Barbara Bailie, director interactive for Astral Television Networks, is the self-proclaimed ‘mother of Family.ca‘ who helped start Family Channel’s popular website in ’97 and crafted it into one of the top online kids destinations in the country.

‘The Family brand is very important,’ says Bailie. ‘Before we had our brand nailed, we tried to be everything to everyone in the family, and it didn’t work as well.’

Now the channel targets just the kids, which is reflected in every aspect of the website. In fact, the site focused its target on the eight- to 14-year-old audience before the network itself switched.

This kid-centric focus seems to be working. Family.ca is a top kids site, vying for the number-one spot among all Canadian children’s broadcasters with nearly one million unique visitors per month. Bailie believes this success is based on understanding its audience.

‘Family.ca went through a lot of versions, and we tried a lot of things that didn’t work before hitting on what did,’ says Bailie.

What works now are simple, ‘sticky’ features that promote an active community. In particular, Family has found success developing games and experiences around popular shows that focus on its stars as celebrities. Bailie cites Life with Derek as an example of this.

Joe Tedesco, VP and GM of Family and Playhouse Disney, agrees with Bailie. ‘Making a great show starts with really having a good understanding of your audience, and having a good understanding of the kinds of programming that’s going to engage them.

‘We paid a lot of attention to how we launched Life with Derek,’ says Tedesco. ‘We launched it in March break, which is a time when our audience numbers are at their peak, so we maximized the exposure. We really worked hard to get the leads [Michael Seater and Ashley Leggat] out in the market with Family Channel and build them up as stars.’

Family has done very well with the online games and podcasts created for the Shaftesbury Films show by Shaftesbury’s Smokebomb Entertainment.

Video, both short and long-form, has also found a home on Family.ca. Although the site experimented with video in the early days of broadband video, it was not until the launch of its dedicated video player in June 2006 that it became an important part of Family.ca.

‘Nickelodeon and the other big children’s broadcasters had players before us,’ says Bailie, ‘and we could have launched one earlier. But what really took the time was getting the content ready. You can’t launch a video player and only have a few clips available.’

Now, like all broadcasters, video is a key element of the Family website, although the cost of streaming video is high. In light of the expense involved, Bailie’s team is currently studying audience behavior to determine the most effective way to use video on the site.

‘The trick is getting accurate metrics and viewership patterns, studying what works, and seeing what’s really going on here. It’s just like the Nielsens for regular broadcasting, and will allow us to play with the online schedule to get the most out of what we’re doing.’

Bailie acknowledges that the potential for revenue through online video is there, but its primary function, like most things online, is still promotion and marketing for the network’s brand and its shows.

Complementing the breadth of Family video available online is the new Family OnDemand service, launched in the spring of 2008 on select cable operators. Offering more than 30 hours of fresh video content every week, Family has been building an audience for the service over the summer by making high-profile premiere content like Camp Rock and Disney Channel Games available through OnDemand prior to its broadcast on the linear service.

Looking towards the future, Family.ca is preparing to launch a new kids community called FanClub this fall. Currently in its testing phase, Bailie says this personal portal page feature is designed to ‘give kids a sense that their friends are there with them.’

FanClub is another in a long line of experiments for Family.ca as the broadcaster seeks to continue providing its young viewers with the kind of online experiences that keep bringing them back to the Family brand.

– With files from Marise Strauss