Switchover Media Sees Ratings Gains in Italy

ROME: Switchover Media’s free-to-air digital kids’ channels K2 and Frisbee have increased their combined audience share to 8.4 percent, according to March Auditel/AGBNielsen rating, reaching more than 1.2 million kids aged 4 to 14 on a daily basis.

Launched in July 2009, K2 has been steadily ranking second place in the market, with a 5.6 percent share. It reaches 18 million homes, targeted kids 6 to 12 with a slight boy skew (60 percent). Frisbee, which rolled out a year later, is in fourth place with a 2.7 percent share. The channel is distributed to 14 million homes, targeting kids 4 to 10 with a girl skew (60 percent).

"We are extremely satisfied by K2 and Frisbee ratings performance," said Francesco Nespega, managing partner of Switchover Media. "The success of our channels is clearly based on the national roll-out of digital terrestrial which is going to be completed in 2012 and is causing a continuous migration of TV viewing from the traditional general entertainment networks to the new digital channels. K2 and Frisbee now represent a fantastic platform which we are making available to our content partners and advertising investors to promote their products and franchises.”

Giuliano Tranquilli, Switchover Media’s programming and content development partner, added, “K2 and Frisbee operate in an extremely competitive market with over 20 kids dedicated channels. It has been very important to set K2 and Frisbee as two complementary brands, each one with a well defined positioning and a clear identity. We have been doing this quite successfully so far but it is mandatory to strengthen and keep this content strategy in the course of time. For next season our line-up of premieres includes: for K2 the epic racing space-adventure Scan2Go, the comedy character-driven Sidekick, as well as new seasons of Pokémon, Total Drama and Hot Wheels Battle Force. For Frisbee we will be presenting the pre-school Babar 3D, the animated comedy Stoked, and Latina teen sitcom No Puede Ser.