Pavan
08-13-2007, 10:22 AM
Official announcement later today.
From NY Times:
A Coming of Age at Nickelodeon: Noggin and the N Will Get Their Own Channels; Acquires That '70s Show
By ELIZABETH JENSEN
Published: August 13, 2007
Nickelodeon is expected to announce today that Noggin, the daytime commercial-free preschool network, and the N, a nighttime advertising-supported network for adolescents and teenagers, will become 24-hour stand-alone networks and no longer share channel space.
The split, planned for the end of the year, will resonate particularly in the intense competition for the 9- to 14-year-olds and 12- to 17-year-olds, whose loyalties are now divided among Walt Disney’s Disney Channel — home of the series “Hannah Montana” and the powerhouse “High School Musical” and a sequel that is being shown on Friday — and ABC Family; Nickelodeon’s Nick, MTV and the N; and the broadcast network the CW, among others.
By inhabiting its own space, the N, the five-year-old network whose marquee program is “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” will become the only cable network specifically aimed to the age groups, potentially giving it an advantage over its rivals, whose schedules also include programs for other demographic groups. The network will use the channel space currently occupied by Nickelodeon’s Games and Sports, which will become a broadband channel and may align itself more closely with local community sports.
Splitting the networks has been considered “for years,” said Cyma Zarghami, president, Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group at Viacom, commenting in an interview that the two “are stuck together a little bit awkwardly; there’s somewhat of a disconnect between the preschool audience and the teen audience at night.”
By dividing into distinct channels, Ms. Zarghami said, the two brands will make it easier for viewers to find what they want whenever they want it. The networks, she added, also hope to slightly broaden their audiences, by drawing more parents to Noggin in the evening hours and more 9- to 14-year-olds to the N during the day. The median age for the mostly female viewers of the N is 16.
The Disney Channel, with a tween-focused prime-time lineup, and ABC Family, aimed in prime time toward older teenagers with programs like “Kyle XY” and “Greek,” will still have an important leg up on the N after the split: Those networks are available in some 92 million homes with cable, compared with 60 million for the N, and both roundly trump the N in ratings in prime time, when the most viewers are available.
Indeed, some industry observers questioned how many more tween viewers the N would attract by expanding into what are essentially school hours, with reruns of programs including “Drake and Josh” and “The Amanda Show.”
The Disney-owned networks tend toward more upbeat fare than the N, which Ms. Zarghami described as a place for viewers “who are exploring adulthood without jumping in with both feet.” The top-rated high school series “Degrassi,” which plans its first two-hour TV movie for next spring, is “the quintessential anxiety show for 15-year-olds,” she said, adding, “Disney’s not about angst.”
She played down the notion of any heated battle for advertising dollars, noting that the Disney Channel features commercial sponsorships, not ads, although ABC Family does accept advertising. Rich Ross, president of the Disney Channel Worldwide, said in an interview that he does not expect the N’s expansion to have much effect on his channel. ABC Family executives declined to comment.
Perhaps a bigger challenge for all these is remaining relevant to viewers tempted by the wonders of the Internet, iTunes, cellphones and video gaming. But Mr. Ross said that “tweens actually have proven to be a very viable audience to reach on linear television. They are very loyal; they are not as fickle as people think they are.” Teenagers, he said, are tougher to reach, once they are unleashed by parents into the digital world.
To fill in the extra time it will have, the N has acquired reruns of the former Fox hit “That 70s Show,” which ABC Family is to begin running in 2008 as well.
New original shows for the N include its first comedies, “About a Girl,” which follows a college sophomore living with four male roommates, and another with the working title “Interns,” from the creators of its series “South of Nowhere.” The half-hour “Gigantic” will take a fictional look at teenagers growing up in the shadow of Hollywood stars.
And because a cable network is nothing without its own reality show these days, the N plans its first one, with the working title “Queen Bees.” (A previous working title was “Mean Girl Makeover.”)
The split will provide new competition for PBS Kids Sprout as well, which has plenty of daytime rivals, but until now has been the only 24-hour preschool channel. That network, a joint venture of PBS, Comcast, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop, has focused its original programming efforts on the 6 to 9 p.m. dinnertime and pre-bedtime block, when Noggin goes off the air and the N begins.
PBS Kids Sprout runs limited commercials meant for parents and caregivers between its programs; Noggin relies only on sponsorships. When it expands to the evening hours, Noggin will begin directing some of the material between the shows to parents, but the programs themselves will remain oriented to children, who “we know are staying up late,” Ms. Zarghami said.
From NY Times:
A Coming of Age at Nickelodeon: Noggin and the N Will Get Their Own Channels; Acquires That '70s Show
By ELIZABETH JENSEN
Published: August 13, 2007
Nickelodeon is expected to announce today that Noggin, the daytime commercial-free preschool network, and the N, a nighttime advertising-supported network for adolescents and teenagers, will become 24-hour stand-alone networks and no longer share channel space.
The split, planned for the end of the year, will resonate particularly in the intense competition for the 9- to 14-year-olds and 12- to 17-year-olds, whose loyalties are now divided among Walt Disney’s Disney Channel — home of the series “Hannah Montana” and the powerhouse “High School Musical” and a sequel that is being shown on Friday — and ABC Family; Nickelodeon’s Nick, MTV and the N; and the broadcast network the CW, among others.
By inhabiting its own space, the N, the five-year-old network whose marquee program is “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” will become the only cable network specifically aimed to the age groups, potentially giving it an advantage over its rivals, whose schedules also include programs for other demographic groups. The network will use the channel space currently occupied by Nickelodeon’s Games and Sports, which will become a broadband channel and may align itself more closely with local community sports.
Splitting the networks has been considered “for years,” said Cyma Zarghami, president, Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group at Viacom, commenting in an interview that the two “are stuck together a little bit awkwardly; there’s somewhat of a disconnect between the preschool audience and the teen audience at night.”
By dividing into distinct channels, Ms. Zarghami said, the two brands will make it easier for viewers to find what they want whenever they want it. The networks, she added, also hope to slightly broaden their audiences, by drawing more parents to Noggin in the evening hours and more 9- to 14-year-olds to the N during the day. The median age for the mostly female viewers of the N is 16.
The Disney Channel, with a tween-focused prime-time lineup, and ABC Family, aimed in prime time toward older teenagers with programs like “Kyle XY” and “Greek,” will still have an important leg up on the N after the split: Those networks are available in some 92 million homes with cable, compared with 60 million for the N, and both roundly trump the N in ratings in prime time, when the most viewers are available.
Indeed, some industry observers questioned how many more tween viewers the N would attract by expanding into what are essentially school hours, with reruns of programs including “Drake and Josh” and “The Amanda Show.”
The Disney-owned networks tend toward more upbeat fare than the N, which Ms. Zarghami described as a place for viewers “who are exploring adulthood without jumping in with both feet.” The top-rated high school series “Degrassi,” which plans its first two-hour TV movie for next spring, is “the quintessential anxiety show for 15-year-olds,” she said, adding, “Disney’s not about angst.”
She played down the notion of any heated battle for advertising dollars, noting that the Disney Channel features commercial sponsorships, not ads, although ABC Family does accept advertising. Rich Ross, president of the Disney Channel Worldwide, said in an interview that he does not expect the N’s expansion to have much effect on his channel. ABC Family executives declined to comment.
Perhaps a bigger challenge for all these is remaining relevant to viewers tempted by the wonders of the Internet, iTunes, cellphones and video gaming. But Mr. Ross said that “tweens actually have proven to be a very viable audience to reach on linear television. They are very loyal; they are not as fickle as people think they are.” Teenagers, he said, are tougher to reach, once they are unleashed by parents into the digital world.
To fill in the extra time it will have, the N has acquired reruns of the former Fox hit “That 70s Show,” which ABC Family is to begin running in 2008 as well.
New original shows for the N include its first comedies, “About a Girl,” which follows a college sophomore living with four male roommates, and another with the working title “Interns,” from the creators of its series “South of Nowhere.” The half-hour “Gigantic” will take a fictional look at teenagers growing up in the shadow of Hollywood stars.
And because a cable network is nothing without its own reality show these days, the N plans its first one, with the working title “Queen Bees.” (A previous working title was “Mean Girl Makeover.”)
The split will provide new competition for PBS Kids Sprout as well, which has plenty of daytime rivals, but until now has been the only 24-hour preschool channel. That network, a joint venture of PBS, Comcast, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop, has focused its original programming efforts on the 6 to 9 p.m. dinnertime and pre-bedtime block, when Noggin goes off the air and the N begins.
PBS Kids Sprout runs limited commercials meant for parents and caregivers between its programs; Noggin relies only on sponsorships. When it expands to the evening hours, Noggin will begin directing some of the material between the shows to parents, but the programs themselves will remain oriented to children, who “we know are staying up late,” Ms. Zarghami said.