Exclusive Interview: Paul Robinson

December 9, 2010 World Screen

The founder of KidsCo, launched three years ago, aims to make the London-based channel one of the “big four” in the worldwide children’s market. Launched in late 2007, KidsCo is already available in 95 countries in 18 languages, but with a full-time staff of only 19 it’s a minnow compared to the reigning big three of Disney Channel, Turner’s Cartoon Network and Viacom’s Nickelodeon. However, Paul Robinson sees the small size of his channel as a big strategic advantage in the market.

His logic goes like this. The move to original content has pushed the big three to be more vertically oriented, owning the content through the value chain, with most of the value in the back end (licensing and merchandising). At the same time there is more and more high-quality children’s content being produced by others that has no route to market. “We structure deals differently,” he says. “It’s more difficult for these other content creators to sell their product, so that enables us to keep the prices down, but at the same time we allow the producers to keep the back end because we’re not interested in toys.”

KidsCo currently has programming deals in place with about 20 established suppliers, including BBC Worldwide, MarVista, FremantleMedia, Sesame Workshop, Iconix, Daro, Beyond, YFE, Image Venture and two companies holding equity stakes in the channel, Cookie Jar and Corus (the parent of Nelvana).

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The company is also opening up new sources of content around the world, with original programming from Malaysia in the schedule. Its Christmas station promos were conceived in London but executed in India.

Vintage fare has an important place in schedule, for younger children. “A show like Paddington Bear is quite old but it still works,” Robinson says. “But you can’t just rely on a catalogue. Kids want shows of their own generation and as they get older they demand more that’s new.”

 
The genesis of KidsCo dates back to 2005, when Sparrowhawk Media enrolled former Disney executive Robinson to explore launching a children’s channel. There was a perception that a gap existed in the market for 6- to 10-year-olds in terms of gentle, family-friendly fare. The brand’s core values are about being safe, non-violent and family-centric. “We want a mother to be able to leave the room knowing that she doesn’t have to worry about anything the child will see,” Robinson says. KidsCo also celebrates cultural diversity (its logo shows an ethnic rainbow of children).
 
The channel launched in September 2007 in Poland, Romania and Turkey. Southeast Asian territories followed in 2008, and Western Europe was added in 2009. It’s available in most of Africa and in Australia. There are no plans to enter the American market.
After KidsCo came to life, Sparrowhawk Media was acquired by NBC Universal, which now owns 33.3 percent of the company (including 3.3-percent stakes for Robinson and Chris Borde), with two other one-third stakes owned by Cookie Jar and Corus.
 
KidsCo will be profitable in EBITDA terms in 2011, says Robinson.
 
Technology has been the key to rapid growth. The channel runs four feeds out of London, serving more than 120 cable and satellite platforms. “A few years ago, it would not have been possible to run a global operation like this,” Robinson. All content has been digital from day one. “That gives you scale,” he says. “You can send the content around the world and add languages and the only cost is dubbing. It means a big reduction in operating costs.”
 
Being complementary to other children’s channels is a fundamental selling point for KidsCo. One of the reasons operators give for not wanting to add the channel is that they have too many children’s channels already. “This is misguided because the fact is that the more children’s channels a platform offers, the better its share of the overall children’s market will be,” Robinson says. “Research by BSkyB shows that adding channels continues to build viewing share all the way up to 24 channels.”