Friday, November 11, 2011

Nick Jr. UK And Ireland Announces Winning Nursery Of The "Help Dora Help" Prize Fund

According to Nickelodeon UK's Press Office on their official Twitter profile page (@NickelodeonUKPR), a nursery in Belfast called 'Hope Nursery' has won Nick Jr. UK and Ireland's "Help Dora Help Fund" campaign and will be awarded £20,000:
@NickJrUK can announce that the winner of the Help Dora Help campaign and will be awarded £20,000 is the Hope Nursery in Belfast!
Below is more information about Nick Jr. Channel UK and Ireland's "Help Dora Help Fund" campaign from the official Nick Jr. UK and Ireland website, NickJr.co.uk:
Help your preschoolers learn and explore just like Dora!

Dora the Explorer is a great role model for learning through exploration and investigation. Her powers of observation and sense of adventure enable her and her friends to solve many problems on their journeys.

Supported by the Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts, the Help Dora Help initiative has been created to bring exploration to life in pre-schools and nurseries in a real way.

Using Dora’s adventures as a theme for learning, Nick Jr. has created the Help Dora Help Activity Pack to support early year’s development and provide fun, motivational, and stimulating learning opportunities for all pre-schoolers.

If you missed your chance to register, you can still download the Activity Pack, which contains six curriculum linked session plans, [here (Nick Jr.'s "Dora The Explorer" Activity Pack is in PDF format (Portable Document Format), and will require a PDF reader such as Adobe Reader X to be opened, viewed, and printed.)].

Nick Jr. invited pre-school settings across the UK to apply to the Help Dora Help Award Fund, for a chance to receive one main award of up to £20,000 and runners up prizes of learning equipment to help the children learn and explore just like Dora the Explorer!

Pre-schools bid to use the fund to:

* Kit out their setting with new games and toys.
* Provide and install outdoor equipment.
*Give the children an unforgettable adventure day.
*Build a play area.
*Or something that would make a real difference to how their preschoolers learn and develop!

Thank you for registering and entering your pre-school setting for Help Dora Help. We have received some outstanding entries from your pre-schools across the UK and thousands of you voted for the pre-school, nursery or playgroup you wanted to be awarded the Help Dora Help Fund.

Congratulations to Hope Nursery School, Northern Ireland who you chose to be awarded the Help Dora Help Award Fund. See their bid.

You can see the finalists entries in our gallery.

Look out for the winning nursery Hope Nursery School on the Nick Jr. channel.

Let’s go! - ¡Vamonos!

'Inexplicable' Ratings Drop Hits Nickelodeon USA

From C21 Media:
'Inexplicable' ratings drop hits Nick

Nickelodeon has questioned a massive dip in its flagship US channel's ratings, which parent Viacom called "inexplicable" and is now investigating.

Nick and television ratings provider Nielsen are looking into a sudden drop of between 15% and 20% in viewers in September, said Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman.

Dauman told analysts the drop was an "anomaly" and an "aberration" given the usual stability of Nick's ratings. The fall affected Viacom's Q4 2011 ad revenues, announced yesterday, though revenues and profit were still up year-on-year.

Dauman said the Media Rating Council has been brought in as independent data has shown "meaningfully different" viewing trends to Nielsen's and added Nick has been US cable's top rated channel for 66 quarters running.

The news comes in a busy week for Nick, which has unveiled a programming block aimed at mothers. Nickmom [also known as "Nick Mom"] will launch in Q4 2012 on Nick Jr, airing nightly primetime content from the likes of Eyeworks USA (The Biggest Loser), Mad Cow and Emmy-winning writer Hugh Fink.

The block is a response to research showing Nick channels had become key destinations for young tech-savvy mums, Nick said in promotional material.

In further news, Nick's executive senior VP for international programme sales Steve Grieder has left the firm, a Viacom International Media Networks spokeswoman confirmed today.

Grieder left three weeks ago with no job to go to, but the rep stressed his departure was amicable, citing the fact he was interviewed by the press at Mipcom. He will now take some time out before making his next move. Nick doesn't plan to replace him.

The move ends Grieder's latest run with Viacom. He rejoined the company in 2004 having started his career with MTV Networks in 1992 and later joined Nickelodeon Latin America. He was also general manager of InterActiveCorp's Travel Channel between 2001 and 2004.

Jesse Whittock
11 Nov 2011
© C21 Media 2011