The Inbetweeners

From C21Media:

The inbetweeners

Tweens have emerged as a lucrative standalone demographic in children’s TV. But has demand outstripped supply, and where is the finance coming from? Jesse Whittock reports.

Tween programming has always been an unusual element within the children’s television business, catering for the fluid 6-13 market.

But its value has grown exponentially in recent years as shows like Disney Channel’s Hanna Montana and Nickelodeon’s iCarly have grown into money-spinning international brands. In spite of the boom, holes remain in the fledgling market. While preschoolers have been inundated with new ideas and concepts in every market, tween programming is to a large extent underserved.

“It goes back to an emerging trend we’ve seen where more and more international broadcasters are scheduling tween programming and having success. In a large number of cases it’s been a ratings driver,” says Josh Scherba, senior VP of distribution at Canada’s DHX Media.

One key issue has been the cost of producing live-action shows complete with talent, extras, sets and props. “Certainly, there is an increased demand but supply has been difficult to increase because funding and financing live-action has been tricky,” adds Scherba.

And because there are fewer shows and opportunities than for other demographics, broadcasters have become extremely demanding when commissioning, notes Vince Commisso, president and CEO of Canadian prodco 9 Story Entertainment. “There are fewer chances for tween shows because it’s a small market. That makes broadcasters’ requirements even more extensive.”

Producing cartoons is an alternative. “You can still go to animation at the tween age, but you must have entry points for boys and girls and an opportunity for audiences to see something that mirrors them,” says Commisso.

9 Story's top show is the toon Almost Naked Animals, which Canada’s YTV and Cartoon Network in the US debuted last year. The series also runs on channels such as CiTV in the UK; ABC and Nickelodeon in Australia; and Disney XD in India and Latin America. “From an animation standpoint, you need something totally unique and you need the mirror element. Almost Naked Animals is reflective of a summer camp, for example,” says Commisso.

Whether for live-action or animation, building brands must not be forgotten in the process, adds Philippe Soutter, president of France’s PGS Entertainment. “More and more people are inclined to work with other companies to build something, as that’s the only way it can be profitable for the producer, distributor and the broadcaster. You won’t get broadcasters buying 15 shows a season and only keeping two any more.”

Treating PGS as a “brand manager rather than a distributor” means 80% of the 26 half-hour shows it has on its books have been recommissioned for second or more seasons in the past year, says Soutter. “You have to plan around your characters and exploit the opportunities that arise from the joy children get from them,” he explains.

But as Kevin Gillis, president of Canada’s Skywriter Media, notes: “Tweens are one of the hardest demos to attract to your programming and to keep tuned in,” and a major problem has been a lack of creativity in the market.

“The shows that seem to work are the tween comedies, both in live-action and animation. Unfortunately for creators and producers, once a show or a genre works we tend to overwhelm our audience with a seemingly endless stream of the same kind of programme, packaged slightly differently, to capitalise on the success of that first show.”

Steven Andrew, of Zodiak Media-owned UK prodco The Foundation, adds: “Tween content is more sophisticated [than preschool] and it can be difficult to fund. A few years ago, the preschool market had some terrific properties from producers like Ragdoll’s Anne Wood and Little Airplane in the US and everyone then thought they could get rich by aping those kinds of shows. That was a terrific shame.

“But the good thing about the tween stuff is it’s a bit harder, requires a little more thought and you have to get talent, so the shows are more bespoke. All in all, are there millions of tween formats flooding the market? No, but there is still a lot of content out there.”

However, Andrew believes broadcasters are less likely to commit to shows in the current economic climate. DHX’s Scherba agrees and says a commission doesn’t guarantee success, as it’s often only the beginning of the funding process. “Financing is the big problem,” he says. “Essentially, this means getting commissions from broadcasters who can support the project enough so we can pull the rest of the pieces together.”

One way to attract commission-shy broadcasters to tween live-action, he suggests, is to create formats based on primetime. DHX is currently working on one series that has obvious comparisons with Fox’s musical hit series Glee, which stars a group of high-school misfits.

“If you’ve got something that was inspired by the primetime world, it’s a recipe for success,” says Scherba. “The project we have in development with Canada’s YTV is called The Pods. It’s a relatively simple concept of a star basketball player who loses his place in the team and has to join up with the geeks to get his grades up and get back in the team.”

The Foundation has also used primetime as inspiration for its formats with its remake of the classic reality gameshow Fort Boyard, which runs on UK terrestrial CiTV. “Tween content has inclusiveness with broad appeal, which makes it quite aspirational,” says Andrew. “Friends started this a long time ago, at least in the UK, when it became accessible in primetime on Channel 4.”

Similarly, Commisso says 9 Story is developing a show that “while not totally conceived from primetime does come from some of the factors we know are working there.”

In traditional broadcasting, tween content is experiencing its best ever period, according to Andrew. “We’re seeing an explosion of children’s channels coming to maturity and everyone is realising that tween content has broad appeal and can catch a large audience,” he says. “Even if you look back to the early days, tween comedies like Saved by the Bell were shows that parents, their five-year-olds and kids of up to 13 or 14 were all watching.

“We’re now working on finding different forms of tween content that works in the UK but also as long-running franchises around the world. Most of us are looking for highly repeatable and highly sellable franchises that can travel and are culturally transparent.”

Commisso says producers, distributors and broadcast platforms agree about the need for formats and programmes with international potential. “The best Canadian companies today are the ones that can get a show produced in Canada but also have those shows become prolific around the world,” he says. “If a Canadian broadcaster wants a show, it has the inherent belief it will do well around the world, and often that’s the case.”

However, Commisso warns this can mean the broadcaster often “only greenlights a certain type of show from a certain type of producer.”

Another factor affecting the tween business is the fragmentation of audiences, across not only different TV channels but different media thanks to the rise of mobile devices and the web. Skywriter recognised this and is focusing more on its burgeoning e-book business, although it remains in TV production.

“Tweens’ interests, whether they are games, music, stars, shows, social media or whatever, change every day,” says Skywriter’s Gillis. Consequently, the challenge is to create content on different platforms with stories that are “true to the human experience of being that age and not to produce stories that reflect only the wrapping of that lifestyle.”

With children migrating to new devices for their content, the pressure to create viable digital content across all platforms has been ramped up over the past few years. “We believe that all audiences expect to consume their content when they want and wherever they happen to be. Mobile devices, whether they are smartphones or tablets, provide the means to instantly gratify the content consumer,” says Gillis.

“The delivery of the story may differ from age group to age group. In the case of tweens, we could engage the interactive user with hands-on responsive graphics, games, story plots and virtual role-playing characters. If we could offer a pizza, we would.”

But for The Foundation’s Andrew, the key is to not allow cross-platform aspirations to get in the way of good storytelling. “The best shows are always ones with a point of view. They have an agenda and want to explore a concept. The thing with social media is who is being targeted and how effectively that is happening. People do get fixated on making their property cross-platform. For me, it’s about matching the message and content with the medium rather than just using content for the sake of it.”

PGS’s Soutter argues it is a mistake to think of media competing against each other. “Buyers ultimately don’t care what format content comes in because what they want is a good show,” he says. “We try as much as we can to approach our business this way. Good content will find its way to the right platform. If it’s good it’s never too late for the market.”

Jesse Whittock
12-04-2012
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