Viacom vets aim to reinvent kids’ TV

The former boss of Viacom Russia is launching a children’s entertainment venture with one-time Joost and Galleon execs, backed by industry veterans Howard Litton and Tony Orsten.

Nick Walters

Nick Walters, who was general manager of Viacom International Media Networks Russia and CIS until the end of last year, has teamed up with Sander Striker and Mahesh Ramachandra to create Hopster.

The subscription-based TV and learning app for preschoolers, designed for touch-screen devices, comes out of Walters’ new company Plato Media.

UK-based Hopster will offer children aged 2-6 on-demand access to hundreds of episodes of preschool shows and interactive games when it launches on the iPad in late 2013, C21 can reveal.

Walters, who was with Viacom for over six years, first as head of strategy for emerging markets before going on to steers channels including Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy, told C21 he wanted Hopster to “reinvent children’s television as a truly interactive experience.”

He has enlisted Striker, a former Joost and Vdio exec, as chief technology officer, and Ramachandra, previously director of entertainment at Galleon Holdings, as head of product.

Hopster will be the first unlimited subscription-based TV and learning app created exclusively for 2-6s, Walters said.

“We will have a core of interactive games that will be of extremely high quality. The games, which will be designed by our team, will be based around the shows the children have watched,” he added.

“Over the last six months we’ve been striking up licensing deals with major studios. Some of the shows are world famous and Bafta winning. Our team comes from strong TV backgrounds, so that’s been very useful for us.”

The Hopster management also includes Bradley Archer, another ex-Viacom and Nickelodeon exec and Sharna Jackson, who joins from Tate Museums as head of creative.

Hopster

Also on board as an advisor is former Nickelodeon UK chief Howard Litton, who is currently attached to Acamar Films, the UK indie behind upcoming preschool series Bing Bunny.

Other advisors and investors include Tony Orsten, the Viacom veteran who also served stints at Joost and Twofour54 in Abu Dhabi, before returning to the UK last year, setting up Orsten Media and last month joining The Imaginarium Studios as CEO.

Entrepreneur and angel investor Peter Read, who has backed companies including Skype, LoveFilm and Righster, is also on board, as is Bhavneet Singh, who was with Viacom for eight years until joining Pearson as CEO of Global English in 2012. Santiago Matheus, MD of Method London, completes the line-up.

Walters said Hopster could take children’s TV to the next level by making it “more interactive.”

“We have been going out speaking to parents and they are more and more onboard the idea of having their children learning on touch-screen devices,” he added.

Hopster will be entering a closed beta this summer.