Belgium), Miffy (Netherlands), Pippi Longstocking (Sweden), Moomins (Finland), Beatrix Potter and Paddington Bear (both England) are among those licensed out. Some have TV support, but the books drive merchandise sales.

One recent example is The World of Roald Dahl. Publisher Puffin relaunched the author's books with new covers and a big marketing push; that was followed by a U.K. licensing program, handled by Ross-Bain, which will encompass greeting cards, CD-ROMs, toiletries, foods, ceramics, games and textiles. All will be branded under The World of Roald Dahl and will feature graphics based on Quentin Blake's illustrations from James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Twits and other titles. Sales of Dahl's books have exceeded 30 million copies in the U.K. and Commonwealth.

Enid Blyton's Noddy is another example. About 400 Blyton books are currently in print—out of 700 books and 10,000 short stories written by the author—with one-third featuring Noddy. Consumers have purchased more than 200 million Noddy books worldwide since 1949, and more than 75 licensees currently market all types of products, according to Ian Wallace, head of publishing at Chorion, the owner of Blyton's trademarks since 1996. HarperCollins publishes Noddy in the U.K.

Blyton's non-Noddy titles together have accounted for another 200 million units in sales. The most famous of her other series is The Famous Five, which has inspired a few licensed items, such as detective kits.

While these classics can spur licensing activity, publishers and licensors agree that newer properties, as in the U.S., need television support. "Nearly all characters and stories which are big in the Internet, TV and merchandise, you can also publish successfully," said Steffan Volkmer, Dino's press and PR manager. "But TV is the most important."

"If you want [a property] to be fairly significant in terms of revenue and return," concluded Collins, "you're going to have to look at other media, especially TV. If it's been around and loved long enough, you don't necessarily need TV to drive the program. But if you want it to be mass market, you do."