Nickelodeon gives kids run of the schedule with ME:TV

From C21 Media:

Nickelodeon gives kids run of the schedule

Kids television network Nickelodeon has launched a TV programming block featuring user-generated content provided by US viewers, scheduled to air live on weekdays.

Nickelodeon's ME:TV, airing nightly from 17.00 to 18.00, will integrate Nick.com and the network's broadband player TurboNick, allowing American kids to programme the TV block with their own original content uploaded online.

The interactive online show will be broadcast in front of a live New York studio audience and hosted by comic actors and presenters Alexandra Gizela and Jordan Carlos, featuring live footage of kids via web cam, online voting, gaming, giveaways and celebrity guests.

Nickelodeon said the new show follows in the vein of U-Pick Live and Slimetime Live, offering kids a chance to participate in-studio or by phone, as well as via on-screen message boards and voting on Nick.com.

Tom Ascheim, executive VP and general manager at Nickelodeon Television, said ME:TV "empowers kids" by letting them programme the network for two hours every day.

"Nickelodeon's ME:TV is you TV," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to showcase the talents of our audience and give life to the content that they are creating. It is the next step in convergent entertainment for this multiplatform generation of kids."

To facilitate the new online venture, Nickelodeon is launching an ME:TV website to allow kids to submit their own original content and then watch, rate or share it on broadband player TurboNick, before featuring the best of the UGC work on-air.

The first week of ME:TV will feature appearances from musician Paula DeAnda and Bill Faggerbakke, the voice of Patrick Starfish on SpongeBob SquarePants.

Antony Reeve-Crook
20 Feb 2007
© C21 Media 2007