Sky to Launch New Children’s App, Orders First Kids’ Original

LONDON: Sky, which is moving into original children’s programming, is releasing Sky Kids, a new application for preschoolers up to 9-year-olds that is of no extra cost to Sky customers.

Sky Kids, which launches tomorrow, will offer thousands of episodes of popular children’s shows, including Nick Jr.’s Paw Patrol, Boomerang’s Scooby-Doo, CBeebies’s Octonauts and Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time. Sky has also announced that it will commission its own exclusive original children’s content, starting with new episodes of the iconic Morph, which, along with new short features, will debut on Sky Kids later this year. Sky is also talking to other producers about future projects and plans to produce kids’ versions of some of its existing hit series.

The Sky Kids app, available for Apple and Android devices, was created by Sky’s in-house team in collaboration with ustwo. It will allow multiple age-appropriate profiles to be created and personalized using Sky Buddy avatars. There will eventually be a sleep mode setting to limit viewing time.

Lucy Murphy, the head of kids’ content at Sky, commented: “We have worked really closely with lots of children and their parents to design the new Sky Kids app. It means they can watch all their favorite shows in a really engaging way designed just for them. Safety is of fundamental importance so parents will be able to filter what their child watches according to their age.

“Having lots of great shows for kids has always really mattered to us. Around a quarter of Sky households have children so we know how important it is [that] we give them the very best kids’ entertainment. That is why we are investing in exclusive new programming starting with family favorite Morph as well as developing future enhancements for the app including even more safety features, live channels and offline viewing.”

Alix Wiseman, the head of sales and acquisitions and executive producer at Aardman, added: “Aardman and the creators of Morph are truly excited about partnering with Sky on this original content for their new app. Morph is very dear to our hearts and we hope that he and his mate Chas will entertain a brand-new generation of viewers on this platform, as they have their loyal fan base over the past four decades.”