Kids' pay TV station set to launch
A NEW family friendly children's pay TV channel with no advertisements is set to
give the ABC's new kids' offering
a run for its money.
Called KidsCo, the pay TV station, aimed at six- to
10-year-olds, will be launched in Australia on
November 15, the 60th country around the world to get
the channel.
It features mostly cartoons, as well as live action and
movies, with series such as Adventures of Paddington Bear,
Rolie Polie Olie, Sonic Underground, and new original
programming such as Boo & Me and Jass Time.
And it will join the public broadcaster in having no ads.
The ABC's new children's channel will go live on December 4.
KidsCo managing director Paul Robinson said the company's
research had shown that Australian parents were worried about
how much advertising was on television.
"There is evidence that children's behaviour is a function
of TV they watch," he said.
"Advertising itself has a lot of issues, clearly in
Australia there is the issue of obesity amongst children.
"And secondly the whole issue of pester power."
Money is gained purely from subscription, but the channel
won't cost subscribers more.
It'll also compete against other children's channels,
including Nickelodeon, Disney and the Cartoon Network, but Mr Robinson said he
believed the new station would do well.
"For a developed market the size of Australia you've got
relatively few channels," he said.
"We see there's a gap for children aged six to 10 with
family safe programming.
"On KidsCo you'll never see something which a parent thinks is inappropriate.
"You're not going to see violence, you're not to see fighting, you're not going
to see blood or bad behaviour."
Unlike the ABC, when it launches it will have no Australian programs, aside from
Australian voice-overs and clips of
Australian children, but from April it will have local shows
thanks to agreements with Australian production companies.
Mr Robinson said he wasn't concerned with competing with ABC3 because he
believes they have different roles.
He believes the public broadcaster should concentrate more on
local programming.
"There is an accountability there which is to Australian programming," he said.
"I'm quite surprised they're only putting half of the
schedule as Australian and the other half as acquired.
"If you compare to the BBC in the UK, most of their content
is actually British."
Programming boss Eileen McCarthy, an Aussie based in the UK,
said she was also on the search for more local content, with
the opportunity to be broadcast all over the world.
"If I can't find some good Australian content to put on air,
nobody can," she said.
November 10, 2009
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26331815-1702,00.html
|
Having problems with message search?
Fill out this form to ensure your group is one of the first to be migrated to the new message search system.
Offline 
Send Email
