As television has changed over the past decade, the same goes for children’s entertainment. Just like other media sectors, new technologies and distribution methods have ushered in a boom of rich educational kids’ content. One of NCTA’s newest members, cable TV network Kids Street (whose parent company, Condista, is also an NCTA member), is leading the way in providing diverse, education focused content for kids and families. Recently, NCTA interviewed Kids Street to find out more about their mission:
NCTA: Talk a bit about Kids Street and what you do?
Kids Street:
Kids Street is an independent, minority-owned network that offers kids 3-7 and their families quality content that is both educational and entertaining. Kids Street promises parent-approved content with stories and characters kids can get into including new versions of classics like Strawberry Shortcake, Maya the Bee, Bob the Builder, and Heidi, as well as engaging and relevant programming such as Maori brother and sister duo Darwin & Newts, and Wissper, the young, magical girl who connects with animals.
All of our content entertains while teaching valuable age-appropriate life lessons for its preschool audience. Independent reviews for educational value, positive messages and positive role models are displayed prior to the start of each program to offer parents the peace of mind that the content their kids are watching is high quality and safe. In the evening, we open the screen for the whole family in a primetime programming block we brand as Family Central Explorer that showcases the marvels of science, wildlife, nature, history and space exploration through documentaries and adventure programs.
What role does Kids Street play in the cable industry?
Our role is to help diversify the line-up. Cable has a great history of nurturing new ideas and giving viewers tons of great options. Kids Street launched in 2017 to offer a diverse viewing option for families. We created the network we wanted to have when our kids were in this age group: educational yet entertaining, with colorful characters and positive role models, combining positive messages together with good values. While there were other kids networks out there, not all environments felt safe. Kids Street helps complete a line-up with high quality, fun, parent-approved shows for kids during the day and then a safe, entertaining option for the whole family during primetime.
What’s to come in the future?
We expect Kids Street to continue to serve as an advocate and example for affiliates to be able to offer great, diverse options on their line up. Comcast opened the door for us and other minority entrepreneurs to compete on a level playing field. We owe it to the next round of entrepreneurs to take advantage of that opportunity and demonstrate that success can be had in pay TV.
We are optimistic that the efforts of Kids Street will raise awareness and propel the success of other independently owned TV networks in the future.
We also expect distribution to expand to the new streaming platforms in the near term in a way that enhances our pay TV distribution, and eventually launch an app for another product our affiliates can offer to our shared customers.
And we’re focused on content and continuing to deliver a great quality viewing experience for young viewers and their families, by regularly expanding our library of diverse colorful and educational programming sourced from around the world.
