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KiKANiNCHEN
company that sells our
programmes, and the money is
then put back into the
programming budget. But it’s only
a small part of our funding.
This is a great luxury…
Yes, we are very aware of this. We
are very aware of what we’re doing
and how the money is spent. After
15 years working for a children’s
channel, I can say that our staff put
a lot of thought and creativity into
every minute of the programmes
they produce. It takes special
people to work for children’s TV,
and it’s great to work with them.
What do you offer in terms of
interactivity?
We are experimenting with
interactive TV, but at present we
don’t have a live TV show which
allows children to interact live on a
second screen via laptop, tablet or
phone. We are also in the process of
updating our website. We hope to
offer live programmes which
children can interact with and give
us their feedback on, and to which
we can reply.
Where is children’s TV going?
We know there is a complete
audience change‐over every five to
10 years as children grow out of the
target group. A lot of programmes
are classics and can be broadcast
over and over again because they
don’t lose their appeal. At the
centre, there’s good story telling.
But the way we tell the stories
needs to be looked at: is it still
appropriate for this day and age?
Do we have to change the style or
topics? We also have to adapt to
the way viewers want to consume
moving images.
So we keep track of what’s
happening in the movies, on
YouTube or on the internet. Some
stories can be adapted to various
media platforms, some can’t. But
different media platforms
enhance our potential to tell
stories in different ways.
What are your priorities for the
next two years?
I think we have to stay close to
children’s realities and keep on
dealing with topics which are
important to them. Gaming is one
example. Digital games are such a
huge part of children’s lives, and
it’s not happening in our
programmes right now. We have
to think about ways we can take
this gaming aspect on board when
we tell stories.
Our next priority is to widen
our cross‐media appeal. We want
to improve our internet presence
and provide children with the
opportunity to interact with their
favourite programme.
Then we want to enter into a
dialogue with parents, teachers and
educators: the activities of public
broadcasters should be made more
transparent, so people know what
they pay for.
We want to share our
knowledge about our target
audience and discuss questions
such as ‘how much time should
my child spend in front of the TV
set or a games console’? We have a
lot of expertise in‐house and are
ready to pass on this knowledge to
the people who need it and those
who finance us.
Michael Stumpf, thank you.
www.kika.de
THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 1 2014
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25
