Nickelodeon UK Unveils Autumn/Winter 2011 Slate

From Broadcast Now:

Nickelodeon unveils autumn slate

Nickelodeon is premiering a range of shows, including Blue Zoo’s Olive The Ostrich, as part of its autumn/winter slate of programmes.

A 52 x 5 min run of Olive The Ostrich, which is voiced by Rolf Harris, will air on pre-school channel Nick Jr. The show will feature artwork from children, which viewers can submit via a dedicated website.

Blue Zoo took on 40 new staff in June to manage the order.

Tina McCann, managing director of Nickelodeon UK said, “Olive is an imaginative new series for parents and younger children to enjoy and we hope the creativity behind the show will be inspiring for our Nick Jr. audience.”

There will also be further new episodes of Bubble Guppies, Dora The Explorer, Peppa Pig, Poppy Cat and Team Umizoomi.

Nickelodoen will air 2D animation T.U.F.F. Puppy, an adventure following a secret agent dog which is created in-house by Butch Hartman.

It will also feature new comedy adventure series Supah Ninjas featuring three unsuspecting high school students drafted into help with crime fighting by Star Trek star George Takei.

Hannah Montana producers Steven Peternamn and Douglas Lieblien have created Life With Boys following the exploits of a teen girl in a house full of men.

The broadcaster is also pairing the stars of US sitcoms iCarly and Victorious for a 90 minute TV special dubbed iParty.

Also, from Licensing.biz:

Nickelodeon reveals UK autumn/winter line-up

Season welcomes some of the strongest content in recent years, says network.

A raft of new content has been revealed for the autumn/winter 2011-2012 season by Nickelodeon UK.

The network believes that it has some of the strongest content seen on Nickelodeon in recent years.

This includes a creative crossover iParty, which sees the casts of iCarly and Victorious combine for the first time ever on screen. The 90-minute special TV event also guest stars Kenan Thompson from Saturday Night Live and Kenan & Kel.

Original movie, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf is due in the autumn and stars Victoria Justice from Victorious.

New episodes of Big Time Rush will also be screened, along with Spongebob Squarepants, Power Rangers Samurai and iCarly.

New shows will include comedy adventure series Supah Ninjas, which premieres in September. 2D animation T.U.F.F Puppy has been created by the team behind The Fairly Odd Parents, while Life with Boys follows the life of 14 year-old Tess Foster.

Over on Nick Jr, meanwhile, the channel has seen its audience increase 72 per cent year on year, with over 2.5 million children and two million parents having tuned in.

Autumn/winter 2011-2012 sees new episodes of Dora the Explorer, Bubble Guppies, Team Umizoomi, Peppa Pig and Poppy Cat.

In November, Dora the Explorer stars in new three-part special Dora's Enchanted Forest Adventure.

New series Olive the Ostrich also debuts in the autumn. The show is narrated by Rolf Harris and is created in partnership with The Prince's Foundation for Children and Arts, with a remit to develop art and storytelling skills while inspiring creativity.

Each episode features artwork created by six to nine year olds from schools across the UK.

Finally, new animation Matt Hatter will debut on Nicktoons.

"Autumn/winter 2011-2012 sees some of the strongest content we've had on the Nickelodeon network in recent years, including the eagerly anticipated iParty mash-up special, an appointment-to-view television event," said Tina McCann, MD of Nickelodeon UK.

Nickelodeon UK Developing Online Streaming Video On Demand Subscription Service Website

From Broadcast Now:

Trio firm up micropayment plans

Micropayment strategies are emerging for UKTV, MTV and ITV as they develop ways to monetise content ranging from South Park to archive titles that could include the likes of Inspector Morse.

ITV is ready to charge for “boxsets” of archive programming as part of its wide-ranging online micropayments trial in January next year. The plan is for ITV Player to be expanded beyond catch-up for the first time to include entire series of established shows.

No decisions have been made on what programming will be available, but sources suggest ITV Studios shows would be a “natural” starting point, followed by indie-produced content.

ITVS currently offers download-to-own content via iTunes such as Morse, A Touch Of Frost and Prime Suspect.

ITV is also toying with the idea of charging for original webisodes of shows including Coronation Street and The Only Way Is Essex after asking users to register to view similar content in the past.

Separately, MTV Networks is building on its MTV OD subscription service, which launched in February, across a portfolio of brands including Nickelodeon and South Park. The planned standalone services will offer all-you-can-eat streamed access to catch-up and archive content. A charge of £2 per day or £3 per week, in line with the MTV OD costs, is thought to be under consideration.

The broadcaster is updating the existing South Park Studio portal to offer subscribers access to all 15 seasons of the cult cartoon.

Previously, free, ad-funded access to a handful of episodes was available online, along with around 1,000 clips. The long-form episodes have now been removed from the site, which tells visitors: “This summer, we will be launching a cool new online product that will allow us to give our fans in the UK and Ireland much better online access to full episodes of South Park.”

A Nickelodeon site is also in development that is likely to offer subscription access to shows such as Camp Orange, House Of Anubis and Spongebob Squarepants. MTV confirmed it is committed to its micropayments strategy following an MTV OD pilot.

“Audience numbers have grown over the past few weeks and conversion to subscriptions is ahead of target. As such, we are evaluating which brands to launch in the coming months,” said a spokeswoman.

UKTV is also developing a payments strategy, having kicked off a TV VoD strategy with Sky last week. An on-demand deal with Virgin Media is likely to follow before UKTV focuses on a direct-to-consumer online and connected-TV offering, including platforms such as YouView.

UKTV executive director for commercial Keith Porritt said the broadcaster was acquiring and commissioning an increasing amount of content with non-linear rights attached. “I liken this period to UKTV second generation,” he said. “We are embarking on an entirely different approach where it would be deficient of us not to innovate to find and follow our fans.”

He added that UKTV will offer both ad-funded and paid-for models in line with its hybrid strategy of combining free-to-air and pay TV.