here<\/a>.<\/p>\nMurphy\u2019s remit covers Sky Kids, which arrived as a linear channel last year. \u201cWe talk to our customers a lot, and before launching the channel, we had been speaking to parents who were telling us that as much as they love the flexibility of on-demand viewing for their children, they found linear channels for children important. Particularly, younger families enjoyed the fact that with a linear channel, children come across new shows; they don\u2019t binge-watch one particular show all the time. There\u2019s variety, there are different genres they get exposed to. So much data had been leading everybody to on-demand services\u2014and they\u2019re great\u2014and there is still room for linear channels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Partnerships with third-party channel operators are also crucial for Sky in delivering value to its subscribers, Murphy said. \u201cWe are an aggregator, from all the great free-to-airs like CBeebies and Milkshake! through to pay partners Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. We have eight pay channels as well as the free-to-airs. Those relationships are incredibly important because we want the very best of everything. That means the best international channels and the best British channels. Having looked at all of that, there\u2019s also room for us to make some very targeted commissions and acquisitions at Sky Kids to complement what we get from our pay partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
On how the programming strategy differs across linear and on-demand, Murphy noted, \u201cWe certainly use the linear channel to introduce new shows. In this age of a very crowded environment and \u2018discoverability\u2019 being the buzzword that everybody is talking about, a linear channel gives you an opportunity to introduce a new show and create an appetite and a love for it that can then get translated into the on-demand environment. Linear also gives us an opportunity to create mood and energy, which you can\u2019t really do on-demand in quite the same way. Our linear channel gives us the opportunity to follow the rhythm of a young child\u2019s day. When kids are waking up, you don\u2019t want something that\u2019s going to get them leaping around instantly; you want something that is going to get them into the day quietly. Then you bring all your big brands in before school. We also recognize that we have different aged children available at different times of the day. We assume the bigger kids have gone off to school, so we can put on much younger-skewing programming during the middle of the day and really think about what parents need at that moment. We\u2019re constantly thinking about what families are doing and what kids are doing. How are they feeling at this moment in time? And what can we give them that is just perfect?\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy then drilled down into her commissioning strategy, with her on the lookout for shows for ages 1 to 10. \u201cThe channel is for children 7 and under. There is an amount that we commission for on-demand only, for the 6- to 10-year-old audiences. We\u2019ve commissioned more than ever over the last couple of years, and we\u2019re investing more than we have done before in U.K. content and creators. We\u2019re maintaining that investment. We\u2019re committed to commissioning for a broad demographic and all the genres that fit into what children want to watch, whether that\u2019s news and current affairs or animation or factual entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acquisitions complement the third-party channel and originals lineup, Murphy said. \u201cWe try to look at where the gaps are so that we\u2019re filling them in. We don\u2019t have an actual number of hours per year that we take. Yes, of course, you need lots of new shows to refresh the service, but you also have to look at those shows that kids are loving and think, OK, this repeats so well, let\u2019s take that for extra seasons. We also look for huge global brands\u2014all the brands that you would expect from a premium entertainment service. When acquiring or commissioning, you also hope you\u2019re going to find those little gems. A couple that we bought [recently] that have done really well for us were Beep and Mort<\/em>, which came out of Australia, and Norman Picklestripes<\/em>, which is a stop-motion series made in Manchester. Those little gems that are not known IP and are not big brands, but they really have blossomed and flourished.\u201d<\/p>\nMurphy then weighed in on how Sky\u2019s kids\u2019 brands are remaining competitive amid a cost-of-living crisis and abundant media options. \u201cWe\u2019re looking all the time at what\u2019s going to add value for our customers, what\u2019s going to make them feel good about paying for their subscription,\u201d she said. \u201cStaying competitive is about that value. It\u2019s also about keeping one step ahead so that you stay current, relevant and, most importantly, loved. We also need to be really inclusive. Not just in the type of shows that we are commissioning, but in the experience of watching. We were delighted that we could launch the Sky Kids linear channel with 100 percent of the shows subtitled. We\u2019ve also put a lot into subtitled collections of on-demand content because we know that it helps with kids learning to read. We\u2019re constantly fine-tuning and finding ways to make the experience of watching amazing and for parents to think, Wow, that\u2019s a little added extra that we get from Sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Receiving the TV Kids Pioneer Award for her extensive contributions to the business, Murphy weighed in on the shifts in the industry that have most impacted how she approaches her job. \u201cWe all know that discoverability is absolutely key, and it\u2019s top of mind for the industry. I\u2019ve been in the industry long enough to remember a time before megabrands like PAW Patrol<\/em>, Teletubbies<\/em>, Peppa Pig<\/em> and Hey Duggee<\/em> existed. Anything coming into the market now has all that competition; all those beloved brands are going to stay. So, anything coming now has to add to that landscape and create something a little bit different.\u201d<\/p>\nMurphy continued, \u201cAlso, we\u2019re thinking a lot about the robustness of brands to be able to carry through all the digital touchpoints and real-life touchpoints that a family might have. I always say that the very best place for your show to end up is a drawing on the fridge in the kitchen. If your child has drawn, colored in and given you a picture of their favorite character, it means they love it. And if whoever is looking after that child then hangs it on the fridge, that means they also like it and have invited it into their home. We\u2019re always really aiming for that; we\u2019re aiming for the fridge. All of the franchise planning, which used to be pretty much TV and then consumer products, now is much more elaborate, and producers are getting brilliant at doing all of that. It\u2019s definitely something that we think about when we\u2019re commissioning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Content has to stand out, Murphy noted, and \u201cprovide an opportunity\u2014whether that opportunity is that a child just wants to be entertained, they just want the funnies or whether they want to learn something or want to get up and dance. Whatever the need state is that they\u2019re experiencing at that moment in time, we need to have something that fits it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy remains energized about her work in the kids\u2019 business, despite the challenges the sector is facing. \u201cThe creativity of this industry gets me out of bed every morning. When you see something that is just so beautiful, so heartfelt or so original, and you think, Oh, I haven\u2019t seen that before! And the way that tech is constantly leading us into new places is exciting. Everybody\u2019s been excited about the new LEGO-Fortnite relationship. What\u2019s that going to look like? How\u2019s it going to play out? We\u2019ve been having a lot of fun with a new bit of tech called Sky Live, which is a camera that sits on top of the TV and allows for really immersive, interactive, gesture-based gameplay where you\u2019ve got children up on their feet actually using their bodies to play games. It\u2019s about making entertainment fit into families\u2019 lives, and that\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lucy Murphy, director of kids\u2019 content for the U.K. and Ireland at Sky, highlighted her strategy for the Sky Kids linear channel and a growing on-demand lineup ahead of being recognized with the TV Kids Pioneer Award today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":26826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4677,975,976,9024],"class_list":["post-26825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-lucy-murphy","tag-sky","tag-sky-kids","tag-tv-kids-festival-2024","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lucy Murphy, director of kids\u2019 content for the U.K. and Ireland at Sky, highlighted her strategy for the Sky Kids linear channel and a growing on-demand lineup ahead of being recognized with the TV Kids Pioneer Award today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-01T14:28:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-01T14:28:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/2024-02-01-LucyMurphy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/\",\"name\":\"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-01T14:28:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-01T14:28:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy - TVKIDS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy - TVKIDS","og_description":"Lucy Murphy, director of kids\u2019 content for the U.K. and Ireland at Sky, highlighted her strategy for the Sky Kids linear channel and a growing on-demand lineup ahead of being recognized with the TV Kids Pioneer Award today.","og_url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/","og_site_name":"TVKIDS","article_published_time":"2024-02-01T14:28:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-01T14:28:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/2024-02-01-LucyMurphy.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mansha Daswani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mansha Daswani","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/","name":"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy - TVKIDS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-01T14:28:18+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-01T14:28:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/tv-kids-pioneer-award-lucy-murphy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TV Kids Pioneer Award: Lucy Murphy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/","name":"TVKIDS","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad","name":"Mansha Daswani","description":"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}