FOX MAKING BUDGET VIDEOS BASED ON KIDS' SHOWS, BOOKS.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

20th Century Fox will launch a budget line of children's videos in late July under its new Fox Kids Video label, including characters from Dr. Seuss, Garfield and the Incredible Hulk.

Nine of the videos will be priced at $5.98 while the remaining 14 will be sold for $9.98. The rollout will be backed by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, aimed at mothers age 25 to 54, with premiums such as mini-comic books, stickers and removable tattoos and a ``Coolest Kid on the Planet'' contest.

Many of the titles will come from the Fox Kids Network TV block of programming, including ``The Tick,'' ``Spider-Man,'' ``Life With Louie,'' ``Where's Waldo?'' ``Bobby's World'' and ``Iron Man.'' Other titles include ``Raggedy Ann & Andy,'' and the ``Fantastic Four.'' Dr. Seuss titles will include the stories of the ``Cat in the Hat,'' ``Green Eggs and Ham'' and the Grinch.

The Fox titles will be entering an increasingly competitive market for children's home video, currently dominated by Walt Disney Co. ``We are committed to making the Fox Kids Video the No. 1 brand in nontheatrical children's video,'' said Bob DeLellis, president of Fox Home Entertainment.

Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research of Carmel, said Fox's decision to launch the new brand makes sense because videos targeted at families with children have been strong performers in recent years.

``Almost anything that has been turned into videocassettes in the family area has had pretty good success,'' he said. ``I suppose there's an upper limit on the amount that can be sold but there's no sign we're approaching that yet.''

The analyst also said the home video market has plenty of room to grow, with consumers becoming increasingly interested in owning videos rather than merely renting them. Consumer spending on rentals rose 1 percent to $9.2 billion last year in the United States while home video sales increased 14 percent to $7.3 billion in 1996.

Adams estimates that Americans buy about 600 million home videos per year, compared with 1.5 billion books and 1 billion audio cassettes and compact discs. ``I don't believe the home video category is anywhere near saturation,'' he said.

Adams also said that if the Fox Kids videos are successful, he would expect Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon operation to take a similar step with its cartoons such as ``Rugrats'' and ``Doug.''