Kids Switch On Nick
Australian kids are loving Paramount Australia & New Zealand's new Nickelodeon premium, free-to-air, multi-channel that launched on 1 August. It has rocketed up to the #1 commercial multi-channel in daytime for kids, up 42% year-on-year, and is giving families more Nick content they know and love, across daytime and night-time viewing, for free.
Let’s break it down for our new Nickelodeon free-to-air multi-channel.
- #1 commercial multi-channel in daytime for kids.
- Up 42% year-on-year across daytime in kids 12 years and under.
- Up 54% year-on-year across daytime in total people.
- Up 16% year-on-year across primetime in total people.
- Live stream viewers are up 32% year-on-year.
The programming schedule is full of fun and nostalgia for the young and young at heart. Whether you fancy a deep dive to the Bikini Bottom for some nautical nonsense, a heroic rescue mission with our mighty paw-some pups, indulge in some Nick@Nite nostalgia with 90’s retro classics – Nickelodeon is bringing Australian families more of the content they know and love – all for free.
There’s a world of advertising opportunity for your brand on the Nickelodeon channel. Talk to your Paramount ANZ Sales rep today to find out more.
Source: OzTAM 5 City Metro, Year-on-year based on 1/08/23-23/08/23 vs. STLY, Primetime 18:00-22:30, Daytime 06:00-17:59, Consolidated 7. OzTAM National VPM, Live stream minutes viewed.
Paramount Australia added: "[...] the successes we’ve seen. On 1 August we rebranded 10 Shake to Nickelodeon that has delivered outstanding lifts. Nickelodeon is convincingly the #1 commercial multi-channel for kids, up 43% year-on-year in 12 years and under. It’s the start of strong performance that we know we will continue to see for this channel that is loaded with fun and nostalgic content for the young and young at heart."
Content quotas won’t guarantee another Bluey, says Ten boss
Forcing Australian commercial TV networks to make more homegrown kids programming won’t deliver another Bluey, says the local head of Paramount, owner of Network Ten.
“The global success of Bluey is not due to quotas, its due to the fact it’s a brilliant show that is consumed all over the world,” says Beverley McGarvey, chief content officer and co-vice president of Paramount Australia.
“A quota wouldn’t have got Bluey made or not made. We will always adhere to our quotas, but there’s not actually a problem, and Australian audiences and kids are incredibly well served.”
Paramount Global’s Jules Borkent, left, and Beverley McGarvey, co-vice president of Paramount Australia, say bringing Nickelodeon to free-to-air TV is a win for audiences.
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| Paramount Global’s Jules Borkent, left, and Beverley McGarvey, co-vice president of Paramount Australia, say bringing Nickelodeon to free-to-air TV is a win for audiences. Credit: Edwina Pickles SMH |
Paramount is bringing kids’ favourites such as SpongeBob SquarePants, PAW Patrol and Dora the Explorer to free-to-air television, giving its American children cable service, Nickelodeon, a standalone channel.
McGarvey said bringing Nickelodeon to free-to-air TV opens up a bevy of programming to kids, at a time when Australian children’s content has dried up. Only two local shows were produced by Australia’s free-to-air commercial networks in 2022, after the Morrison government relaxed obligations for local children’s content three years ago.
“They have a great range of content to pick from, and now they have Nickelodeon in front of the paywall,” McGarvey said.
Ten has rebranded 10Shake, one of its secondary channels, to Nickelodeon as it aims to attract audiences to the popular content that has spent the past three decades behind the paywall of pay TV operator Foxtel.
Australia has historically been fertile ground for children’s programming, says Jules Borkent, executive vice president, international kids and family brands at Paramount Global, referencing H2O: Just Add Water and Round the Twist, as examples of titles syndicated by Nickelodeon, going on to be global hits.
Bluey is now perhaps Australia’s most famous export, but with little incentive in Australia to produce new content, the chances of its success being replicated are thin.
With a second season of Nickelodeon’s Rock Island Mysteries, produced in Queensland, going to air next week, Borkent said national borders appear to be less important when it comes to kids content.
“A kid in the UK won’t know that Rock Island is made in Australia. It doesn’t matter to them. They just love the content.”
Given Paramount is a global network, Borkent wants a variety of cultures represented across all its markets, but declined to comment on the quota legislation in Australia.
The commercial networks are against legislation to enforce content quotas on the international streamers. Free TV, which acts on behalf of Nine (owner of this masthead), Seven and Network 10, claims there is no issue with local production, with each network – Ten (71 per cent), Nine (79 per cent), and Seven (77 per cent) – exceeding the current 55 per cent minimum of Australian content between 6am and midnight.
However, others argue there is a content shortage for kids. Recent numbers published by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found there were 95 hours of locally produced children’s content on commercial television in 2022. This compares with 391 hours in 2019, the year before the rules were dropped, with the ABC now largely left flying the local flag.
Bluey is one of the most successful Australian TV shows of all time.
Bluey is one of the most successful Australian TV shows of all time.
McGarvey insists the company is still investing in content locally.
“We’ve commissioned 22 local productions for Paramount+ since it began in 2020, more than any other streamer in this region in the same timeframe, so while we can access incredible global content, we continue to invest in and produce local productions.”
The strategic shift regarding Nickelodeon comes at little cost for Paramount, taking its content in-house, and Borkent says 2024 is set to be a big with a reboot of Dora the Explorer and bumper content to celebrate 25 years of SpongeBob.
This year has proved increasingly challenging for Ten as it loses more ground to its competitors. Under pressure to compete without a top-tier sporting code, the network is languishing in fourth place in the ratings.
“I think it has been a relatively challenging year,” McGarvey said, adding that nightly linear programming was only one part of the story, with many of the network’s “big shows” still rating strongly on catch-up.
Ten has traditionally outperformed itself on commercial revenue due to its younger demographic, though the financial equation remains complex for Nickelodeon, and with advertising to children tightly regulated, Ten says it is taking a careful approach.
“Kids have a lot of influence on household spending,” says McGarvey, “so if we can balance that [...] it puts us in a unique position because we are a commercial business, and we’re in front of the paywall.”
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Why bringing Nickelodeon to FTA has been a good slime for Paramount
Mediaweek sits down with Paramount’s Jules Borkent and Beverley McGarvey
The first of August 2023 was a big day for Paramount ANZ, as multichannel 10 Shake officially rebranded to the Nickelodeon channel. The new offering brought families across Australia a free suite of Nickelodeon content for the first time on free-to-air linear television.
Previously being shown in Australia through a long-term partnership with Foxtel, the move saw Nickelodeon content move completely in-house within Paramount ANZ’s content portfolio.
To chat more about the transition and what comes next, Mediaweek sat down with Jules Borkent (managing director and executive vice president, international kids and family brands, Paramount Global) and Beverley McGarvey (executive vice president, chief content officer, and head of Paramount+, Paramount ANZ).
“I love Australia,” Borkent said, speaking both about visiting the country and how the market performs on the global stage when it comes to kids’ content.
Borkent: “It’s almost 30 years that we’ve been in this market, we launched in 1995. It’s unbelievable how beloved the Nickelodeon brand is in this market – for a brand that has been behind a paywall for so many years, there is such a love and connectivity for the brand and our content.”
It’s been a little over seven weeks since 10 Shake was switched over to Nickelodeon, making Australia one of the few markets internationally where the brand has been brought to free-to-air.
Since the switch, Nickelodeon is up 14% in prime time, 38% in daytime, and has landed the top spot for commercial multi-channels in kids 0-12 in daytime.
“It’s a testament to the love of the brand,” Borkent said of the results.
Borkent: “It really starts with the content. 10 Shake was a great platform, and it really laid the groundwork for our foray into free TV for Nickelodeon. We’ve worked over the last couple of years to really bring kids’ content into the open, but I think what this has allowed us to do is bring even more content to a wider audience in Australia.
“We’re super excited about the initial results, kudos to the local team.”
McGarvey: “Nickelodeon is a much-loved brand, people love working on it, it’s got great content. It is great for the brand to switch over and for people to embrace it.
“It’s good for kids to have access to that quality and that depth of content in front of the paywall, which they don’t have in any other commercial sense.”
It’s not the first time that Nickelodeon has been freely accessible to audiences – Nickelodeon content has been shown on competing networks before – but the switch from 10 Shake brings the brand completely in-house for Paramount.
Borkent: “The brand has always been out there and the content has been out there, but what’s beautiful about this is that we are really now managing the ecosystem ourselves. We have Paramount+ in SVOD which has exclusive content, we have the broader reach on the Nickelodeon free-to-air channel, and kids’ content is really performing super well on FAST channels – not surprisingly, because that’s a theme that we see outside of Australia as well.
“It’s lovely to be able to bring a library of content and curate the viewer experience across the different platforms.”
In the long term, McGarvey said that the team’s goals for Nickelodeon in Australia involve bringing audiences the content they love in a way that makes good business sense.
McGarvey: “What we want is for the Nickelodeon brand to live across multiple Paramount platforms, get the content to where the audiences want to find it, and make it effective from a monetisation point of view. We’re utilising that great Nickelodeon content across the market in a way that supports our Paramount business strategy.
“We also want to continue for people to respect and love the brand. There are other kids’ brands out there, but I think the really interesting thing about Nickelodeon is that kids love it. It’s not something you’re telling them they have to watch, they want to watch it for themselves – and that’s an incredibly valuable asset.”
Reaching Kids Where They Are
With the way that people consume content constantly evolving and changing, Borkent said that Paramount are making sure that “we are everywhere that kids are.”
Borkent: “In Australia, linear viewing is still very popular, and parents love the safe environment Nickelodeon provides as a free-to-air channel. It’s a trusted brand, they know they can put their kids in front of it. What we’ve also seen is that there is a lot more co-viewing and family viewing happening in every market since Covid. We’re focusing heavily on that, as far as platforms are concerned.
“As we mentioned, we have FAST channels, SVOD, and linear, but also we do a lot on YouTube. We have channels around our famous IPs on YouTube that are also incredibly popular.”
What Comes Next?
With 2024 on the horizon, Borkent said that there are already a number of projects in the works for next year and beyond.
Borkent: “Animation takes a long time to make, so we’re already planning for 2025 and 2026. In the immediate future, looking at 2024, we’re focusing heavily on the launch of DORA and the new reimagining of that series. It’s SpongeBob’s 25th anniversary next year, so there’s going to be a big global celebration of that.
“With my international hat on, we’re really focusing on new content out there that we can find. Rock Island Mysteries is a great example of something that we did locally and made in Australia, but it’s for a global audience. That’s what I always look for, because for every great franchise we have, it’s also important to start building new franchises.”
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Multichannel Survey 2023: 10 Peach, 10 BOLD, Nickelodeon.
10 multichannels are home to A-League, classic sitcoms, and the newest multichannel in Nickelodeon.
Nickelodeon is the newest multichannel to hit screens under the 10 / Paramount banner.
The channel launched on Free to Air on August 1 -given the timing, those results include 10 Shake performance*. The content is now predominantly Nickelodeon US brands, plus Aussie made Rock Island Mysteries S2 next week.
10 BOLD is the #4 commercial multi-channel with first run titles in sport, including A-League, and a range of outdoor lifestyle titles. While there is scripted US procedural, none were highlighted here.
10 Peach is the #1 commercial multi-channel in daytime as the “home of sitcoms” including favourites such as Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men. It is also the home of NBL.
10 BOLD
Brand Identity: (Did not respond)
Target Demographic: People Over 40
Format / Tech Playout: (Did not respond)
2023 YTD Ratings Share / Demo Performance:
• Maintained its commercial share of 3.7% in over 40s.
• Increased its daytime commercial share by +0.1 share points in 25 to 54s and 18 to 49s year-on-year.
• #4 commercial multi-channel.
• #2 commercial multi-channel in over 40s on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
• Live stream minutes up +29% year-on-year.
Source: OzTAM, 5 City Metro, Jan – Aug 2023 vs Jan – Aug 2022, Daytime (0600-1800) & Primetime (1800-2230), Consolidated 7 prior to L7D, Overnight for L7D. OzTAM National VPM, Live stream minutes viewed (incl. Co-Viewing Minutes Viewed), 0000-2400, Jan – Aug 2023 vs Jan – Aug 2022.
• In August 10 Bold increased its daytime audience 44% year-on-year, and up 46% in Over 40s.
• Lifted 2% year-on-year, and 6% in Over 40s during primetime.
• Live stream minutes up +54% YoY
Source: OzTAM, 5 City Metro, Aug 2023 vs Aug 2022, Daytime (0600-1800) & Primetime (1800-2230), Consolidated 7 prior to L7D, Overnight for L7D. OzTAM National VPM, Live stream minutes viewed (incl. Co-Viewing Minutes Viewed), 0000-2400, Aug 2023 vs Aug 2022.
Key First Run Titles: 2023/2024 Isuzu UTE A-League. 48 Hours.
First-Run Australian Content: 2023/2024 Isuzu UTE A-League, A-League All Access, Escape Fishing with E.T, iFish, Reel Action, Camper Deals, Tough Tested, Gold Buckle Campdrafting 2023.
Recent Success Stories: (Refer Ratings Share)
Upcoming Key Titles: 2023/2024 Isuzu UTE A-League
Upcoming Changes to Playout / New Channels: N/A
10 Peach
Brand Identity: (Did not respond)
Target Demographic: People 16 to 39
Format / Tech Playout: (Did not respond)
2023 YTD Ratings Share / Demo Performance:
• #1 commercial multi-channel in 16 to 39s, 25 to 54s & 18 to 49s
• #1 commercial multi-channel in daytime. #1 commercial multi-channel in 16 to 39s, 25 to 54s & 18 to 49s
• Live stream minutes up by +43% YoY
• Up +0.2 commercial share points in daytime, up +0.3 points in 25 to 54s, +0.2 points in 16 to 39s, +0.4 points in 18 to 49s and +0.6 points in Under 50s
Source: OzTAM, 5 City Metro, Jan – Aug 2023 vs Jan – Aug 2022, Daytime (0600-1800) & Primetime (1800-2230), Consolidated 7. OzTAM National VPM, Live stream minutes viewed (incl. Co-Viewing Minutes Viewed), 0000-2400, Jan – Aug 2023 vs Jan – Aug 2022.
Key First Run Titles: The 10 Peach channel is focused on bringing our audiences a laugh with their favourite shows every night of the week. We embrace what our viewers love with a lineup of the best sitcoms every made including Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men.
First-Run Australian Content: National Basketball League
Recent Success Stories:
• Home of sitcoms – #1 sitcoms on TV (including 16 to 39s, 25 to 49s and 18 to 49s)
Source: OzTAM, 5 City Metro, Jan – Aug 2023, 1800-2230, Sitcoms merged programs ranking (incl. encores/repeats), Consolidated 7.
Upcoming Key Titles: 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards
Upcoming Changes to Playout / New Channels: (Did not respond)
Nickelodeon (incl. 10 Shake*)
Brand Identity: (Did not respond)
Target Demographic: People Under 40
Format / Tech Playout: (Did not respond)
2023 YTD Ratings Share / Demo Performance:
• #1 commercial multi-channel in under 40s in daytime, #1 in under 13s.
• Prime time commercial share up +0.2 share points year-on-year.
• Daytime commercial share up +0.8 share points in kids year-on-year.
• Live stream minutes up 17% YoY
Source: OzTAM, 5 City Metro, Jan – Aug 2023 vs Jan – Aug 2022, Daytime (0600-1800) & Primetime (1800-2230), Consolidated 7. OzTAM National VPM, Live stream minutes viewed (incl. Co-Viewing Minutes Viewed), 0000-2400, Jan – Aug 2023 vs Jan – Aug 2022.
• Primetime audience up 20% year-on-year.
• Daytime up 49% since its launch on 1st August, 2023.
• Live stream minutes up +34% year-on-year
Source: OzTAM, 5 City Metro, Aug 2023 vs Aug 2022, Daytime (0600-1800) & Primetime (1800-2230), PAW Patrol (1200-1405, Mon-Fri) & SpongeBob SquarePants (Mon-Fri 1500 -1615, Mon-Fri), Consolidated 7. OzTAM National VPM, Live stream minutes viewed (incl. Co-Viewing Minutes Viewed), 0000-2400, Aug 2023 vs Aug 2022.
Key First Run Titles: YTD FTA premieres have included PAW Patrol Season 8, Blaze and the Monster Machines Season 5, Blues Clues & You! Season 3, Bubble Guppies Season 5, SpongeBob SquarePants Season 12, The Loud House Season 4, The Casagrandes Season 2, Middlemost Post Season 1, The Smurfs Season 1, Double Dare Season 1, The Thundermans Season 4, Henry Danger Season 5, Young Dylan S1 and S2, Bella and the Bulldogs Season 1 and Side Hustle Season 1.
First-Run Australian Content: Rock Island Mysteries Season 2 (pictured).
Recent Success Stories: SpongeBob SquarePants lifted its Monday to Friday 3pm audience by 121%.
Upcoming Key Titles: Rock Island Mysteries Season 2, PAW Patrol Season 9, Blaze and the Monster Machines Season 6, Baby Shark’s Big Show!, Monster High: The Movie, Monster High: The Animated Series S1, The Twisted Timeline of Sammy & Raj, Danger Force Season 2, Blue’s Clues and You! Season 4, Bubble Guppies Season 6, It’s Pony Season 2, Side Hustle Season 2.
Upcoming Changes to Playout / New Channels: (Did not respond)
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Originally published: September 03, 2023.
