Childrenas
consumers
don’thave
much
disposable
incomebut
theyare
tomorrow’s
citizens
going to watch it. Most kids are at
school all day. Kids’ TV before or
after school is part of their treat. If
they get home from school and the
kids’ TV on their TV is like being
back in the classroom they are
going to reject it. If it is fun and
entertaining and has some
educational element, they are going
to watch it. It has got to be
entertainment‐led.
What are your recent projects?
In November we launched Zuku
Kids in Kenya, broadcast out of
Nairobi to sub‐Saharan Africa for
Pay‐TV platform Wananchi.
Hannelie Bekker who is MD of
Content at Wananchi asked our
company PR Media Consulting to
help devise and launch their new
channel – so we were involved in
designing, marketing and
positioning the channel, as well as
acquiring all the content and doing
the scheduling. Zuku Kids is the
first custom‐designed 24/7
children’s channel in Africa and
offers local African content as well
as Western content from
Hollywood studios. It has been a
great project to work on.
We are also a content creator
which is a very enjoyable part of
the business. We’ve been working
on three shows that are at different
stages of development.
What would you like to see happen
in kids’ TV?
I would like to see continuing
strong investment in children’s
content. It is very important that
broadcasters recognise the need to
invest in dedicated children’s
services because children as
consumers don’t have much
disposable income when they are
children but they are tomorrow’s
citizens. So sustained investment in
good quality programming and
seeing new talent learning the craft
skills as writers, performers and
animators is key to keeping kids’
TV fresh.
Paul Robinson, thank you.
CHILDREN’S TV
|
THE CHANNEL
“
or content serving their audience.
Any newcomers that we need to
watch?
There’s an interesting boys’ channel
called Megamax in Central Eastern
Europe owned by Chello which
covers Hungary, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
Another really interesting channel
which is growing and coming up is
Panda in Spain. It’s now also in
Portugal and could well be a
channel that could grow outside
Spain.
What are the trends?
Increasingly viewing is taking place
outside the main living room. The
challenge for children has always
been that they can only watch at
times when they have control of the
TV remote. What’s changing is that
kids now have access to all these
other screens, they are no longer
constrained by their parents
deciding what and when they can
watch. They are watching more
hours and in different locations.
That places greater responsibility on
the channels because it gets harder
and harder for parents to know
what their children are actually
watching.
So we are seeing more viewing
on other screens, we are also seeing
more viewing to non‐channel
services, in other words to streams.
Kids are very receptive to OTT
services, to internet streaming, and
will increasingly show loyalty to
programme brands as opposed to
channel brands. If a kid wants to
watch a show, they are not worried
what network it is on, they find that
show somehow on the internet and
stream it. That’s a big trend and a
big challenge for channel providers.
What content are kids looking for?
Children are becoming more
sophisticated so the shows are
becoming more complex, and the
writing more complex in terms of
the characterisation. Live action is
what older kids want and it’s more
challenging because of the cost
involved. In an animated show you
can imagine anything and you can
take your show anywhere you
want. But in a live action you have
to physically create the set, and
kids expect the same sort of quality
that they see in the movies.
What’s happening in the market is
that the overall cost of programmes
is going down so broadcasters want
to pay less for kids programmes.
It’s therefore important that shows
are made efficiently otherwise they
will never recoup their production
costs from their broadcast sales and
there won’t be enough money to go
round. That’s the real challenge.
The other thing I’d say is that there
is a trend towards commissioning
for short form. Kids tend to snack
on content, and often won’t stay
with a whole show.
Are there new favourite topics?
Nothing has changed there. Kids
the world over are characterised
more by their life stage than where
they come from. So stories based
around kids doing amazing things
or kids in school or kids in sport or
kids triumphing against evil, those
storylines will have resonance with
all kids. The challenge for content
creators is to come up with stories
that work globally. It is the only
way to make it work as a business.
Kids’ TV has that worthy
dimension…
Everyone who works in the kids’
business wants to make shows that
kids are going to like and that
parents are happy for their kids to
watch. But some shows are pure
entertainment while others clearly
have a more educational
entertainment brief. If you can
engage kids you can tell them
almost anything. So the most
important thing is always to have
great stories and great characters.
And if you have those you can then
weave in the education and
entertainment. If those initial
stories and characters aren’t strong,
it does not matter how much you
weave in, kids are probably not
THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 1 2014
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21
Twitter @PaulRobinsonPR
”
