Wayne Dunsford

TV Kids Weekly, April
22, 2008

General Manager

JimJam

After nearly two decades
at the BBC, much of which was spent rolling out the pubcaster’s international
channels, Wayne Dunsford was tapped to begin developing a global network
strategy for kids’ programming giant HIT Entertainment. For HIT, the launch of
an international service for preschoolers seemed like the logical next step
following the company’s successful partnership in the U.S. for PBS KIDS Sprout.

“HIT had very clearly
decided that in terms of the future, they wanted to build on established
business practices by developing and having a stake in a channel of their own,”
Dunsford explains. The result was JimJam, a joint venture partnership with
Liberty Global’s Chellomedia division. First available in Italy, JimJam
expanded to Central and Eastern Europe in December 2007, and then Switzerland
and the Netherlands just this month. Most recently JimJam inked a deal to be
made available across the Middle East via pay-TV platform Showtime. Further
carriage agreements in Europe and Africa are due to be announced soon, and an
Asian rollout is envisioned for later in the year. Dunsford notes that the
channel’s distribution strategy is on target; a significant feat given the
challenges of the crowded kids’ channel landscape today.

“We are incredibly
realistic about the fact that we’re coming to the market quite late,” he says. “There
are a number of very well-established channels in the market. Needless to say,
we think we’ve got a sufficiently different proposition to make our efforts
worthwhile. We’ve got two such strong partners coming together. You’ve got
Chellozone and all of their experience in terms of scheduling, developing,
launching channels globally. And you’ve got HIT Entertainment, which is one of
the world’s leading independent producers of kids programming, with an amazing
library of preschool programming.”

Dunsford notes that HIT
will be granting JimJam exclusive pay-TV rights to its properties, allowing it
to maintain its significant free-TV partnerships worldwide. “With the size of
the library, and the variety of programs, there’s plenty of high-quality
programming to go around to suit all of the different parties.”

To help strengthen the
brand, JimJam is also looking to roll out a companion video-on-demand service
to cable and satellite platforms. “It’s unrealistic for a channel today to
launch without offering more than just the linear service,” Dunsford notes. “You
want to be able to offer something that justifies your fees and offers the
greatest possible choice for the viewer in terms of accessing your programming.
And preschool programming lends itself to repeat viewing of programs. The kids
really build up a relationship and a familiarity with the characters. They may
not always get that from just the linear service. Combined, these two elements
enable JimJam to offer parents and their children stimulation, interaction and
safe and familiar fun.”

Dunsford is counting on
the already well-established ties kids and families have to some of HIT’s top
properties, among them Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina
and Barney. Dunsford notes that
these “iconic brands open the door straight away to the discussions with the
cable operators. We want to build around those established brands and
accentuate them by adding in new programming to the schedule.”

—By Mansha
Daswani