Turner’s Patricia Hidalgo Talks Programming Strategy

LONDON: The message from Patricia Hidalgo, Turner’s senior VP and chief content and creative officer for kids, EMEA, and international kids’ strategy, is that the company’s trove of in-house U.S.-produced content needs to be backed by complementary third-party shows.

Turner’s flagship brands are Cartoon Network and Boomerang, “but internationally we also have successful local brands like Cartoonito, Toonami, Boing and Pogo,” Hidalgo says. “Across EMEA alone, 20 million kids tune in to Turner’s kids’ channels every month.”

Of her programming approach, Hidalgo says, “Our aim is to partner with producers who understand and love our brands. This is the case with partners such as LEGO and DHX, from whom we acquired and launched Nexo Knights and Supernoobs [respectively] for Cartoon Network globally at the end of last year. In the case of Boomerang, we are working with various producers to develop concepts and ideas, always liaising with our U.S. colleagues to acquire rights globally. Later this year we will be launching Grizzy and the Lemmings from French producer Studio Hari, our first global acquisition for Boomerang.”

In addition, “we are soon to deliver a fourth season of our most successful European production, The Amazing World of Gumball,” says Hidalgo. “This is one of our highest-performing shows globally. We are now working closely with the U.S. studio to develop new concepts that could eventually become the new international show going global, as Gumball did.”

For Turner’s Hidalgo, securing access to all rights for acquisitions and co-pros is key. “Our preference is to secure from the outset as many rights as we can for international channels. We are no longer operating in a linear world. Digital rights have become more important, and not securing these could result in us walking away from a show. Usually we prefer going into projects at an early stage.”

Hidalgo also mentions Mighty Magiswords and OK K.O.!, which were “developed as digital properties first and will roll out as high-quality games and shorts in our apps and digital platforms before launching as long-form shows on our linear channels.”

For her EMEA and international strategy, Hidalgo says she’s “interested in concepts developed for multiplatform [use]. It would be great to have something that comes from a nonlinear platform be developed for [linear and more]. It’s also the case that we can no longer wait to make content for other platforms after the show has launched on the channel. It’s vital to think about making bespoke content to fulfill the need to reach out to consumers through apps, YouTube, web, mobile or tablet, etc. This should become the norm, if there will ever be a norm!”