DR’s Niels Lindberg

Pubcaster DR Ramasjang reaches up to 85 percent of its core demo of viewers between the ages of 4 and 8, a testament to the channel’s work over the past decade to become a firm fixture in the lives of Danish kids. DR is now looking to replicate that success with Minisjang, a new brand focused on toddlers. Niels Lindberg, commissioning editor of the two services, tells TV Kids about the complexities and rewards of serving young ones with public-service content today.

TV KIDS: Can you share a brief overview of the role that kids’ programming plays on DR?
LINDBERG: I’m the commissioning editor across two channel brands at DR. We’ve got Minisjang, which is our toddler brand aimed at 1- to 3-year-olds that launched at the end of March. I think we’re the last of the Nordic territories to focus on programming for toddlers, and it’s just been going tremendously. We have a lot of commercial interest in that demographic. YouTube is really big for toddlers, and we have a lot of local, big YouTube channels that we are competing against for that target demographic. We have a lot of music and games and small animated character universes alongside Hey Duggee. It’s something that the parents of Denmark have [responded] to. Our older brand is for 4- to 8-year-olds and is called Ramasjang. The channel is ten years old, and it’s linear and online. Our FVOD service is our primary way of measuring success. We are reaching 80 to 85 percent of our demographic with the Ramasjang brand. With Minisjang, we’re not measuring based on reach. We measure it based on knowledge. So 50 percent of the parents from Denmark [should] know Minisjang by the end of the year.

TV KIDS: Are there specific content directives or mandates in your market that you must consider concerning programming?
LINDBERG: We are driven by having some sort of public-service value in everything we do. However, we still need to be competitive enough in our original programming so it can compete with Peppa Pig and PAW Patrol, which are the biggest brands for us currently. We have one rule regarding our acquisitions: The series that we buy that we get FVOD or longer VOD rights on have to be funded somehow by a public-service broadcaster. Luckily, there are many great brands out there.

TV KIDS: What are the biggest challenges for public broadcasters today?
LINDBERG: We’re discussing distribution a lot and making sure that you can meet our character brands in real life—maybe in school materials, or the library, or the mall. What we’re discussing the most is how to make sure we stay relevant when Disney+ can come in and take a reach of 38 percent of our target demo in one quarter. We’re trying to develop how to stay in touch with schools and maintain our relevance. I think [all public broadcasters] will be fighting for that relevance and that reach through the next many years.