Hanging Tough

From the established majors to up-and-coming independents, the global kids’ channels are relying on creative programming initiatives to remain fresh and relevant.

The big boys of the global kids’ channel space are all pushing 30—indeed, that’s a milestone that Nickelodeon passed last year. With maturity has come tremendous expansion: Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network all reach in excess of 160 territories. But as they have moved from being the new kids on the block to established majors, the international children’s channel brands have also had to adapt to a radically different landscape. In addition to facing competition from each other, Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and their sister kids’ brands, are up against strong local-market services like France’s Canal J and the U.K.’s CBBC, up-and-coming independents such as CBeebies, KidsCo and JimJam, and all the other things that can take up a child’s time, from video games to social-networking sites.

“You’re constantly trying to reinvent how to do everything you do better and smarter,” says Cecilia Persson, the VP of programming, acquisitions and presentation for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Turner Broadcasting. “That’s an ongoing challenge for all kids’ channels.”

STANDING OUT
The key, channel executives agree, is having a point of distinction that is reflected in all of your programming. “We are laser-focused on our brand identity and work hard to make sure all of our content supports our brand,” states David Levine, the VP of worldwide programming strategy, acquisitions and co-productions for Disney Channels Worldwide.

Levine notes that at the heart of Disney Channel’s strategy is delivering “fun, relevant programming that connects with kids and tweens—they feel it’s made just for them. The messages and themes in our content are always positive—express yourself, believe in yourself, follow your dreams and celebrate your family.” The Disney brand, Levine adds, means that the channel can “appeal to families as well.”

Reaching a broader audience is also important for Nickelodeon, says Jules Borkent, the senior VP of global acquisitions and international programming. “Research has shown that a lot of our shows now seem to be attracting a lot of co-viewing. We’re growing [our audience] a little broader, while not forgetting that we still are at our core a kids’ channel.”

For Cartoon Network, meanwhile, the “class clown” image still stands, Persson says, thanks to the channel’s slate of comedic animation. “It’s the channel you have fun with,” she notes. “Now, with Ben 10, we’ve added that adventure, fantasy aspect.”

Angling for its own piece of the pie, two-year-old KidsCo is positioning itself as the “fourth global network,” states Paul Robinson, the managing director. Launched in September 2007, KidsCo is now present in 85 territories.

“We’ve designed ourselves to be complementary to the existing channels,” Robinson says. “We have huge admiration for Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. What we’re trying to do is something different. We’re filling a gap in the market internationally, and this is for boys and girls six to ten. Overall, our strategy is to super-serve that audience with fantastic shows: family safe, no violence, no inappropriate content.”

Given the stiff competition for the 6-to-12 set, two upstarts, CBeebies and JimJam, are targeting a much younger demographic. “CBeebies uniquely targets just the preschool audience,” says David Weiland, the senior VP of programming at BBC Worldwide Channels, which has rolled CBeebies out to Asia, Australia, Latin America, the U.S. Hispanic market, Poland and Africa. The channel’s slate, Weiland continues, is designed to “stimulate interest in a diverse range of subjects, such as storytelling, make and do, music and movement, science, natural history and puzzle programs, all of which encourage children and parents to continue playing and learning when the channel is switched off.”

“We came into this market very late,” admits Wayne Dunsford, the general manager of JimJam, which made its debut in late 2007 and has since expanded to about 50 territories. “We needed to have something very, very different that would allow us to launch, allow us to survive and to stand out from the competition. We’ve focused in on how JimJam can contribute to the positive development of a child through a trusted, safe environment.”

Dunsford explains that JimJam has been able to do that as a result of its ability to draw on the programming library of co-owner HIT Entertainment, which supplies 60 percent to 70 percent of the channel’s schedule. “The HIT content has been a driving force for the channel because when you sit down with a [platform] and you mention Bob, Thomas, Barney, the door opens and you’re taken quite seriously. Those brands are critical to the channel’s success.”

CREATIVE WELLSPRING
For all the global channels, tapping into an established, proven portfolio of content has been crucial. KidsCo takes much of its content from its three joint-venture partners—Corus Entertainment, Cookie Jar and NBC Universal—while Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney are all looking to the original shows from their sister U.S. channels. It’s a strategy that works—Ben 10, iCarly and Hannah Montana are among the U.S. shows that have proven to have universal appeal. Nonetheless, some element of localization is a must for all global brands. At the very basic level, content is dubbed, local presenters are used to introduce programming throughout the day and shows are interspersed with original interstitials from the market in question. Disney, for example, developed interstitials in Europe, the Middle East and Africa featuring local kids performing songs from Camp Rock as part of the “My Camp Rock” competition.

“Our goal is to present stories that reflect kids’ real lives and Disney core values,” says Levine. “We look at trends, ratings and have a great research resource. Our research team is in the field with viewers on a daily basis, all around the world. From there, our global creative team works to deliver content—stories, characters and music—that connects with kids and their families. A key element is to insure that there are universal themes to which all kids can relate—not every kid might have exactly 104 days of summer vacation like Phineas and Ferb but all kids can relate to their exciting adventures, their big dreams and sense of adventure.”

For Levine, the best examples of Disney’s localization strategy are the original series commissioned by its feeds in markets around the world. In Japan, for example, Disney Channel has fared well with the locally produced Stitch, an offshoot of the U.S.-originated Lilo & Stitch. Based on the Japanese success, the animated series has been re-versioned for the international market and has since premiered in Australia and Southeast Asia, with more territories to follow.

Disney is also rolling out versions of some of its biggest hits—most notably High School Musical. In Latin America, there are three versions known as El Desafío, produced in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. “The Argentinean and Mexican versions are rolling out throughout Europe in 2010 to support the High School Musical brand,” Levine says. “It’s already delivering high ratings in Poland and Romania.”

This collaboration between Disney Channel programmers worldwide is essential, Levine says. “We have one brand and one vision, so we work very closely with our colleagues around the world every day—video conferencing has made the world a lot smaller!”

At Nickelodeon, Borkent, too, has an international group of commissioners to correspond with on a regular basis. “I would identify seven to eight people that sit with me in a group” to discuss programming ideas. “We really use this worldwide net of programmers that we have.”

One area the Nickelodeon team is pursuing is formats. “We have investigated where it would make sense to look at some of our live-action properties, particularly the game shows,” Borkent notes. He is also looking outside of the Nickelodeon portfolio to see if there are innovative concepts on the market that could work for some of Nick’s global feeds.

A LOCAL SPIN
Nickelodeon has also been co-producing with partners worldwide as part of its efforts to develop locally relevant content. Nickelodeon Latin America, for example, is working with Televisa and Illusion Studios for a coming-of-age telenovela, Sueña Conmigo. The series will be produced in HD in Spanish with an adaptation in Portuguese for Nickelodeon Brazil. “We’re looking at rolling that out on some of our international networks as well,” Borkent says.

For Turner Broadcasting EMEA, where the portfolio of channels includes Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito and the free-to-air Boing, only about 10 percent of the schedules consist of co-productions. The company does, however, commission a fair bit from the region, Persson notes, and has set up its own production hub in the U.K., Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe. The Amazing World of Gumball, which Turner commissioned from its sister British production arm, is due to roll out on Cartoon Network worldwide this year.

CBeebies, meanwhile, which has since launch acquired 100 percent of its content—half from BBC Worldwide and the rest from independent providers—has just dipped its toes in the original-production waters, with Penelope K, By The Way. “It’s set to launch in April in Australia before rolling out to the other international CBeebies channels and the U.K. channel,” Weiland says. “We are planning to get much more active in this field in 2010 and are interested in a number of different models from straight commissioning to co-producing and more pre-buying.”

KidsCo, too, is expanding its original programming remit, with recent examples that include the crafts show Jass Time! and the animated Boo & Me, produced with Malaysia’s Inspidea.

At JimJam, meanwhile, Dunsford explains that “the business, financially, is not at the point where we’re in a position to start commissioning our own programming. And we don’t feel the actual need to do that just yet. We’ve got a sufficient range of programs that we don’t need to be augmenting it with commissioned programming. We’re still only two and a half years old and we’ve been focusing more on how we can market the channel. We’ve put money into a refresh of the channel on air and following that through with off air, so that the channel looks fresh, it looks appealing, it’s got a relevance to the audience, and I think those are more important than spending huge sums of money on our own commissions.”

The channel is, however, working with the team behind The Wiggles on Baby Antonio’s Circus. “That’s gone on to all of our feeds, but it’s effectively a program that we are premiering, but it will be available for other broadcasters as well.”

For the acquisitions that fill the 30 percent to 40 percent of JimJam’s schedule that is not derived from HIT, Dunsford says that he and his team are looking for properties that will work across multiple markets. “The only dedicated feed [we have] for a single territory is the Italian feed, the rest—Asia, Middle East, pan-European—cover so many different territories.”

At KidsCo, a focus for this year will be content for its Western European feed, Robinson says. “We’re going to be expanding, particularly in countries like Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the U.K. So our spending will be up this year.”

Persson at Turner has her eye on comedy animation for kids 6 to 11 for Cartoon Network. “That’s a global need,” she says. “We’re all working very closely together on trying to fill that pipeline. And for Boomerang, from a European perspective, we’re looking again for comedy, probably along the lines of classic remakes. We’ve had a lot of success with Garfield and Strawberry Shortcake and things like that.”

Levine at Disney is on the lookout for content for both the Disney Channel and Disney XD brands. “All of our acquisitions need to fit our brand identities—they need to sit next to our programs on our schedules and deliver the same quality to our viewers; this is especially important as we build a brand, as we are with Disney XD. Any show that is not adding to our overall effort is, in effect, taking away—so we need to be vigilant about the shows we acquire for our platforms.”

Disney XD’s buying mandate includes “character-driven comedies with a boy skew,” Levine says. “The storytelling should reflect that life is about the journey and getting to the next level no matter how big or small, it’s showing boys that you may not at first succeed, but you try again.”

For Disney Channel, meanwhile, acquired content should “skew more towards contemporary, high-concept comedy,” with stories that “provide navigational guidance to kids and tweens.”

Levine adds, “We are looking for more co-production opportunities for all of our brands to support our own content.” In fact, Disney Channels Worldwide has entered into its first global movie co-production, for Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.

At CBeebies, Weiland says he is looking for shows that are “structured in a way that makes them easy to dub in multiple languages and have a range of characters and environments that are understood by children in different cultures.”

Borkent is keen to spot some new live-action shows at MIPTV, as well as “companions for our animated series. Comedy is my number one priority. I’m also now looking for a little more in the boys’ action arena, for Nicktoons in the U.S.”

As they look out for new programming concepts, all the major kids’ channels will be figuring out ways to expand their market share and keep kids tuning in day after day. At the end of the day, JimJam’s Dunsford says, “You’ve got [to have] a proposition that is sufficiently compelling to stop you from just being another kids’ channel.”