Paramount Consumer Products (formerly Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products, then ViacomCBS Consumer Products) is the retailing and licensing division of Paramount Skydance Corporation. The department is in charge of merchandising for Paramount-owned brands. As of 2015, the division was valued at $3 billion.[4]
While the company manages merchandise for the entire Paramount portfolio (including Paramount Pictures and Comedy Central), its main focus is Paramount's children's television brand, Nickelodeon. Most of its products are based on TV shows that originated on the network, as well as properties that they purchased and incorporated into Nickelodeon, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Winx Club.[5] From 2007 onward, the division's most profitable property has been SpongeBob SquarePants.[6]
According to an article in The Chicago Tribune, Paramount Consumer Products takes "an unconventional approach to licensing" where the company waits up to two years after a show's premiere before releasing tie-in merchandise. This is in contrast to competitors like Disney Consumer Products, which generally release products to coincide with a premiere.[7]
History
1990s and 2000s
Logo and toys from when the company was known as Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products
Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) was founded in 1991.[1] At first, it was a subdivision of Nickelodeon Enterprises,[8] a business unit set up to license Nickelodeon's properties to other companies.[a]
One of the division's first profitable franchises was Rugrats, which the News & Record called Nickelodeon's "first big splash in consumer products."[9] Merchandise sales for Rugrats peaked at over $1 billion in 1999.[9] The following year, NVCP released merchandise spun off from Blue's Clues, which also garnered over a billion dollars in revenue.[9]
SpongeBob SquarePants represented the "company's biggest surprise" when tie-in products were first released in the early 2000s. Revenues from SpongeBob items exceeded Nickelodeon's expectations by over $250 million. At first, merchandising companies were hesitant to produce merchandise based on the show, and they "underestimated consumers' emotional connection" with it. By 2003, however, there were over 100 companies that were licensed to use the SpongeBob brand.[9]
Shows like SpongeBob helped Nickelodeon Enterprises (the branch of Nickelodeon that included NVCP) become Viacom's fastest-growing asset in the early 2000s.[10] In 2003, Nickelodeon's consumer products arm generated $2.5 billion in sales, which marked a 19 percent increase from the year before.[7] Meanwhile, the sales of the company's main competitors (Disney and Warner Bros.) were both flat compared to the previous year.[7]
In late 2003, the division experimented with creating a pair of new properties that were not based on TV characters. These "off-channel" brands were the video game franchise Tak and the Power of Juju and everGirl, a doll line and website designed to promote a positive self-image for girls.[11]everGirl was co-created by Angela Santomero (one of the creators of Blue's Clues)[12] and its development was overseen by Leigh Anne Brodsky,[12] who went onto become the president of NVCP from 2004[13] to late 2011.[14]
Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products took over Paramount Pictures' licensing activities in 2004, relocating all operations to New York.[15] Paramount, which is Viacom's film division, had previously managed licensing from its own Hollywood offices. Three years later, Paramount regained its own licensing division in Hollywood with the foundation of a separate department called Paramount Licensing.[16]
In 2007, NVCP named Jakks Pacific as the master licensee for SpongeBob SquarePants, continuing a long partnership between the two companies.[17]
2010s
Entrance to the Nickelodeon Store in London
Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products appointed Michael Connolly, a former Disney Consumer Products executive, as head of international consumer products in 2010. In the following years, Connolly helped relaunch two brands that Viacom had purchased: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Winx Club. Connolly said that TMNT represented an opportunity to appeal to collectors and the "comic book geek crowd" while Winx Club provided Nickelodeon "with a much-needed girl's property."[5] One of Nickelodeon's top priorities for 2012 was to reboot both franchises worldwide; Kidscreen reported that the company had "international plans to make a splash at retail with the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Winx IPs."[18]
In 2012, Connolly suggested that Viacom's consumer products had been decreasingly relevant to the public for several years, and that he hoped the introduction of the toyetic brands TMNT and Winx Club would change this.[5] Connolly also stated that SpongeBob toys did not sell as well as other non-toy products based on the franchise:
While SpongeBob is a great franchise, it has never been a heavy-hitting toy aisle property. With TMNT, that's all about to change, and buyers believe that TMNT will re-invigorate the toy aisle. Winx [Club] puts us more prominently in the girl's aisle and offers wider opportunities.[5]
From 2013 to 2015, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products started to open Nickelodeon-branded stores worldwide, including a flagship location in Leicester Square, London.[19] Around 80 percent of the stores' merchandise was exclusive; Nickelodeon opened an online e-commerce site at NickelodeonStore.co.uk so that international fans could buy it.[20] By 2016, NVCP had opened twelve different Nickelodeon stores.[21]
Following the 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) was renamed ViacomCBS Consumer Products (VCP), and it began to manage merchandise for CBS-owned properties from CBS Television Studios and Showtime. As a result, CBS Consumer Products was integrated into VCP.[22]
Skydance Interactive (formerly known as The Workshop Entertainment) is a game division which was launched on May 5, 2016.[26][27][28] It focuses on developing ambitious titles, managing projects licenses with other developers, and developing software innovative game mechanics as well as for VR and emerging platforms.
In May 2017, Chris Hewish was hired as EVP Interactive help to set and execute overall strategy for Skydance Interactive, and oversee development, partnerships, and new business opportunities.[29] On July 18, 2017, its first VR game, Archangel was launched. The game recently expanded into an online multiplayer upgrade, Archangel: Hellfire.[30] Two days later, Skydance Interactive revealed their second original game called PWND, an multiplayer free to play game released on April 6, 2018, where players use Pwns to win.[31]
In 2018, Skydance Interactive partnered with Skybound Entertainment to develop a number of original virtual reality video games based on the expansive world of The Walking Dead universe.[32]The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution were to be the inaugural titles co-developed by the two companies. In 2023, they also published a Final Cut version of Arashi: Castle of Sin developed by Endeavor One and was released on December 5, 2023 on next-generation virtual reality consoles.[33]
Skydance New Media is a video game development studio founded by Skydance on November 18, 2019, led by Amy Hennig.[35]
In October 2021, the studio announced a planned collaboration with Marvel Entertainment for an action-adventure game.[36] In April 2022, it was announced that Lucasfilm Games would collaborate making a game based in the Star Wars universe. There has been speculation that the game will be a revival of Project Ragtag which was also led by Henning.[37][38]
In August 2022, Marvel's parent corporation The Walt Disney Company announced their intentions to showcase a slate of video games based on their IP at the joint Disney & Marvel Games Showcase. It would happen in conjunction with the company's annual D23 Expo in person and through broadcasts on multiple streaming platforms.[39] Along with the announcement, Disney said that the panel would also debut a "sneak peek" at Skydance New Media's Marvel title, which is described as being an "ensemble game".[40][41] During the showcase on September 9, 2022, the Marvel project confirmed prior reports that it would be set during World War II. Also Captain America and Azzuri / Black Panther will be featured as the main characters in the ensemble, alongside Gabriel Jones of the Howling Commandos unit and Nanali, leader of the Wakandan Spy Network, while the Hydra organization would serve as the main villains.[42][43][44] In March 2024, during the showcase of State of Unreal, the project was revealed to be titled Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra with the game being powered by Unreal Engine 5. Release is slated for 2026.[45]
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