Press
Centre
Press Release
FOX Kids Europe announces partnership with
UNICEF to promote girls' education
· Fox Kids Europe dedicates global kids’
football tournament, Fox Kids Cup, to support UNICEF’s
Go Girls! Education for Every Child campaign
· Fox Kids Europe and UNICEF to campaign for
disadvantaged children in poor countries
AMSTERDAM, LONDON, 5 February 2003 - Fox Kids
Europe N.V. (FKE) (AMEX: FKE; Reuters: FOXK.AS; Bloomberg:
FKE.NA), the leading pan-European integrated children’s
entertainment company, today announced a partnership with
UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund) to promote
UNICEF’s Go Girls! Education for Every Child campaign
via the Fox Kids Cup, FKE’s global six-a-side football
tournament for boys and girls under 13 years of age.
The Go Girls! campaign is a major part of UNICEF’s
initiative to get girls into school in 25 priority countries
by 2005.
FKE and UNICEF will work together on a series of promotional
initiatives throughout the five-month build-up to the
Fox Kids Cup international final, which will take place
in the Netherlands during June 2003. All children participating
in the Fox Kids Cup will be asked to collect pledges from
spectators, fans and friends in support of girl’s
education and UNICEF’s Go Girls! campaign. The pledge
outlines what it takes to ensure every child has the best
possible education. Fox Kids channels and online divisions
across Europe, the Middle East and the affiliate Latin
America channel will also promote the campaign on a local
basis. UNICEF is also working closely with national governments
on the campaign.
The Fox Kids Cup 2003 event will be the biggest in its
history with an expected participation of more than 200,000
players from 20 or more countries around the world. Each
participating country will host tournaments in association
with national football federations or schools’ associations.
The tournaments will commence in February 2003 and will
take place in more than 130 cities around the world.
FKE and UNICEF first teamed up last year to promote
Say Yes for Children, a campaign in which over 94 million
people pledged support for ten basic principles to protect
and improve the lives of children. The Go Girls! Education
for Every Child builds on the results of Say Yes for Children,
which identified education as the top global priority.
Marjorie Newman-Williams, Director of the Division of
Communication, UNICEF says: “Across the world, football
has positively shaped and changed young lives by simply
upholding children’s right to play. This partnership
gives us the chance to spotlight the right to education
as fundamental to every child’s development. Every
effort to get a girl into school is one that helps to
safeguard not only her future but also that of an entire
generation of girls and boys.”
Shari Donnenfield, Executive Director of Research and
Marketing, Fox Kids Europe and Fox Kids Cup, says: “We
are delighted to be working in partnership with UNICEF
once again in supporting the Go Girls! campaign. UNICEF’s
commitment to sport and children makes it the ideal partner
for the Fox Kids Cup and we hope that the Cup will provide
the ideal vehicle for UNICEF to reach out to thousands
of children around the world and mobilise them to support
other kids less fortunate than themselves.”
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About UNICEF’s Girls’ Education campaign:
UNICEF’s ‘25 by 2005’ campaign is a major
initiative to eliminate gender disparities in primary
and secondary education in 25 priority countries by the
year 2005. The campaign, which includes fifteen countries
in Africa and Asian countries such as Afghanistan and
Bangladesh, focuses on countries where girls’ education
is in a critical situation and progress would make a real
impact.
UNICEF will work closely with national governments and
other partners to identify girls who are not in school.
In each country, UNICEF will work with the government
to mobilise new resources, build broad national consensus
about the need to get girls to school, and help improve
schools themselves to make them more welcoming to girls.
UNICEF has chosen a manageable number of countries and
based its selection on criteria that looked for countries
with one or more of the following: low enrolment rates
for girls; gender gaps of more than 10% in primary education
enrolment; countries with more than one million girls
out of school; countries included on the Education For
All Fast Track initiative; and countries hard hit by a
range of crises that affect school opportunities for girls,
such as HIV/AIDS and conflict.
For further information please contact:
Allison Hickling,
UNICEF New York, (212) 326-7224, ahickling@unicef.org
About Fox Kids Europe N.V.:
Fox Kids Europe N.V. (FKE) is the leading pan-European
integrated children’s entertainment company with
localised television channels, programme distribution
and consumer products businesses. FKE’s business
lines are driven by a localised approach and its ownership
of one of the largest and most recognised libraries of
children’s programming in the world, which includes
approximately 6,300 episodes. FKE is listed on Euronext
Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
Channels
FKE produces and broadcasts television channels for
children aged 2-14. The content of each is tailored specifically
to the local audience in each market, taking into account
viewing habits, popularity of programmes, parental sensitivities
and cultural trends. Fox Kids channels are currently broadcasting
via cable and satellite to 56 countries, reaching more
than 32 million households in 17 languages. FKE’s
main markets include the UK, the Netherlands, France,
Germany, Poland, Spain, the Nordic Region, Romania, Turkey,
Italy, Russia and Israel.
FKE also offers interactive TV games channels, ‘Fox
Kids Play’, in France and Israel and operates 17
localised websites for the Netherlands, the UK, Germany,
France, Israel, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Norway,
Italy, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Czech Republic
and Slovakia.
Programme Distribution
FKE owns one of the largest libraries of children’s
programming in Europe. Programming from its library is
distributed via Buena Vista International Television to
more than 120 different terrestrial, cable and satellite
channels in over 50 markets across Europe and the Middle
East. This library includes major global programming franchises
such as Power Rangers, Spiderman, X-Men, Inspector Gadget
and Goosebumps. The rights for most of the titles in the
FKE library cover all markets in Europe and the Middle
East and include many forms of media.
Consumer Products
FKE’s consumer product activities include toys,
merchandising and home videos sold in 30 European countries.
FKE is present in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain
and Benelux and also retains third party agents in other
European markets. FKE’s consumer product properties
are sourced from the FKE library and include properties
such as Power Rangers and Inspector Gadget as well as
third party agreements for properties such as Digimon,
Medabots and Totally Spies.
For further details and information about the latest
Fox Kids Europe press releases:
- Fox Kids Europe N.V. announces audited results for
the fifteen months ended September 30, 2002 and unaudited
results for the year ended June 30, 2002
December 18, 2002
- Fox Kids Europe appoints Bruce Steinberg as new Chief
Executive Officer
December 17, 2002
- Fox Kids Europe launches Fox Kids Cup 2003
January 3, 2003
Louise Drabwell
Corporate Communications Department
Fox Kids Europe Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7554 9000
Fax: +44 (0)20 7554 9144
Email: Louise.Drabwell@foxkidseurope.com
Website: or www.foxkidscupinfo.com
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