PBS KIDS Sprout to Launch UGC Block

PHILADELPHIA, April 8: PBS
KIDS Sprout is preparing to launch a new afternoon block, titled The Sprout
Sharing Show, featuring
viewer-submitted content.

Launching on May 5, the
block will take the time slot of The Let’s Go Show, which is moving to weekend afternoons. Hosted by
a group of hand-puppet musicians and set inside a homemade cardboard puppet
theater, the block will showcase video from preschoolers showing off their
talents. Additionally, debuting in this new block as a Sprout linear-channel
exclusive will be the new series PICME, licensed by HIT Entertainment and conceived by Irish production
company Jam Media.

PICME puts children directly into the story alongside
animal friends Juno, Gerty, Banjo, Umi, Clarence and Neville. Using proprietary
software, PICME’s 2-D Flash
animation was developed in-house by Jam Media and enables parents to
superimpose a digital image of their child onto an animated body to give them a
chance at a “starring role” in the show. Sprout will choose a new child’s photo
every weekday at random to appear in PICME.

The viewer-submitted
shorts, which promote sharing, imagination and family interaction, will air
between Sprout staples such as Fifi and the Flowertots, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Pingu,
Dragon Tales and Fireman Sam, as
well as PICME. Furthermore, the
Sprout House Band will be sharing artwork sent in by viewers that has been
transformed into animated shorts by the Little Director company using a
technology that allows children’s drawings on paper to become animated stories.

“Sprout is the only
preschool network ‘made for you, by you,’” said Andrew Beecham, the senior VP
of programming for Sprout. “Whether it’s showcasing a child’s homemade birthday
card on the live Sunny Side Up Show,
sharing a viewer-submitted craft on The Good Night Show or airing kids’ homemade videos on The Sprout
Sharing Show, Sprout’s linear
channel is taking user-generated content to the next level by completely
integrating it into our unique 24-hour format that follows the day of
preschooler from breakfast to bedtime.”

—By Ned Berke