“Kids television is not inexpensive by any means and the ad sales universe is limited,” says Disney Channel entertainment prexy Rich Ross. As a result, “we are not developing anything that airs just once a week. No one is.”
“Fillmore” is the only show that will air exclusively on ABC Kids.
Because so many kids shows will air on multiple platforms, there may be more time devoted to the programming this fall, but fewer actual programs.
“We’re all more focused,” Ross says. “We can’t afford to put on programs that are not going to gather an audience and gain attention.”
Al Kahn, chairman, CEO and director of 4Kids Entertainment, is hoping to capitalize on Fox’s lack of a kids cable partner. “Everything we’re doing is new and we’re not going to repeat as much as our competitors do,” he says.
Without a cable partner, 4Kids also won’t have the built-in promotional partners of their competish. So it has taken out local spots on national cable and also is promoting on the Fox net.Nickelodeon exec VP-G.M. Cyma Zarghami is skeptical about some of the changes in the kids biz. “Saturday morning will look drastically different this fall, but I don’t know if drastically different will be drastically better,” says Zarghami. The No. 1 network with kids, Nickelodeon doesn’t have as much at stake on Saturday mornings since it’s in the kid biz 24/7. But the other players are gearing up aggressive lineups heavily skewed to boys.
Stacey Lynn Koerner, senior VP-director of broadcast research at Initiative Media, attributes the increased kids competish to “a lot of the programming being similar in nature. It’s very action-oriented and there’s a lot of anime.”
As always, it will be up to the kids themselves to decide which shows are going to become breakout hits.
“Obviously, we are all competing for the same eyeballs,” says Marjorie Kaplan, senior vice prexy-general manager for Discovery Kids.
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