SCHEDULE WATCH CHANNEL PROFILE: Viacom-owned children’s network Nickelodeon Germany will throw down the gauntlet to its rivals when it becomes a 24-hour channel later this year. Nico Franks reports.

The arrival of a 24-hour free-to-air Disney Channel in January has made a huge impression on the children’s TV landscape in Germany, just as Nickelodeon’s relaunch in the market did under a decade ago.

The German kids market has grown as a result, says Milagros Aleman, senior VP and general manager of Nickelodeon, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Northern Europe. “That was our prediction because that’s what happened when we entered the market,” she says.

Accordingly, Nickelodeon announced in June ^[1] that it would be shifting to a 24-hour schedule in Germany, Switzerland and Austria from October in order to tap into a perceived increase in young eyeballs available to watch TV during the evening.

“We want to become the essential content hub for Millennials in Europe,” said Magnus Kastner, executive VP and MD of VIMN Northern Europe at the time. “Extending Nickelodeon’s presence as a 24/7 channel dedicated to kids and an additional youth target group is an important strategic move in realising this goal.”

Nickelodeon, which currently broadcasts between 06.00 and 20.15 each day, will take over from Comedy Central in the evening. The latter network will be combined with Viacom music channel Viva, Comedy Central airing between 17.00 and 06.00 and Viva from 06.00 to 17.00.

The move will extend Nickelodeon’s presence to 21.00, when it will be followed by a block similar to Nick@Nite in the US, featuring sitcoms, reality series and soaps, as the channel aims to broaden its demographic to teens and young adults.

Rival Disney Channel already generates an average daytime share of 8.4% among kids 3-13, as C21’s recent analysis ^[2] of the Mouse House network in Germany highlights.

This rose to 9.7% in the first half of June, only 0.1 percentage points behind Nickelodeon Germany, while public kids’ channel KiKa reached an equivalent 17.2% share and Super RTL led the local kids’ market earlier this year on 19%.

Nickelodeon’s extension to 21.00 presents many more opportunities to offer kids something in the evening, says Aleman. “It’s great for the audience as it’s an alternative to watching general interest programming, which isn’t necessarily geared towards them.”

Targeting teens and 20-somethings with a linear channel when the trend is towards VoD may be a risky strategy, but Aleman is confident that the German version of Nick@Nite will find an audience.

There are a “very high number” of young adults watching TV during the evening in Germany, Aleman says, including a “high concentration” of young women – a group she suggests the current “family-orientated” players aren’t serving.

Current schedule
Nickelodeon Germany’s general programming in the morning is skewed towards animation while kids are preparing to go to school, with Nick Jr preschool programmes such as Dora the Explorer, Bubble Guppies and Paw Patrol, which launched this year.

Aleman is keen to increase awareness of this block among parents and is hoping the launch of a Nick Jr-branded Watch & Learn app for the iPhone and iPad will help mums and dads think of Nick’s preschool programming more when sitting their young ones in front of the TV. “We’re kid-first and we know that kids prefer us, but sometimes parents don’t know the scope of what we have,” Aleman says.

The app features programming such as Dora, Go Diego Go!, Bubble Guppies and Umizoomi, available for download at a cost, alongside customisable profiles and a Nick Jr curriculum focusing on lessons in maths, literacy, science and more.

Viacom has already rolled out ^[3] its My Nick Jr connected TV app in the US and UK, following a successful debut in France and Aleman hints that Germany could be next.

My Nick Jr allows parents to programme a customised playlist for their preschool child from a library of 650 episodes and select specific episode topics – such as problem solving or maths – that they want their child to learn more about.

Through the app, parents can elect to be sent emails summarising what their children have watched and which topics have been covered within the viewed episodes.

As children return home from school for lunch, animation returns, with older-skewing toons such as the successful franchise reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DreamWorks Animation spin-off Penguins of Madagascar and Nick’s original buddy comedy Sanjay & Craig.

Later in the afternoon the schedule turns to live-action programming, including superhero comedy The Thundermans and sitcom iCarly, followed by a combination of animation and live-action in access primetime. Here, Nick focuses on its “high performers,” Aleman says, including the evergreen SpongeBob SquarePants, which is still “one of the top performers,” and Cosmo & Wonder (aka Fairly OddParents).

The popular Sam & Cat, which is only set to run for one season due to issues among its increasingly mature cast members, “is performing very well,” and Aleman expects it to be one of the highlights for Nickelodeon in access primetime during the fall.

The teen sitcom, a huge hit in the US, stars Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande, the leads from previous Nick series iCarly and Victorious respectively, as they launch a babysitting service together. However, production ground to a halt after 35 episodes earlier this year when Grande’s pop music career took off.

The early evening is fronted by Monsters Vs Aliens, another DreamWorks Animation CGI series, which is a strong performer in its weekday slot. Aleman confirms that animation will remain a major part of Nickelodeon Germany’s schedule.

However, forthcoming schedule changes will mean more live-action content in primetime in order to attract an older audience to the channel that can “flow” into the more mature evening programming, says Aleman.

“We looked at how kids were watching television and clearly the younger kids, those under nine years old, go to bed earlier. But there is a percentage of kids aged between 10 and 13 who remain watching,” she explains. “We thought it would be a great opportunity to provide programming that’s also for kids, rather than have them go to a general interest channel. We want to keep them with Nickelodeon until 21.00.”

From 21.00 onwards, the Nick@Nite block will feature content from VIMN’s broad library, including series from teen network MTV and others made by Nickelodeon in the US to attract older audiences during the evening, some of them new to Germany’s free TV market.

“Obviously we know that there are going to be some younger kids watching, so we’ll start with younger teenager programming and progressively add other shows like Degrassi, which is a show that hasn’t been on free TV in Germany but on pay TV, on MTV,” Aleman says.

Nickelodeon sitcoms set to air earlier in the block include Wendell & Vinnie, See Dad Run and How to Rock, which will also be available to view in their original language as an alternative to the dubbed versions.

“It’s going to be a very new feature in the free TV German market,” Aleman says, describing it as Nick@Nite’s “USP” in the region.

While Disney Germany airs family-orientated programming in primetime and Super RTL offers US dramas such as Scandal, Nickelodeon will be going after 14-29s, a notoriously difficult demo to attract.

Airing series in English is likely to pique their interest, while social media-friendly MTV reality series such as Catfish: The TV Show will also form a major part of its arsenal. Using Twitter will be high on the agenda in order to tap into the demographic’s multi-screen viewing habits, Aleman adds.

Original production
“We understand the importance of having a local touch,” says Aleman, who adds she is keen to bring more of a local flavour to the channel.

To that end, Nickelodeon Germany introduced a weekday afternoon programme last year called Nickelodeon Alaaarm.

Hosted by Laura Garde and Sascha Quade, both in their early twenties, the magazine programme is “a way to showcase what the Nickelodeon brand is all about, which is that we’re wacky, we have a big heart and great characters,” Aleman says.

On the scripted side, Nickelodeon Northern Europe produced Hotel 13 (120×12′), a daily soap that follows the adventures of six teenagers who come together while working at a seaside hotel that appears to have a mysterious secret.

The German-language drama targeted kids aged 8-11 and was produced in the Netherlands by Nickelodeon alongside Munich-based Studio 100 Media and its Belgian parent Studio 100. The companies previously hooked up to produce the original version of House of Anubis, later remade for UK and US audiences.

“We are always looking at options to bring different elements and different European shows to the channel. We’re working with our production and development teams to evaluate what the next thing we should do is,” says Aleman.

But she also highlights the popularity of Sam & Cat in the region, arguing that US series are able to resonant as much with European audiences as a show made locally.

Meanwhile, looking at its late-night schedule, Nickelodeon Germany is in the process of identifying programming from the VIMN library that it thinks will appeal to an older target audience after 21.00.

Aleman is open to diversifying the Nick@Nite schedule and the addition of internet dating show Catfish is certainly different to any Nickelodeon series on-air at the moment.

However, the exec emphasises that reality is “not going to be the core” of Nick’s late-night content mix. For the moment, this also seems to be the case for original programming.

“We are totally open to exploring what the interesting things are for the target group,” Aleman says, adding the broadcaster is conducting a great deal of research into what its target group is interested in.

Acquisitions for Nick@Nite
At the time of writing, Nickelodeon Germany was unable to reveal any properties it had acquired from outside the VIMN library, but confirmed that it is looking at third-party programming.

“We always look at what is relevant to our target group and what is being offered in the German market. We have our eye on certain properties but I’ve not yet had confirmation,” says Aleman.

Nickelodeon Germany’s top 10 shows of 2013/14
(Rank, title, type, source, average % rating, % share of 3-13s across multiple showings. Sample period Oct 1 2013-Aug 11 2014. Excludes movies and shows with fewer than 15 airings in the period)

1. Monsters vs Aliens, animation (US), network, 1.4, 8.3
2. Beyblade, animation, acquisition (Jap), 1.3, 11
3. Avatar – The Last Airbender, animation (US), network, 1.2, 13.5
4. Kung Fu Panda, animation (US), network, 1.2, 10.7
5. Monster High, animation (US), acquisition, 1.2, 14.1
6. Max Steel, animation (US, Can), acquisition, 1.2, 12.1
7. Power Rangers Megaforce (US), live-action, acquisition, 1.1, 12.3
8. Groove High, animation (UK, Fra, Ire), acquisition, 1.1, 12.1
9. Fred The Show, live-action (US), network, 1.1, 7.9
10. Big Time Rush, live-action (US), network, 1.1, 13.1

Source: AGF GfK, TV Scope, Nickelodeon