TV Kids Festival Pioneer Award Keynote: Philippe Bony

Philippe Bony, general manager of thematic TV channels at M6 Group and president of Gulli, received the TV Kids Pioneer Award at the TV Kids Festival today, where he spoke to delegates about the company’s winning combination of linear and digital platforms as it serves children and families.

Bony took part in a keynote conversation with Anna Carugati, group editorial director of TV Kids, which you can view in its entirety here. Bony has been working in the media industry in France for his entire career, starting with the linear channel Paris Première and later for the satellite platform TPS. In 2005, he joined the M6 Group. The landscape has changed dramatically since then. “Globally, the situation is that we have come from scarcity to a tremendous abundance of opportunities [to offer programming]. But at the end of the day, we are still in the same business. It’s always about selecting, acquiring and producing the best content and finding the right moment and the right way to market the content to the public.”

On shifting consumption habits in France, Bony noted: “It was already important five or ten years ago to invest in nonlinear distribution. Now, it’s crucial, especially when you are working for kids. We think the combination of linear and nonlinear is still a good [way] to reach children and families. What we notice here in France is that individual kids’ consumption is more and more coming to nonlinear, sometimes [on the traditional] TV set. And when it comes to co-viewing with brothers and sisters or parents, most of the time, it’s still on the television and linear programs. We see that the combination of the two is the best way to reach the whole family. It also gives children the opportunity to choose whatever they want at any moment of the day.”

M6’s nonlinear kids’ offerings include the catch-up service Gulli Replay, “and we try to enhance the volume of programs available on this service. We have also developed an SVOD platform called GulliMax, which provides about 5,000 videos every month. It’s very popular. We have reached about 3 million subscribers in France.”

The fact that both are kid-targeted is a clear advantage, Bony noted. “Our competitors in the streaming business are international platforms, which are general-entertainment [offerings], whether it is Netflix or Disney+ or any other. They have very strong programs dedicated to children, but globally, they are general-entertainment platforms. We try to provide to French operators and distributors with GulliMax and Gulli Replay are services dedicated to children, which are safe. You know that on these platforms, all the programs will be only for children, and there is no program that is not appropriate for children. This is very important in our marketing .On linear TV, we think we have to develop a different and specific experience for children. A different experience means that while television provides not only the opportunity to broadcast new animation shows, which, of course, we do and is the central [focus]. But, in addition to that, we have a lot of entertainment shows, game shows, a lot of things that we can produce. It’s also a way to accompany the children all through the day before they go to school and when they come back.”

Amid the challenges of the pandemic, Bony and his teams were acutely aware of the importance of helping children and families cope with lockdowns and isolation. “We have tried to rethink the meaning of our messages, enhance the strong values that we want to share in our programs and strengthen our social commitments. I think it’s working quite well, especially on our linear channels. We have a generation that is very committed to a lot of topics: the planet, animals and the way they behave. We think this generation is so committed that it’s very easy to interact with them, whether it’s on social networks—and we have developed our own social networks, which are very important to share our views with them—as well as through our shows on our channels. It’s a duty for us to try to help them create the world they want to live in in the future. And they are ready for that. We were quite successful in 2021 because we were nominated as the favorite channel by families in France. That was the fourth year in a row that we got this nomination, so I think we have succeeded in helping families cope during this period and helping children find a new way to interact with programs and with TV.”

Original local content is crucial to M6 Group’s kids’ portfolio, Bony said. “On all our channels, we have transmitted something like 30,000 hours of French animation all around the world. We are the number one broadcaster of French animation around the world, and we are quite proud of that. We are maintaining our [level of] production. Right now, we have about 20 different French animation shows either in development or production.”

International expansion is also important for Bony’s division. “We are quite successful in different parts of the world, especially in Africa. We have an agreement with Canal+ for the distribution of Gulli Africa in about 25 countries. The channel is very successful there. During this pandemic, we were selected by UNESCO to be part of a global coalition for education, especially in Africa. We launched a channel in Brazil. We are also present in the Middle East with Gulli Bil Arabi. We are present in Russia and all the countries around Russia with two channels, Gulli Girl and Tiji. We have around 20 million subscribers in these different territories, and we still have expansion there. In early 2022, we will launch a new channel in Kazakhstan, Tiji, in the Kazakh language. We still have some expansion. It is also an opportunity for us to share the best of French animation. Each time, we try to [create a specific offer] for each specific region with part French animation and part local productions.”

Reflecting on his work in the kids’ business, Bony noted: “Kids are changing faster and faster. What is fascinating is that now when you are launching a new show and start the first sentence on a white page, you know that you are working for the next generation. You need to be able to anticipate their behaviors, their tastes, their interests, which are changing so quickly. You know [it will be] several years before you can broadcast the show and that a lot of things will have changed. It’s interesting to try to anticipate that. You need to be lucky because you never know which way the world will go. So it is really exciting to work for children and try to help them discover this new world.”