Superheroes and supervillains, cutesy animals and karate-kicking kids - from Popeye to Scooby Doo, the latest U.S. television export to be pumped into worldwide circulation is children's programming.
Hoping to match the international success of the Cable News Network and MTV, the nation's top purveyors of children's shows are racing to expand into a still-developing global marketplace with more than $100 billion in potential revenue."In television there are four things that go across borders: music, news, sports and kids," said Jon Mandel, senior vice president of Grey Advertising. And "kids" represent the last competitive frontier.
In music videos, MTV has established itself as the world's leading name brand. CNN has done the same in news. And ESPN has become a global name in sports.
But when it comes to corralling children, the race is still wide open. Leading the way are the three domestic leaders: the Fox Children's Network, a unit of News Corp.; the Cartoon Network, whose parent is Turner Broadcasting System, the owner of CNN, and Nickelodeon, which like MTV is owned by Viacom Inc.
Though the first two have a built-in advantage, belonging to parent companies with extensive global distribution systems, Nickelodeon has the strongest brand name in children's programming here, with 100 hours a week on cable services.
As they branch out internationally, Nickelodeon and Fox are trying to create new shows with partners in other countries, while the Cartoon Network is relying more on its enormous library.
The race to become identified as the world's leader is only two or three years old, but all agree the key to winning - getting the most revenue from subscribers, advertisers and merchandising - will be finding the proper balance of American and locally tailored programming.
"Kids are kids and a blue dog is a blue dog," said David Levy, senior vice president of international advertising sales at Turner. "Nobody's going to say Huckleberry Hound is too American."
The Fox Children's Network, which broadcasts 19 hours of children's shows a week and dominates the domestic children's advertising market, has the distribution advantage of being part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. empire, which has satellite and cable outlets virtually around the world.
The Fox Children's Network has set up similar networks on Fox cable channels in Latin America and Australia, is negotiating for a 24-hour children's channel in Britain and has plans for elsewhere in Europe and Asia.
Last month Fox cemented a worldwide programming alliance with Saban Entertainment, the producers of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and "The X-Men." With 3,300 titles, Saban has one of the world's largest libraries of children's animated programming.
Many of the cartoons are co-produced in other countries for sale internationally, like "Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol," from China, or "Iznogoud," from France. Saban is also a worldwide leader in the merchandising of children's toys, videos and related products.
"In order to expand, we needed product," said Margaret Loesch, president of the Fox Children's Network, explaining the Saban alliance. "We could produce a library by ourselves, but it would have taken much more time and much more money. It would have delayed our jumping into the worldwide children's services business."
Loesch wants to create services like the Fox Children's Network - but on air for 12 hours a day - and not just sell individual shows or blocks of shows. And she wants the services to include local productions, too. "There's an arrogance in trying to push your programs on another culture," she said. "There has to be both."
The Cartoon Network, which in just three years has attracted 22 million subscribers in the United States, joined with Turner's TNT network to expand globally.
In Europe, where the dual network has 28 million subscribers, and in Asia (2 million), it shows cartoons by day and TNT's movies at night. In Latin America, where each network has its own 24-hour channel, the Cartoon Network has about 4.5 million subscribers.
Betty Cohen, president of the Cartoon Network and TNT International, said Turner's Hanna-Barbera-dominated collection of 8,500 cartoons already had worldwide appeal, because many of its luminaries - Bugs Bunny, the Flintstones, the Jetsons - had been sold abroad in syndication for years before Turner bought the studio in 1991.
"Our library was well known and well liked, and dubbing made it feel like it was from that country," she said. "I have a friend who grew up in Mexico and moved to the United States as an adult, where she was stunned to learn that Fred Flintstone could speak English."
That international appeal has been stymied a bit in France, where the government has so far refused to allow Cartoon-TNT onto any cable system; the network is available in some French homes via direct-to-home satellite.)
Nickelodeon, one of the most successful cable networks in the country, has taken a different approach. Though individual Nickelodeon programs are seen in about 70 nations, the company's strategy is to forge local partnerships and tailor programming country by country. So far, it has joint ventures in Britain, Germany and Australia.
"We're not pan-regional in concept," said Jeff Dunn, executive vice president for strategy and business operations. "Our mission is to create Nickelodeons around the world. It can't be Nickelodeon unless it really connects with kids and their own world. In the U.K., the challenge was to make British kids feel like it was THEIR Nickelodeon."
Nickelodeon U.K. developed a show in its London studio using "real-time" animation - computers make an animated character mimic its human "puppeteer" - enabling children to call in and talk to the show's host, Bert the Fish, and watch him respond to their questions or commands.
A computer-animated host also appears on Cartoon-TNT Europe, which is available in six languages (English, Spanish, French, Swedish, Finnish and Dutch). The host, a dog named Moxy, "chooses" the day's cartoons, telling tidbits of cartoon history as he introduces them.
Although the Cartoon Network has no co-production agreements, it uses ratings research to learn which cartoons are most popular in each region. In China, for example, to celebrate the end of the Year of the Dog, the network ran a 24-hour marathon of dog cartoons.
In Mexico and South America, where the Cartoon Network is two-and-a-half years old, marketing is in full swing, with a Cartoon Network magazine and candy, clothing and toy lines.
In addition, "Toon Tours" bring characters like Yogi Bear in costume to mall or arenas, where they perform and often sign up families for cable service.
The Cartoon Network differs from its rivals in that about one-third of its viewers, both at home and abroad, are adults.
Walt Disney Co. is a similar provider of family entertainment, and though its movies, home videos and toy products are known around the world, it has not been a leading global player in children's television.
But competitors expect that once Disney completes its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., the combined company will have both the distribution potential and the children's programming expertise to leap into the global race quickly.
Merchandising - one of Disney's strengths - will play a big part in how much money American television companies eventually make from their global forays. How much money is impossible to say with certainty; for one thing, advertising sales vary widely from region to region and can be a nightmare to coordinate.
But the domestic market is a guide. Retail sales of children's licensed products in the United States now represent a $100-billion-a-year business, according to Loesch of Fox.
Advertisers spend $750 million to $800 million nationally on children's television shows, with additional "spot" buying in local markets estimated to approach that figure.
"The rule of thumb has been, for every dollar you earn in kids' revenues in the U.S., you can earn a dollar from the rest of the world," Loesch said.
And while the home market is close to being saturated, many households in the rest of the world still await television - or at least cable or satellite delivery.