English Entertainment
DIC Entertainment & AOL partner to create strategic TV & online programming block
MUMBAI: DIC Entertainment (DIC), an independent global brand management company based in the US, and AOL online kids destination, KOL, have formed a partnership to co-produce a new Saturday morning branded programming block, KOL’s Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party on CBS, which will premiere 16 September 2006.
DIC and KOL will also develop online and on-air co-production initiatives in conjunction with the block. DIC and KOL are also now in development on programs for the 2007 season, informs an official release.
As per the agreement, KOL and DIC will co-produce programming for the 2006 broadcast season, including the new television series Dance Revolution. This series is inspired by Konami’s hit video game franchise Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). The new dance competition series will be hosted by Radio KOL DJ Rick Adams, who will also continue to maintain his live online radio show for kids available on KOL.
In addition, KOL and DIC will develop a website designed to transform the programs airing on KOL’s Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party on CBS into a comprehensive and interactive experience for kids. KOL will also offer special online programming including games, program clips, behind-the-scenes features and more to drive on-air viewership.
Dance Revolution and the online activities will support the schedule of programming debuting this fall on the E/I compliant branded block. Other programming on the Saturday Morning line-up includes Cake, Horseland, The Animated Trollz and Madeline.
Additionally, KOL will create public service announcements on healthy eating, to air during the block and online utilizing KOL’s popular original animated character Princess Natasha, adds the release.
DIC will seek initial guidance on all programming to air on the KOL’s Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party on CBS, from children’s experts from the DIC Educational Advisory Board — a group comprised of leading media experts, educators and pediatricians created to provide information, guidance, advice and general expertise to DIC in the development of multimedia programs and projects for children.
“With AOL’s expertise in developing online programming and our success in building brands such as ‘Princess Natasha’ and Radio KOL, appealing to millions of kids, we are confident that this landmark partnership with DIC will be a tremendous success,” says AOL Kids & Teens SVP Malcolm Bird. “Once again, AOL is leading the industry by building another initiative that taps the power of television and the online medium to ultimately grow a larger audience across both platforms.”
“Kids today continue to expand their entertainment options beyond television, and our new partnership with KOL will provide us with a tremendous opportunity to reach kids through the launch of the new Saturday morning programming block on CBS as well as through KOL’s growing online destination,” comments DIC Entertainment chairman & CEO Andy Heyward. “We are thrilled to work with KOL to co-produce innovative programming and to create a unique cross-promotional program that will drive kids online; increase on-air viewership and provide our clients with an effective way to reach kids in a progressive safe environment.”
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
