In this report, Playback looks at the people and forces involved in the development of three new Canadian kids’ programs and the marketing and merchandising thrusts behind those and some other kids’ properties.

Inside:

Development diaries:

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza p. 24

Zoboomafoo p. 27

Mr. Men p. 29

Treehouse TV p. 26

Wimzie update p. 30

ACT awards approach p. 30

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With new specialties teletoon and ytv’s Treehouse jumping into the battle for tiny eyeballs, conventional broadcasters are offering small tweaks to their kids’ lineups; ytv is skewing slightly older while pubcasters cbc and tvontario are offering more of the same, with kids’ programming overhauls expected in the near future.

Creative head of children’s and youth programming at cbc, Adrian Mills, who moved to the Corp from tvo six months ago after helping create the successful afternoon and Sunday morning TVO Kids block (The Crawlspace, The Nook), says by spring cbc’s preschool Playground block will be hosted and plans are in the works for an after-school youth block with more shows like Streetcents and Jonovision aimed at the lucrative but tough to reach 12-18 demographic.

‘You’re not going to see any changes that I introduce until winter and spring,’ says Mills, who plans to position Playground and the youth block under the umbrella brand of Children’s cbc. The four-year-old Playground will have new episodes of Andrew Cochran Associates’ Theodore Tugboat, Sesame Park and a new show this season from veteran kids’ entertainers Sharon, Lois and Bram, Skinnamarink tv.

Mills seems confident that new signals teletoon and commercial-free preschool net Treehouse will have little effect on cbc’s preschool market share, which he pegs between 30% and up to 50% when Mr. Dressup is on. Mills is hoping a partnership campaign with daycare centers and daycare providers launching this month will see Playground and the characters and shows associated with it become embedded in the day-to-day lives of tots.

‘A poster on the wall doesn’t do much for me, but we’re looking for an everyday presence where the daycare uses cbc characters to talk about issues and problems, et cetera,’ says Mills, who admits the proposed partnerships and ’embedding’ will take a few years to fully develop.

New Playground rival Treehouse, out of the blocks Nov. 1, is also commercial-free and aimed at preschoolers, who, according to StatsCan, are in at least one in five Canadian households.

‘We’re going to be a complete environment dedicated to preschoolers,’ says Susan Ross, vp/gm Treehouse tv. ‘We offer the complete environment at times of the day when preschool programming isn’t available.’

ytv president Paul Robertson is quick to point out that his network is still in the business of programming to preschoolers and will continue with its current 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. block of preschool programs that are available in 7.2 million homes as the reach of sister station Treehouse has yet to be determined.

But ytv has definitely grown up and is taking a stab at the teen market with new shows like Breaker High (Shavick Entertainment). ‘Our target group has grown up with us,’ explains Robertson, who with ytv was among the 75 applicants for new specialty channels with Chaos aimed at teen and young adult viewers.

With older viewers come different advertisers, and Robertson contends that while ytv was once solely supported by toy companies and other kids’ products, ‘we’ve developed relationships with advertisers who are interested in the teen demographic and those who like to get the whole family around the television.’

As to how much of the ‘stuff-buying teen market’ ytv has, Robertson says, ‘Our research has shown that ytv reaches 100,000 more teens than MuchMusic on a weekly basis according to Nielsen’s September ratings.’

Always an integral part of the ytv strategy are the on-air hosts or pjs, who can now be seen in various forms on the other networks. Robertson sees the imitation as flattery and says ytv will continue with its Bust Out Tour this year that will bring the ytv on-air personalities face-to-face with viewers in various towns and cities across Canada.

Over at tvo, where a replacement has yet to be named for Mills, acting head of children’s programming John Gill says the pubcaster has ‘really scored’ on Sunday mornings with its extended version of The Nook, featuring friendly kid host Rekha Shah. ‘We knew we couldn’t compete with the networks on Saturday mornings so we didn’t invest money there with a host,’ says Gill.

With The Nook now running until noon, Gill says, ‘When we used to have other programming in the 10 until noon slot we were getting less than one point a share and now we’re getting over five points a share. That’s the type of impact hosting can have.’

In development at tvo right now with a scheduled winter launch is an in-house production entitled Stuff, which will be produced by TVO Kids creator Liz Haines and geared towards children aged eight to 10. The production team behind Stuff will be the same group involved with the recently canceled teen series Off the Hook.

The success of the afternoon block of the hosted TVO Kids (200,000 viewers per week) and recent positive numbers on Sundays has Gill suggesting that the next step will be an overhaul of the Get Ready to Learn block on weekday mornings. ‘The next phase,’ he says, ‘will be to tackle the weekday morning block and build that into something special.’

Gill suggests tvo gets about 30% of the two-to-five age group with its programming and about 20% of the five to 11 demographic. Like ytv, the TVO Kids hosts have been getting out and meeting their public.

The wild card in all of this may be teletoon. The new cartoon network will be running a preschool block of animation weekdays from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., a kids’ block after school and a family block from 7-9 p.m.

vp programming Kevin Wright says when it came to programming for kids, teletoon was mainly conscious of the after-school and weekend mornings that are the traditional ‘ghettos’ for kids. teletoon is hoping that its strategy of checkerboarding its after-school schedule and an unconventional slot for an animated kids’ movie on Saturday mornings will prove a successful audience draw.

At both Baton and Global, small changes have been made to keep the kids’ blocks relevant, but both broadcasters seem to be sticking to formulas that have proven successful.

Baton has its Disney’s One Saturday Morning block of Disney product, with interstitials coming from a new host at Master Control, Melyssa Ade. An Ontario newsletter will be made national when the logistics are worked out, says senior vp programming Beverley Oda, who also indicates plans to bump up the age target market with a future show to replace the canceled Road Crew.

Over at Global there are some new shows including The Weird Al Show and SDA Productions’ Popular Mechanics for Kids. vp programming and promotion Doug Hoover says their branding with Kids tv has been changed to ktv with a hipper, edgier and slightly older feel.

With Alliance Broadcasting’s Showcase also offering kids’ programming, there is a feeling that the market may be nearing the saturation point.

As to the future, kids’ guru Robertson points out that conventional u.s. broadcasters have taken less interest in programming for kids. ‘Nickelodeon and the Comedy Channel drove growth in the specialty market at the expense of the conventional broadcasters, and that trend is continuing,’ says Robertson. ‘If we follow a similar trend in Canada, we expect a future disinterest from the conventional broadcasters in kids’ programming.’