Minimax

World Screen Weekly, July 19, 2007

COUNTRY: Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro

LAUNCH DATE: 1999 in Hungary; 2001 in Romania; 2004 in the Czech Republic and Slovakia; 2007 in Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina

OWNERSHIP: Chellomedia, a division of Liberty Global

DISTRIBUTION: 6.6 million households

DESCRIPTION: Targeted at children aged 2 to 12, the channel has local language feeds throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Minimax aims to offer family-friendly content that consists of a mixture of nonviolent, educational, and high-quality animated programs.

CEO: Peter Lakits

DIRECTOR, DISTRIBUTION/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Balazs Hajos

DIRECTOR, PROGRAMMING ACQUISITION: Katalin Radoczy

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: While Minimax is primarily targeted at children aged 2-to-12, much of the channel’s programming schedule is also designed to appeal to families.

According to Peter Lakits, the CEO of Minimax, one of the channel’s strengths is nonviolent family-friendly programming. For example, on Sundays at 5 p.m., the channel airs a family block that includes animated features and specials like Noddy and Thomas & Friends. In May, Minimax garnered a 20-percent audience share, and Lakits is satisfied with the channel’s current positioning in the region.

There is a particular emphasis on providing entertainment that is both entertaining and educational for children. Lakits says that the channel aims to provide “high-quality cartoons which also carry a message,” adding that no other channel in the Central and Eastern territories airs similar programming and “no other channel pays this much attention to what children watch on TV.”

Acquisitions make up the bulk of the channel’s programming schedule—95 percent—while in-house productions round out the remaining five percent. Minimax acquires content mostly from Europe and Canada, accounting for 75 percent of its acquisitions. However, Lakits believes in serving up a broad range of global content from various sources. The channel mainly acquires content from companies like EM.Entertainment, HIT Entertainment, TV-Loonland, Entertainment Rights, DIC Entertainment, Scholastic, Nelvana and Target Entertainment.

For its preschool morning slot from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. the channel has recently secured new episodes of Thomas & Friends, Fifi and the Flowertots and The Koala Brothers. Minimax also has an after-school afternoon slot targeted at older viewers. For this demo, the channel has picked up programs like Jane and the Dragon from Nelvana, and Horseland from DIC Entertainment. Sesame Workshop programs such as Play with Me Sesame, Elmo’s World and Global Grover also launched on Minimax at the end of 2006.

At the same time, Minimax has an eye on developing more original locally produced fare, and it is co-producing a second season of the animated preschool series Nursery Rhymes, which was nominated at Annecy this year. The channel is also involved in several co-productions as a broadcast partner, including the new 3-D animated series The Magic Roundabout.

Chellomedia, the European-based content division of Liberty Global, recently acquired the remaining 50-percent stake in Minimax. Lakits notes that as the company has previously acquired a 50-percent stake in 2004, Minimax is already familiar with Chellomedia’s management. The channel hopes to leverage the global reach of Chellomedia, which owns and operates 23 channels throughout the world. “We’re investigating possibilities in other countries further, and synergies with other channels owned by Chellomedia,” says Lakits.

WHAT’S NEW: Upcoming new series include Nouky & Friends, targeted at preschoolers, and Fifi and the Flowertots and The Koala Brothers for a slightly older audience. For kids aged 4-7, there is the series Flipper and Lopaka II, while Horseland is targeted at viewers aged 8-12. Minimax is also looking to close a deal with Entertainment Rights for the new Barbie film Barbie as the Island Princess, which is scheduled for a global launch in October.

WEBSITE: minimax.tv

—By Irene Lew