Switchover Media Takes Lead in Italian Kids’ Space

The evolution of the DTT market across Europe has created new opportunities for companies like Italy’s Switchover Media. Formed in 2009 following the management buyout of some of Jetix Italy’s assets, the company operates the pay-TV network GXT, as well as the DTT channels K2 and Frisbee. K2 targets kids 6 to 12 with a slight boy skew, while Frisbee aims its programming at kids 4 to 10 and families with a girl skew. GXT, meanwhile, is heavily focused on young males. All are active buyers on the international market.

Francesco Nespega, managing partner of Switchover Media, tells TV Kids Weekly about the ratings successes of the three networks, and about the new opportunities opening up in the Italian DTT sector.

TV KIDS: How are you positioning your three channels?
NESPEGA: Switchover Media’s strategy is to manage a portfolio of complementary TV channels offering a wide range of compelling entertainment. Our main business is the kids’ TV market and with our two channels K2 and Frisbee, we have recently become the leading channel provider in Italy in terms of ratings.

K2 and Frisbee are complementary both in terms of target and positioning. K2 is distributed free to air via DTT, satellite (SKY Italia) and partially analogue terrestrial to approximately 19 million households and it’s aimed at kids 6-12 and families, focusing on boys (the proportion is 60 percent boys, 40 percent girls).

Frisbee is distributed free to air DTT and satellite (SKY Italia) to approximately 14 million families. It is aimed at kids 4-10 and families with a girl skew (60 percent of viewers).

If we look at the February 2011 Auditel/AGB ratings, K2 and Frisbee have a combined average audience share of 8.2 percent and a combined daily reach of 20 percent among kids 4 to 14 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Since launch, K2 has been [the second-ranked kids’ channel]—5.5 percent market share among kids 4-14—and Frisbee, launched only six months ago, ranked fourth in the market [in February] with a share of 2.6 percent.

GXT is the pay-TV channel exclusively available through SKY Italia to 4.6 million homes and it aims at a young male audience. GXT is totally different from our kids’ business and we manage them separately.

TV KIDS: What kind of programming are you acquiring for K2 and Frisbee?
NESPEGA: K2 combines action and adventure with a strong comedy element. The top programs are animated series like Fairly Odd Parents, the Pokémon saga, Mr Bean, Total Drama Island, Action and World Tour and Sonic.

Frisbee is [focused] on character-driven comedies [and] stories of magic-trendy-egocentric girl heroes. The lineup includes animated series like Pucca, W.I.T.C.H, Sabrina, and live-action series such as The New Addams Family, Sweet Valley and Goosebumps.

TV KIDS: How much content are you acquiring from the international market?
NESPEGA: Switchover Media’s kids’ channels operate in an extremely competitive market where, in addition to dedicated offerings from RAI and Mediaset, all major international kids’ channel brands have a consolidated presence.

In this scenario, where Switchover Media represents the only independent player, we have managed to access content and secure agreements with the top independent producers/distributors, such as Canada’s Nelvana, the U.K.’s CAKE, Spain’s BRB and Japan’s The Pokémon Company [among others]. For these players, Switchover Media represents a valuable partner that strongly believes in their properties, gives a consistent TV exposure and maximizes the potential of licensing.

We have recently decided to launch Switchover Media Licensing, which will manage consumer products rights of the properties we acquire for our channels. We think that the coordinated synergy among all the levels of exploitation from multiplatform promotion and broadcast to licensing could represent an even more interesting solution for our partners.

TV KIDS: Are you commissioning your own original productions?
NESPEGA: The company is relatively young. In our first 18 months our priority was to secure volume and branded quality content. We don’t have the resources to sustain an entire production but we are in the process of closing agreements for co-production and pre-acquisition of kids’ contents with selected partners.

TV KIDS: What other opportunities do you see in the Italian DTT market?
NESPEGA: The digital switch-off process has dramatically changed the overall scenario of the Italian TV market. In the last year we have experienced the launch of a number of new free digital channels and the viewers have suddenly been able to easily access additional content covering various genres and target audiences.

Switchover Media immediately benefited from the digital process. Basically when we founded our company 18 months ago our entrepreneurial strategy was to enter the multichannel free DTT market [at its inception], betting on the switch-off process. 

We believe that the opportunity is only in the free DTT market and only for a limited number of additional channels as at this stage, [as] there is already significant competition.

There are three conditions for new channels to be successful in terms of ratings and potentially interesting for advertisers: a consistent [location on the EPG], a well-defined positioning and channel identity, and a programming strategy with a clear vision of the target audience.