Nicole Keeb

Rudyard Kipling’s classic story about a young man-cub raised in the Indian jungle has been adapted for the small screen by India’s DQ Entertainment in the 3-D series The Jungle Book. The first international partners on board with DQ for the project were ZDF and its commercial arm, ZDF Enterprises. Co-productions have played a key role in filling ZDF’s kids’ slate, along with that of KI.KA, for which it supplies about half of the programming. Nicole Keeb, the head of international co-productions and acquisitions for children’s and youth at ZDF, talks to TV Kids about the alchemy of a successful co-production partnership and why this model works so well for a pubcaster like ZDF.

TV KIDS: The Jungle Book has been selling quite widely since its launch at MIPCOM. What led ZDF to sign on to the project?
KEEB: Our team was thrilled by the beautiful design DQ Entertainment came up with. We thought it was great to re-create a classic story in a new version, and we had never seen The Jungle Book as a TV series before. The property teaches a lot about nature, the laws of the jungle, and how humans and animals live together. We thought that children could really learn a lot and be entertained at the same time.

TV KIDS: Why is the co-production model so attractive to a broadcaster like ZDF?
KEEB: We have to fill a lot of slots. We are providing almost half of the material for KI.KA as well. Although we have a budget that we find reasonable, we have to bring in a lot of programming. So we’re obliged to do co-productions—otherwise we couldn’t finance all the shows we’d like to do.

It’s also good to bring in other partners with good ideas. Everybody provides different experiences, which I find very helpful. There are a lot of shows that proved to be successful in the past that are co-productions. Mona the Vampire and Laura’s Star, for example, and many other classic shows weren’t done just by one producer and one broadcaster, but rather a mixture of different partners. This formula has proved to be successful in the past. 

TV KIDS: What are some of the qualities that go into a successful co-production?
KEEB: You have to have a mutual understanding of [what the show will be]. You have to define the target, the humor, the storytelling. You have to agree on who the characters are—for example, boy or girl, who’s the hero or heroine.
Therefore we are working closely with a network of international producers and broadcasters, people who are highly skilled and very competitive to produce the best shows for kids. Obviously it is helpful to build up long-term partnerships.

TV KIDS: What are some of the upcoming projects that you’re working on?
KEEB: We do quite a lot of live action now, in particular with our longtime friend and partner Jonathan Shiff. We are continuing with a second season of The Elephant Princess, and H20: Just Add Water will have a third season coming up in Germany.

Dance Academy is a co-production with Joanna Werner Productions, ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, ABC and Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF). It’s a show about a ballet school. A girl from the countryside has to face the challenges in the big city of Sydney and has to survive the very competitive everyday fight (and the delight) in this coming-of-age drama. We are mixing the romantic stereotypes of ballet with modern dance elements to be on eye level with children or teenagers of today.

In animation we will go on with Le Petite Nicolas (Little Nick), an adaption of the famous book property. We’re co-producing Sherlock Yack with Mondo TV of France. It has a very distinctive style and particularly charming, exciting stories.

There’s so much that we committed to last year that is coming now. We are finishing Fun with Claude, our little polar bear in the preschool area, with Red & Blue Productions. There’s also Marsupilami, a co-production between France (Samka Productions and France 2) and Germany (ZDF and ZDF Enterprises).

TV KIDS: There is so much competition in the pay-TV arena; why is it important for public broadcasters to con­tinue to provide a dedicated outlet for children’s programming?
KEEB: If we didn’t provide children’s programs then kids wouldn’t get to know what ZDF is. That’s a big issue, and we probably have underestimated it in the past. It’s very important that children know that ZDF is a quality broadcaster, because they won’t forget about it. Of course they will choose other channels if the programming is interesting and they want to see it, but if they don’t know that ZDF exists then they wouldn’t even think to choose it at all. We have to educate our audience. Children need to get to know us and we have to stay friends with them—then they will be life-long viewers.