Hasbro vugo: SD card.
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SpongeBob SquarePods
Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network
Tailor Shows for Hasbro's Player
By CHARLES FORELLE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 14, 2005; Page B6
Coming soon to a toy video player near you: episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants."
The cable-TV channels Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have joined a parade of broadcasters experimenting with on-demand sales of shows. Each will offer several half-hour programs, including the one featuring Nickelodeon's popular animated sponge, for $2.99 a download.
The episodes will be tailored to work exclusively on toy maker Hasbro Inc.'s VuGo portable media player, a kind of video iPod for kids that began appearing on store shelves in recent weeks and sells for about $100 at discount retailers.
The two cable networks are following the lead of ABC, CBS and NBC, which in recent weeks have all signed on-demand purchase deals. Broadcasters and cable networks are eager to figure out a way to profit from an increasingly digital and mobile customer base amid fears that their traditional TV-based franchises are threatened by new technologies. As the prevalence of high-speed Internet connections grows, concern is increasing that shows will be recorded, stripped of commercials, and illegally distributed.
The VuGo effort represents a particular test for cable networks, whose episodes are shown in rotation, often reappearing numerous times during the course of a week and potentially limiting the appeal of a purchased download. SpongeBob, for instance, graced Nickelodeon's lineup 23 times between Friday and yesterday. Broadcast networks, on the other hand, have a hook: Miss an episode of "Desperate Housewives," and it's effectively gone until it's shown as a rerun many weeks or months later.
Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon and Time Warner Inc.'s Cartoon Network say kids have healthy appetites for collecting shows, often watching favorite episodes several times and then pestering their parents to buy the DVD version. A purchased download would simply represent another avenue of collection. "We are a content company. We are a brand company," says Steve Youngwood, a senior vice president for Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products.
Nickelodeon is also well aware of the risks digital media pose. "We know that most of our episodes, you could steal them," Mr. Youngwood says. "Here's giving them [viewers] a legal alternative to do what we know they are doing."
Mr. Youngwood's customers -- kids and "tweens," an amorphous age group somewhere between 8 and 12 -- are, like adults, taking their entertainment with them, Hasbro says. Hence the VuGo video player.
The toy maker's strategy is "taking products that exist in the adult world and downstreaming" them for a younger audience, says Jeff Jackson, a vice president at Hasbro's Tiger Electronics unit. The video-capable iPod from Apple Computer Inc. starts at $300, putting it out of many families' reach as a toy. Hasbro's approach is to strip out features and costs, converting a sleek and styled piece of consumer electronics into a less-elegant-looking toy.
The VuGo may be relatively cheap, but the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network shows are 50% more expensive than the TV shows that ABC allows people to download to their iPods and are generally half as long. Among the several that will be available starting today from VuGo.com are SpongeBob, "Unfabulous" and "Rugrats" from Nickelodeon; and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" from Cartoon Network. Kids will initially need mom's or dad's credit card to buy shows, though Hasbro says gift cards will be available next spring.
IPod fans won't mistake the VuGo for Apple's player. The VuGo is larger and heavier, and its case is purely plastic. The screen, at three inches measured diagonally, is slightly bigger than an iPod's, but it sports only half the number of pixels, or dots of color. The screen also uses a less-expensive technology that produces images that are less sharp than those offered by the iPod or most laptop screens, in which a tiny, individual transistor controls each pixel.
The VuGo also has only 128 megabytes of storage space, which Hasbro says is enough for 60 minutes of video on the player. (The smaller video iPod has 30 gigabytes, or about 240 times as much.) The VuGo's capacity can be expanded with standard flash-memory cards of the type used in digital cameras.
Hasbro has had some success with the "downstreaming" tactic, though it hasn't had a breakout hit toy in a couple of years. The VideoNow player, a low-function version of the personal DVD player often seen on the airplane tray tables of gadget-happy business travelers, had brisk initial sales. VideoNow featured some Nickelodeon programming on video discs, as well as clips by tween pop-music star Hilary Duff.
The VuGo player sports an additional feature not likely to receive plaudits from TV networks: a special cable that allows kids to record shows directly to it from a television, bypassing the purchased download. To do this, the user plugs the VuGo into the TV set and presses a red "record" button. "It's not our favorite feature," Nickelodeon's Mr. Youngwood says, adding that it will be "addressed" in "future iterations" of the product.
Hasbro's Mr. Jackson adds that the self-recorded shows are encrypted; only the player that recorded a show can play it back.
Write to Charles Forelle at charles.forelle@wsj.com1
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----------other info from hasbro site-----------
VUGO
The VUGO portable multi-media system allows tech-savvy tweens to have access to their favorite TV shows, music and photos all in one sleek and stylish hand-held media system - whenever they want and wherever they go! Each unit contains 128 MB of memory, enough to hold up to 60 minutes of video, six hours of music or over 1,200 digital photos! The VuGo player’s internal memory can be expanded with the use of a standard universal memory card (SD). Using their computers, tweens can create and customize a line-up of their favorite television programs, music videos and digital photos for future viewing on their VUGO player anytime, anywhere! Some of the hottest TV shows and most popular programming will be available for purchase at www.VUGO.com – the official download destination for all your VUGO needs! (Approximate Retail Price: $119.99; Ages: 8 & up; Available: November)
hasbro.com
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