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Casting the net
Posted By Nico Franks On 05-05-2015 @ 5:20 pm In Features | Comments Disabled
The flexibility of the web is providing as many opportunities as challenges for Ketnet, the children’s channel of Flemish pubcaster VRT. Nico Franks reports.
As head of acquisitions at Flemish pubcaster Ketnet, Telidja Klaï is used to scouring the international market for programmes that will connect with her audience of under-12s.
That’s about as wide a demographic as you can get, taking in infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-aged children and – perhaps the trickiest customers for traditional kids’ TV channels – tweens.
Many of VRT-owned Ketnet’s commercial competitors in Belgium, such as Disney and Nickelodeon, have the benefit of being able to cater to all these different audiences across two different channels. Klaï, however, has to cope with just the one.
“We have a huge challenge on our hands to cater to the whole target group with one channel. The problem is, if you focus on one, then the others will go to the internet,” she says.
But the web is also the solution to this problem, she notes, adding that having to cope with just the one channel is one of the reasons Ketnet has focused so much on catering to its audience on different platforms.
Ketnet’s VoD service, Kijken, gives kids the chance to watch programmes online on tablet, mobile and desktop during the times when the linear TV schedule doesn’t appeal. It is also forming the template for Klaï’s future strategy, as she predicts that by the year 2030 what we now refer to as TV will be a vast library of programming from which consumers can select, much like Netflix is today.
“Ketnet is a 360° experience, where we try to be everywhere in the lives of children. They’re the ones showing us how to use all these platforms and we have to go with them,” Klaï says.
One programme that is likely to prove popular online is Belgian animated series Sex, Say What? (24×5’), designed to make the journey through puberty easier by teaching adolescents about sex in a distinctly European matter-of-fact way.
“A public broadcaster should stimulate the development of children and one of the most important areas for guidance is sex,” says Klaï, adding that it is a pubcaster’s duty to offer these kinds of educational programmes. Indeed, a Nickelodeon, Disney or Cartoon Network would be unlikely to go anywhere near a show with ‘sex’ in the title.
Ketnet supported the show’s producer, Beast Animation, at Cartoon Forum last year, and the coproduction event is one where the Flemish channel usually has a strong presence across a range of projects.
Also pitched with Ketnet’s support in Toulouse was the mixed-media series Joe & Waldo (26×5’), a preschool show set at the North Pole and starring Belgian comedian William Boeva. It follows the adventures of an Inuit, played by Boeva, and his polar bear friend, who drive around in an ice cream van. Backgrounds and secondary characters are drawn in 2D animation, again with Beast Animation, while Paris-based Moving Puppets is also involved in the show.
Boeva, who has dwarfism and is well known on the Belgian comedy circuit, will be joined by an actor in a polar bear outfit. The diversity of the companies involved in the production and the originality of the concept were major incentives for Ketnet to get involved, Klaï says.
“I’m not looking for a particular genre. But I’m always looking for something special, the little diamonds between the pearls, shows that are innovative and original,” Klaï adds.
The length of shows on Ketnet can range between seven and 26 minutes, while animation for kids aged six and above is particularly high up Klaï’s shopping list. “Children from the age of six are looking for different programmes, rather than repeats, and most of the drama we can make locally. So we will always have a need for good comedy, adventure and action animation,” she says.
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