Nickelodeon is riding high in the UK on a growing mix of original and acquired content, multiple platforms and real-world experiences. C21 Media's Gün Akyuz reports.OverviewThree years at the top in the UK’s cabsat pay universe is no mean feat for a kids’ network in today’s fragmented landscape. Nickelodeon continues to claim that spot across its linear channels Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and Nicktoons, under the direction of Alison Bakunowich, Senior Vice President (SVP) and General Manager (GM) for Nickelodeon UK and Ireland.
Her brief now also oversees the UK’s Channel 5 preschool block Milkshake! and a growing portfolio of Nickelodeon brands in NEE regions, the Nordics, CEE and Russia, where it’s making equally impressive gains.
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Alison Bakunowich“It’s a result we are extremely proud of and have worked very hard at,” says Bakunowich. “Last year we had the highest share performance on record across the combined network, Nick, Nicktoons and Nick Jr, as did Milkshake!, actually. That’s what motivates us.”
In 2017, Nickelodeon grew 7% and was the top kids’ network in pay TV homes, ahead of BBC Kids (CBBC and CBeebies) and Disney, while Nick Jr. achieved its best year on record. Over on Channel 5, Milkshake! also achieved its best-ever annual share of all kids’ viewing.
As a combined network, Nickelodeon claims to have had the largest year-on-year growth of the top five channels on the kids’ EPG in pay TV homes, and where half of the top 10 shows in pay TV homes are theirs. Unsurprisingly, they include the top two preschool shows,
Peppa Pig and
Paw Patrol, as well as Nickelodeon animation series
ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks (in third),
Horrid Henry (fifth) and the evergreen
SpongeBob SquarePants, still among the network’s top five shows. Nickelodeon also has the top four live-action series:
Henry Danger,
The Thundermans,
Game Shakers and
Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn.
That’s only part of the picture. Nickelodeon has also seen a 22% growth in Video-on-Demand (VoD) viewing this year to July, with
Peppa Pig,
Paw Patrol,
The Thundermans,
iCarly and
Henry Danger driving that rise, according to the network.
“Live viewing is still critically important and still there, but VoD viewing is extremely important,” says Bakunowich. “We’re seeing huge numbers in catch-up and portable viewing. So whether it’s playing a game or watching something on the Nick Play app, for example, or the Nick Jr. play app, the consumption and the same content is still there, it’s just when and how.
“For Viacom, we see controlling the right to ‘must-see’ IP as key to growth in the emerging on-demand TV ecosystem and it’s an area in which Nickelodeon already has a strong pedigree and established pipeline.
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TV movie Blurt generated Nickelodeon’s biggest live ratings since 2013“We’ve always had a very strong brand personality, whether it’s Nick Jr., the first step on the brand ladder, right through to the live-action on Nickelodeon, there is a humour and irreverence that has always been very important to us. Specifically, it continues to be about key characters, IP, storytelling and, of course, how you consume it. Whether it’s new or returning, it’s still all about great shows for all ages, all stages, boys, girls, throughout your whole childhood. It’s that nappies-to-skinny-jeans thing.”
Nick UK
also turned 25 in September. For Bakunowich, this signifies that there’s now a generation of parents who grew up with Nickelodeon. “That’s what’s interesting to me. We’re now a brand that has that connection with parent as well.”
A highlight for the network in September was the new series
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, backed by a
raft of consumer products. The show
launched on Nicktoons on September 22, a few days after its US launch. In a first under Viacom’s enlarged UK stable, the show is being simulcast on Nicktoons and Channel 5.
“It feels really modern and a perfect evolution of that series,” says Bakunowich, for whom the show is also a “great pointer” to the generational link between parents and kids and Nickelodeon as “a shared experience.”
Nickelodeon is extending the shared experience to a growing number of live events, such as
Slimefest, featuring Nick-related talent like YouTuber JoJo Siwa (
JoJo Siwa: My World), Jace Norman (
Henry Danger) and Kira Kosarin (
The Thundermans).
Last year Slimefest ran as six shows over three days attracting 12,000 people. This year’s events and real-world activities included
The Nick Jr Adventure Centre in June and July 2018. Slimefest will be back on October 20-22, to be followed by a linear airing in November, plus events with Max and Harvey and JoJo Siwa.
“We’re bringing people to the market with lots of on-the-ground events, big tent-poles like Slimefest, and smaller activations across the country in cinemas and shopping centres,” says Bakunowich, noting that all such touch points “drove back to Nickelodeon UK’s most successful year ever.”
In April, the TV movie Blurt, featuring JoJo Siwa and Jace Norman, was aired as a linear TV event, generating Nickelodeon’s biggest live ratings since 2013. Norman was brought over to the UK to promote it.
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Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles airs on Nicktoons“Kids love our characters and IP and want to experience that, whether it’s slime or JoJo Siwa. It’s about getting an opportunity to experience that in the real world,” says Bakunowich. “Real-world experiences and having something for families to experience together is so important for us.”
Bakunowich says the Nickelodeon group is looking to broaden its events in the UK, Ireland and globally, “with more on-the-ground brand exposure, and more real-world interaction with our audience.”
Current schedule, acquisitions, original production![]()
Newly launched preschool animated series Becca’s BunchBy the end of 2018 Nickelodeon will have launched 17 new shows across the network since the beginning of the year, a mixture of in-house intellectual properties (IP) as well as local acquisitions. On the local content front, Nick has just launched preschool animated series
Becca’s Bunch, acquired from Anglo-Irish outfit Jam Media. “We’re delighted with this show and how it’s performing,” says Bakunowich. “It looks really different – it’s puppetry but stunning, and very much the premise we hold true on Nick Jr., which is about adventure.”
The show was picked up for Nick in the UK as well as globally. Another is Nickelodeon-backed North American animated adventure series
Top Wing.
Over on Nickelodeon, a newcomer is Cottonwood Media and ZDFE’s live-action drama about a time-travelling ballerina,
Find Me In Paris, plus Nickelodeon-backed US comedy
Knight Squad.
Nicktoons, meanwhile, recently debuted
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Earlier this year it picked up all five seasons of
Horrid Henry, which began airing in late May, with Nicktoons airing brand-new episodes in 2019. Another recent acquisition for the toon net is DHX’s
Massive Monster Mayhem.
Bakunowich is also keen to flag up UK preschool production
Digby Dragon from Blue Zoo Animation. Milkshake! has
now commissioned season two of the show, originally a Nickelodeon commission, for next year. “It’s been a huge performer, so Milkshake! will now be the home of
Digby Dragon,” says the exec. She points out the established track-record of IP sharing between Nick and Milkshake!, covering shows like
Peppa Pig and
Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, from before Viacom’s ownership.
“We’ll be doing more of that if it makes sense, and if it’s a show that will work on both networks,” she says, noting that Milkshake! skews a little younger, is more British at its core and a bit softer. Nick Jr. is “more forthright, adventure, humour and sometimes a bit glossier.”
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Find Me In Paris, Cottonwood and ZDFE’s drama about a time-travelling ballerina“We were extremely focused on almost every aspect of the channel, the brand and multiple strategies,” says Bakunowich. “Events are an extremely important part of it, as well as social. We have a multiplatform team who do on-demand scheduling – an artform in itself – but the channel business is still absolutely core to our business. It is like individual races that add up to the pentathlon, and we’re in to win them all.”
When it comes to talent-spotting, social media is already in the mix for Nickelodeon, which has recruited JoJo Siwa and works a lot with Max and Harvey, twin musicians with a big social media presence. “We always want to reflect society and kids, so that they’re not just from drama school, but also from bedrooms in Norwich, and you do get a broader catchment of talent,” says Bakunowich. “Because of social media, we’re able to segment our audience and communicate to them in a way we’ve never been able to before.”
She highlights Nickelodeon bulletin
The Scoop’s social site, featuring Instagram-style stories aimed at girls aged 11-16, covering gossip on Nick stars and other celebrities, beauty, fashion, technology and wellness. “It allows us to talk to the tween girl end of the audience in ways we’d never communicate on the channel because that’s for a much broader audience. But it can connect with an audience that is very active on social. They communicate with us and tell us what they’re into – it’s a fantastic dialogue,” says Bakunowich.
The exec’s plans for Nickelodeon UK and Ireland over the next year remain firmly focused on “content and how it’s consumed. It continues to be our commitment and we’re constantly looking at pushing forward on platforms, on consumer products, on events and real-life experiences. There are literally no ways in which were not looking for people to work with us, whether it’s new technologies or event activations or IP ideas. We’re completely focused on the kids’ entertainment business and this market and moving ahead.”
But she does offer some advice: “We recently acquired
Horrid Henry for the UK. It’s obviously a huge favourite here and works very well with our toon slate. It also works extremely well next to
SpongeBob. That’s a huge factor – how well something will sit next to Nickelodeon IP.
“We’re always looking for great content, great characters that can sit in the Nickelodeon family and we’ll treat them like our own. I can’t stress that enough, because if we find something that we believe will work, we will find the money. Also, with some things we look at we’ll say, ‘Oh this is Milkshake!’ or Nickelodeon, or ‘This is great for the UK,’ and some things could be an international opportunity. That’s what, at Nick, we’re very good at. So in terms of maximising the opportunity for the creator or producer, we can facilitate that very easily.
Bakunowich doesn’t have specific acquisition hours to fill. “When we see it and we think it will work, we’ll just buy it. That’s the way we do it, rather than spending to a budget,” says the executive.
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