POP Channels’ Francesca Newington

As the director of POP Channels at Narrative Entertainment in the U.K., Francesca Newington looks after the content acquisitions and programming strategy across the linear channels POP, Tiny Pop and POP Max, as well as the content strategy for the digital AVOD service POP Player. She talks to TV Kids about coming on board projects earlier to broaden rights and current content needs across the bouquet.

TV KIDS: What role do acquisitions play for the POP portfolio?
NEWINGTON: I’m responsible for the acquisitions and overall editorial strategy for the group and making sure that the channels remain independent and complementary to one another. Acquisitions for us have always been super important. They’ve been 95 percent to 100 percent of our content. We are trying to do more prebuys where possible so that we can broaden our rights and also so that we can plan future strategies a little bit better. We are also now diving into the world of co-pros and commissions. We’re going to take it step by step, but we would welcome any submissions to us in that space. We also have our AVOD offering, the POP Player, which incorporates catch-up content. For that, we are looking to introduce exclusive content that doesn’t feature on the linear channels.

TV KIDS: What are some of the brand values or directives that you have to keep top of mind when sourcing programming?
NEWINGTON: We’re free-to-air, so we have a broad socioeconomic audience. We’re keen for our channels to be all about diversity and broad representation. We want [audiences] to feel that the channels are genuinely inclusive and reflective of them. We are super commercial. We want to remain current. Volume is very important, so 26 half-hours minimum. There are certain times when we will take less, but it’s not very often. POP targets 6- to 10-year-olds, with a focus on the 6-to-8s. And Tiny Pop is 4 to 6, so it’s very much the upper-preschool end. We don’t really want to go for younger content, so anything too slow-paced or too young would not be right for Tiny Pop, and anything with imitable behavior. We have to be role models for kids. Anything all-out educational is quite hard for us to schedule. We certainly would not say no to anything that has a subtle educational hook, but it would have to be included in a clever way so that kids don’t even realize they’re being taught something. Otherwise, it just wouldn’t sit very well with the rest of the content we have across our channels. At POP, the key ingredients are comedy, pace and adventure. If they tick those boxes, we usually have a really high-rating show on the channel.

TV KIDS: In terms of genres or age demographics, what are you currently on the lookout for?
NEWINGTON: POP is very much a core of 6 to 8, gender-neutral. If we take something very girly, we need to make sure that we’ve got something for the boys as well. We’re pretty much animation, but we are looking into the live-action space—either a drama or factual entertainment, as long as it’s upbeat and pacey enough, and it’s not too old, dark or scary. On Tiny Pop, we are aiming at boys and girls aged 4 to 6. Again, it’s mostly animation; that tends to work really well for us. It’d be great to incorporate a bit of live action too. We will accept really any proposals that come across our desk. If it looks like it’s going to fit, then great. If it’s live action, why not? We haven’t seen anything musical for a while, so any musical content would be lovely. We’re looking for movies, too. We’d like to build up a movie inventory for special themes: Christmas, October, half-term, Halloween. A regular weekend block of movies would be fab, if we can find the right content.

TV KIDS: Is there anything you’d like to pick up for the channels that you’re just not seeing enough of out there in the marketplace?
NEWINGTON: We’re looking for girl-led comedy for the 6-to-8s. It needs to be where the female gets the laughs rather than the tokenistic joke. We want the girl to have her time in the spotlight—and for that content not to turn off the boys but actually to appeal to them too, so that everybody enjoys these characters who are strong and funny. It doesn’t feel like it comes around very often. The other thing we’re looking for is some age-appropriate anime. It’s very difficult to pick up anime that isn’t slightly too grown-up or risqué. Anime historically has worked quite well on POP. It’s tricky when you’re going through compliance not to edit everything out, and then you’re left with the bare bones and not very much story! It would be fantastic to find something that was aimed at 8-year-olds, without the concern that we would have to rip it apart in the compliance edit. It might sound controversial, but a little bit of romance here and there in a show. Nothing too over-the-top. I’m thinking of Miraculous, where there is that little bit of chemistry between the characters; it just goes down so well with the audience.

In terms of our younger demo, for Tiny Pop, we need some real laugh-out-loud comedy. There are a few shows out there that are really funny and aimed at the kids, the parents and the older siblings. Everybody can watch it and feel like they’re having a great time. That will spark the parental trust that we’re after. Co-viewing is so important for Tiny Pop. Then, also, environmental topics, sustainability topics, as long as they are genuinely incorporated in a show, rather than being crowbarred in there and feeling a little awkward. As long as it feels like it’s part of the whole show, that would be great as well.

TV KIDS: With regard to exclusivity and rights, is this less of a make-or-break deal point, or is it still a hot-button negotiating issue?
NEWINGTON: We’re at a really pivotal point in where we might go with exclusivity. We are aware that cross-pollination is really important when it comes to the brand getting as many eyeballs as it possibly can. If you’re going to launch a commercial franchise, you want to be across as many platforms as you can. It seems that it isn’t detrimental to each platform that it is on; it seems to be successful for each one. So, I think there’s quite a large conversation to be had around this.

In terms of where we’re at, we will often take a second window. We will share rights if it’s already gone to a pay-TV or SVOD platform; we will come on as the second window and take the free-to-air rights. The issue there for us is that we get such limitations on digital rights. If we reject those limitations, that is detrimental to us because we lose that show, but it’s also not helpful to the commissioner who wants eyeballs on that brand and who wants to launch consumer products. It’s about navigating those restrictions and whether we can deal with them. It is becoming increasingly difficult to comply with five episodes only [on-demand] and no more than that at any one time. If we want to increase our digital offering, we’re going to need to be brutal and reject content that we would love to have. It’s one of those ongoing conversations that we’re currently having with lots of distributors, who are finding it tricky to say, “Well, we can’t give you any more than this.” It’s difficult.

The reason we are thinking about coming on board earlier with projects and co-producing is that we need to secure ourselves some broader rights. It’s as simple as that. For us, right now, we are doing non-exclusive deals and, historically, we always have done. It’s a state of change.

TV KIDS: What advice can you share for producers or distributors looking to land programming on your channels?
NEWINGTON: Ancillary rights are very important. So, anything additional they can offer us—games, digital assets, music videos, short-form content—will help us launch the brand better. Volume is very important. It’s important to know that Tiny Pop isn’t for very young kids. It has to have a really good narrative. It’s got to be engaging. Kids at the age of 4 are very discerning, and they know a good story when they see one. Paying attention to the storyline is very important for those younger viewers, even though sometimes people might not think it’s that important. I would say bridge shows are quite hard for us to schedule. We can’t find a good space for them on our channels because they fall down that gap between Tiny Pop and POP; they don’t quite fit as well on either channel. They slightly miss the mark, and it’s very frustrating sometimes when it’s slightly too young for POP or slightly too old for Tiny Pop, but it won’t fit on the other channel. I feel regretful that we can’t do more with it, purely because that target demo is just slightly off.