Eric Berger Talks Sensical, AVOD Opportunities

Eric Berger, the CEO of Common Sense Networks, outlined the strategy for the recently launched AVOD service Sensical as the TV Kids Festival wrapped its first day of panels and keynotes.

“Sensical is the only streaming platform designed around interest-based learning,” Berger said in his conversation with Kristin Brzoznowski, the executive editor of TV Kids, which you can view in its entirety here. “It’s this amazing network that cuts across all connected devices, YouTube and TikTok. We believe it’s the safest kids’ streaming service out there. And the largest catalog of age-appropriate content. It’s kid-designed from the ground up.”

Berger noted that Sensical was crafted based on Common Sense Media’s long-standing insights into kids’ media trends, notably the “gravitation to large, open, user-generated platforms. About 80 percent of kids spend an hour a day on these platforms. Most of them are looking at independent creators that connect with their interests and passions. The problem is that these platforms are driven by algorithms, and these can lead kids into some unsafe places, unsafe content and inappropriate advertising.”

Sensical is rooted in the “belief that kids deserve better,” Berger noted. “We built the service from the ground up to meet kids where they are. It’s the short-form, creator-driven content that they’ve demonstrated they love. It’s learning-based. It’s age-appropriate. And it’s grounded from a content level to connect with the changing demographics you see in the market. We want the content we license and program to be a reflection [of diverse audiences], so kids can see themselves and others.”

Sensical is programmed for three core demos: Preschool (2 to 4), Little Kids (5 to 7) and Big Kids (8 to 10). Since the platform’s launch last year, the team has realized that the preschool segment is spending the most time engaging with the content. “You want the content to be high-quality and value-added,” he noted. The platform also launched with content based on kids’ interests. “There’s a very broad range of interests. For some other services, the viewership is concentrated on a few tentpole shows. [On Sensical,] the kids are finding things that speak to them from a passion perspective, and they’re safely going down that rabbit hole.”

The growth in connected TVs and living room viewing has also emerged as a critical factor for the platform’s strategy. Sensical also recently rolled out podcasts “so kids can have a non-video experience. It’s been really fun to see the uptake in kids having that kind of experience on the platform.”

On the programming strategy, Berger stated: “We’ve looked at tens of thousands of videos, and we’ve licensed 15,000 for these three distinctive age groups. It’s all done against this rubric we’ve developed over 20 years of Common Sense Media and adapted to short-form within Sensical. The rubric looks at a number of strict criteria: by age, by learning, by characteristics such as empathy, teamwork and role models. And, of course, the topics kids love. We’ve pulled [these licensed shows] into a unique programming strategy that is interest-based. There are about 60 channels on the service that generally are formed around either how-to—in sports, drawing, cooking, DIY, building—or these passion areas that kids love, like video games, animals, space, nature. And then there are the learning fundamentals. ABCs and counting at the young end, music, making and moving, science and history as they get a bit older.”

Licensed content has been a mix of digital-first shows—about 70 percent of the content lineup—and big brands from major studios. “A lot of these new creators are looking to get onto new platforms and connected TVs and into the living room and are looking for incremental revenues in the process.”

Deals are largely non-exclusive, Berger noted. “It’s been beneficial for us to get as much content as we can onto the service that meets our criteria because we’re going for a breadth play here, hundreds of shows. The charm is in the curation. It would be impossible for a parent or caregiver to find the good stuff across all these platforms. Bringing it all together makes it exclusive in the sense that when it’s all said and done; it’s unique in the packaging. Over time, as we get more informed with data and understand where there are gaps we can fill or opportunities we can grow, we might start to look more to exclusives and even original programming.”

There are about 48 million kids under 12 in the U.S. “Worldwide it’s 2 billion,” said Berger on Sensical’s international growth opportunities. “The issues that I mentioned before are the same in terms of algorithms and open user-generated platforms. We want to get the offering out there by later in 2022. We want to give the same curation and high-quality video that makes screen time valuable to parents and families everywhere. We’ll probably focus on the big AVOD territories first, so U.K., Canada, Australia, but also France, Germany and Spain in Europe, Brazil and Mexico in Latin America, and we’ll look at Japan as well.”

In terms of the business model, Berger said that the advertising needs to be as appropriate as the content experience itself. “Everything is COPPA certified. We want to align with other content standards we have on the service. No sugary snacks. No fast foods. We focus on categories that are valuable to parents and kids and align with the content. Education. Select consumer products. Certain retail, entertainment [experiences], movement and play.”

Berger was previously at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he architected Crackle as an AVOD service, a space that was unexplored at the time. “We were very early. We had to do a lot of education, with brands, with consumers, with content suppliers. That’s all understood now. AVOD is a $10-billion market. Connected TV is growing like crazy. That part is easier. Also, having done all of that and understanding who the tech providers are and who the distributors are enabled us to launch Sensical within 11 months. The challenging part is it’s a very competitive market in general entertainment in particular. The large streaming companies are out there battling it out and spending a lot of money. If you’re not one of them, you need to be very focused and have a specific offering that is differentiated. If it falls in the middle, you might get lost in the shuffle. Between the intellectual property and the brand from Common Sense, what we’re pulling together in terms of short-form content, creator-driven, intra-space learning, tools like the Parent Zone, all filtered through this rubric, is highly differentiated and in line with what parents are looking for.”

As for measuring success, key factors include customer acquisition at the right costs, user engagement time and retention, and of course, monetization. “But, we also look at the value across the different stakeholders. From a parents’ perspective, are we getting positive feedback? Are we making their lives easier by providing them a service that would be hard to do themselves? For the creators that we’re bringing onto the platform, are we creating wealth for them? For our advertising partners, are we creating opportunities to reach audiences safely, in a way that would be very difficult for them to do without a lot of the data and knowledge we’re supplying? Our child development partners—are we fostering learning and growth in kids today? And from a kid’s perspective, are they loving the product? That’s what matters. That there is a way to have healthy screen time and make screen time valuable for kids that is also fun.”

Expanding the lineups of TV shows, podcasts and read-along experiences are all part of Sensical’s growth path for the year ahead, along with more “do-together” activities that kids can engage with off-screen. FAST channels are also a growth area, Berger said. “There is a place for lean-back here, where people just want to be programmed to and sit back in the living room and watch. That is a growing part of our business and we’ll continue to roll out some of those channels. You’ll also see in 2023 some subscription channels from us for those parents looking for a non-advertising experience. And then, of course, international.”