Pierre Belaïsch

April 2008

With its four networks—Canal J, Tiji, Filles TV and Gulli—Lagardére Active has become the dominant player in the French kids’ channel business. In the cable and satellite landscape, young viewers can start out by watching Tiji, progress to Canal J as they head into their tween years, and then Filles TV retains the teen girl audiences with its slate of older-skewing fare. Gulli, meanwhile, a venture with France Télévisions, has expanded Lagardére’s kids’ expertise into the free-TV landscape as the sole children’s channel available on digital terrestrial television. Pierre Belaïsch, the deputy general manager for Pole Jeunesse at Lagardére Active, tells TV Kids about his programming strategy.

TV KIDS: How do you differentiate the Canal J and Tiji brands?

BELAÏSCH: Canal J is the mother of all the other networks. It is really about kids, boys and girls, from 4 to 12, and humor oriented, mischievousness oriented. Tiji, meaning the little sister of Canal J, is about kids under 7 talking about discovering the world. We have a lot of shows in 3-D; it’s very smooth, very gentle, lively, strong colors, with shows such Noddy and soon SamSam.

TV KIDS: How are you positioning Filles TV?

BELAÏSCH: By 2003 we were having a lot of live-action shows [on Canal J], such as Sister, Sister; Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; Two of a Kind; and a lot of animation co-productions, such as Martin Mystery, Titeuf, Cédric, and a lot of teenage girls were saying, We’re getting so sick of your [childish] animation shows! So the decision we made was to create a network that would be dedicated to girls from 12 to 18—Filles TV was born in September 2004. From a strategic standpoint, because we want to have more advertising revenues and enlarge the target [audience], we have decided to transform Filles TV from a station for young girls to a station for young women, around 15- to 30-years old.

TV KIDS: And now you have a free-to-air channel with Gulli.

BELAÏSCH: We had to compete against all the big networks in France to get the frequency and be able to create a national kids’ channel on DTT. It was strong competition—there was only one frequency granted. So we worked really hard to be chosen by the CSA [Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel]. We went with France Télévisions [as a partner with a 34-percent share]. Gulli launched in November 2005 as the first free-to-air kids’ station. I would say it has a larger kids target, 4 to 15, with live-action, animation and magazine shows. And then we created new packaging in the evening. We revamped the visual identity of the station from 7 p.m. through 11:30 p.m to address the whole family. We have documentaries through a deal with National Geographic Kids. From our cooperation with France Télévisions we have L’Instit, which means The Teacher. We have family game shows such as Fort Boyard and In ze boite (meaning In the Box), an exclusive game show created only for Gulli, targeting both kids and their parents.

What you have to bear in mind is that only 25 to 30 percent of the population in France can subscribe to Canal J or Tiji or Disney or Cartoon Network. That was the reason it was so critical for us to get the [DTT] frequency, because it means there would be only one [free TV] station for kids.

TV KIDS: Would you consider taking the strong brand recognition of your channels into the global market?

BELAÏSCH: It’s a question that we have [been asked] for years and years. I wish we could, and we are thinking about it, but we wouldn’t do it alone. A lot of markets are saturated. For instance, I would never [launch a new kids’ channel] in the U.K.—it’s impossible. The U.S., Germany, they are all pretty saturated. Maybe there would be some opportunities in [Central and Eastern] Europe or the Middle East.

TV KIDS: How are you extending the various brands into new media?

BELAÏSCH: We have started video-on-demand services for Canal J, Tiji and Filles TV, and now we’re launching Gulli video on demand (in the first quarter). We also are on mobile with CanalSat and we have more and more acquisitions and productions only for the website. For Filles TV, we acquired on an exclusive basis a show called Prom Queen [from Michael Eisner’s Vuguru digital-media studio]. We launched it on the Filles TV website and then it will air in a 7-minute format on Filles TV. It’s really doing well. It has been heavily screened and it encourages us to do some more [web acquisitions]. That’s what we’ll do as of next fall, with a new show, a short format that will be put first on the website, and then after that, on the air.