Nickelodeon Launches an Online Site for Parents

NEW YORK, September 18: Nickelodeon/MTVN
Kids and Family Group has announced ParentsConnect.com, a site developed
exclusively for parents and caregivers of kids of all ages.

ParentsConnect is a new
online community where parents can communicate with each other and seek advice
in an easy-to-use format.

“The first generation of
'Nick kids' are now having families of their own,” says Cyma Zarghami, the
president of Nickelodeon and head of MTVN Kids and Family Group. “They know and
trust us, and we want to serve them as parents just as we served them as kids.
ParentsConnect puts parents in touch with the real parenting experts—each
other.”

“This is another step in
our company's online strategy to super-serve passionate, targeted audiences, in
this case parents, with engaging and immersive new experiences," said Judy
McGrath, the chairman and CEO of MTV Networks. “You connect to people and
information that really speak to parenthood and family, with Nickelodeon's
personality and humor.”

"We designed
ParentsConnect to be the most useful parenting site," added Kyra Reppen,
the general manager of NickJr.com and ParentsConnect. "With distinct
features such as localized content through GoCityKids, the ability for members
to build their own customized home pages and choose only what's relevant to
them, and advice that comes from real parents with first-hand experience,
rather than professionals, ParentsConnect is truly unique."

The communities on
ParentsConnect are led by Host Parents, a team of 20 trained moderators who are
actual parents, chosen for their backgrounds, life experiences and writing
abilities. Each Host Parent will provide member parents with assistance in
using the site, maintain a personal blog, and recommend articles or links to
useful information.

ParentsConnect members may
also set up their own blogs and profile pages, as well as search member
profiles and recommend articles or links to information they consider useful to
other parents.

Nissan is a charter
sponsor of the site. In the fourth quarter of 2006, ParentsConnect will launch
ParentsConnect TV, and will become one of the first sites of its kind to
include broadband video with user submitted content. It will also roll out
local discussion boards, user- created polls and clubs, newsletters based on
specific community interests, from recipes to travel, as well as enhanced social
networking features.