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Sandy Wax is president of PBS KIDS Sprout, a children’s programmer that is a partnership between Comcast, PBS, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop. She recently spoke to [itvt]’s Tracy Swedlow about emerging usage patterns for the company’s VOD service; about the synergistic relationship between its VOD service, its linear TV channel and its Web site, including how the VOD service allows it flexibility in scheduling the linear channel; about its future programming plans; and more.

[itvt]: When did you start at PBS KIDS Sprout?

Wax: I joined Sprout in November, 2005, so I’ve been here about six months.

[itvt]: And when did PBS KIDS Sprout launch?

Wax: Well, Sprout is a fairly new venture. The linear channel–it’s a digital channel– launched on September 26, 2005, and the VOD service launched a few months earlier in April, 2005.

[itvt]: What’s your background?

Wax: I spent the last seven years working at Disney in the cable group. I did a lot of work with Disney Channel and on forming the Playhouse Disney brand for preschoolers. Prior to that, I was at the Discovery Channel for seven years.

[itvt]: Which cable operators currently carry the PBS KIDS Sprout linear channel and/or the VOD service?

Wax: Sprout has almost 20 million committed subscribers and is distributed by Comcast, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Insight and RNC.

[itvt]: I understand that PBS KIDS Sprout has been able to generate 75 million VOD orders since its launch in April, 2005.

Wax: It’s actually over 80 million VOD orders now. In March, we hit a new monthly record of 9.1 million on-demand orders. That actually makes us the number one kids’ VOD service among all other kids’ networks.

[itvt]: That’s quite a large number. To what do you attribute the service’s success?

Wax: Well, we have a lot of the gold-standard brands in preschool television on our service. We’ve got "Sesame Street," "Barney" and "Bob the Builder." We have over 20 different series–many of them very well-known–that make up the core of Sprout, both on linear television and on demand. We like to say of our programming that kids love it and parents trust it. It’s perfectly developed just for this age group of 2- through 5-year olds.

What we’re doing is making it easy for parents and caregivers to find great shows, when they want them and how they want them. If they just want their kids to watch something suitable and high quality, they can find it on the Sprout Channel, which airs 24/7. If their child really wants to watch something specific–say, "Thomas & Friends" or "Berenstain Bears," they can go to our VOD service where they can choose from 55 hours of on-demand programming and watch exactly what they want. The whole idea behind Sprout is this very simple concept: all preschool, all the time, whenever you want it, however you want it. It just makes it easy for today’s families, which tend to have a lot going on.

[itvt]: So all the programming is targeted at preschoolers…

Wax: Preschool and kindergarten. It’s targeted at kids that are in a very distinct developmental stage of learning language: they’re learning to separate things that are different and the same. There’s a lot of great programming that’s been developed for this age group.

[itvt]: Who’s accessing or tuning to the programming–mostly parents or the kids themselves?

Wax: I think it’s a combination. Our experience has been that parents really appreciate programming with a solid curriculum behind it, and what we offer has been expressly developed just for this very specific age group. Television can be a real tool in the household when kids are trying to learn about things like sharing or taking turns. They watch, say, "Barney," and learn that this is how things like that are handled. TV becomes a great tool for parents to talk through a lot of those issues with their kids. We think parents are encouraging use of the programming, but if the kids don’t love it and don’t really want to watch it, they won’t stay. So we think it’s really a 50/50 split between parents and children.

[itvt]: What are your most popular shows?

 

Wax: The best performers include, in no particular order, "Caillou," "Barney," "Thomas & Friends," and "Sesame Street." Now "Caillou" is an interesting example–do you know that show?

[itvt]: No.

Wax: It’s about a little boy who kind of looks a bit like Charlie Brown. It’s a very sweet show. What’s interesting about it is that it’s not quite so prominent on the linear channel but it does really well on-demand. We’re not sure why– maybe because it appeals strongly to a particular kind of audience, and VOD makes it easier for that audience to find it. We haven’t done enough research on this yet to figure it out.

[itvt]: Now, in addition to a line-up of well-known shows, you also have some original offerings, correct?

Wax: Right. We put a lot of those original programs–which don’t yet have the same kind of mass audience as some of our other shows–on VOD. Right now, for example, we have five hours of Spanish-language preschool programming on-demand. So, while those shows might never migrate over to the linear channel, VOD provides a great opportunity for more niche-oriented programs to find their audience.

 

We are also using live-action hosts, with the goal of really creating a deeper connection with kids and families. So every night, from 6:00PM to 9:00PM, we have our host, Melanie, come on. She does crafts, sings songs, teaches kids yoga and sign language, introduces Spanish words, and tells stories. And she also helps navigate the kids into programs by saying phrases like, "Now let’s watch a ‘Dragon Tales’ story." And when that program is over, she comes back and says, "Let’s do some stretching!" And, then, a little later, "Okay. Let’s go watch a little bit of ‘Barney,’" or whatever. So we are packaging and wrapping our programming with original content, to give it even greater value.

We call this block of programming "The Good Night Show." We came up with it because, after six at night, across the whole television dial there’s no place that is providing programming made just for 2- through 5-year olds. Most kids’ programming in that timeslot consists of more edgy animation or live-action series. So we saw this as a real opportunity to deliver great content to our audience at a time when they can’t normally get it. We also have talked to a lot of moms and families. We know that that the 6:00PM to 9:00PM timeslot is a challenging time for them because kids want to stay up. They don’t want to go to bed. Parents are looking for ways to create routines, and we’re finding that they’re integrating "The Good Night Show" into their nightly rituals to encourage their kids to wind down at the end of the night and actually go to bed.

[itvt]: So you actually see a fair amount of usage of your programming in the evenings?

Wax: Right now, we’re not measured by Nielsen due to the limitations with the size of their panel, but we do have data from Rentrak on our on-demand programming. And what we’re seeing is that our programming is being ordered throughout the night. We actually do have quite a bit of viewing up through 10 and 11 at night, and it never drops down to zero. I don’t know whether it’s because some children are up watching, or if it’s older kids or even adults reminiscing about shows they loved as kids. But we are definitely getting VOD usage throughout the evening. However, we’re not trying to keep kids up any longer than their parents want–we do encourage them to go to bed. That’s the whole concept of "The Good Night Show," which I just mentioned.

[itvt]: Now, my understanding is that both your linear channel and your VOD service are advertising supported. Could you explain how advertising works with your VOD offering?

Wax: Across the board, our philosophy on advertising is to be very responsible to our audience, so we limit the number of ads we accept. We also never interrupt our programming, so the advertising will come either before or after a show. In addition, we only take advertising that is directed toward parents and caregivers. So, for example, Kimberly-Clark, which owns the Huggies and Pull-Ups brands, is one of our core sponsors. They’ve advertised on our on-demand service quite a bit. We don’t take those "Hey, buy it now, kids!"-type of toy commercials that many kids’ services are taking.

The way advertising typically works on our VOD service is that when you start playing an on-demand show, you’ll see a 10- or 15-second spot. Then you’ll be able to watch the show without commercial interruptions. At the end, there will be a longer spot–maybe 30 seconds.

[itvt]: Have you gotten any feedback from your advertisers on how their ads on your VOD service are doing in comparison to their ads on your linear service?

Wax: In general, we’ve found that there’s been a lot of interest and excitement from the advertising community about on-demand. The feeling is that it’s a very active audience–it’s an audience that has actually chosen the show. They’ve clicked on it and decided to watch it. As you probably know, one big thing advertisers want to know is if it’s an attentive audience, and so many of them perceive the VOD audience to be a high-quality audience, because the viewer has actively chosen the programs–the programs aren’t just washing over them, so to speak.

[itvt]: As you’re probably aware, "Sesame Street" and PBS in general have been pioneers of interactive TV in the US. In light of this, have there been any discussions about adding interactivity to your linear network?

Wax: It’s definitely something that we would like to explore more. Remember, we’re still a very young channel–our linear channel is just six months old. Our initial goals have been to build the basics of the brand, and simply to get the VOD service up and to get the channel launched. Now we have this exciting period ahead of us where we can start looking at interactive media and try to figure out what we can do in that space.

Right now–for the short-term–we’re realizing interactivity through our Web site, www.SproutLetsGrow.com, where you can extend the viewing experience online. It lets you play games, learn how to do crafts, and so on. So we’re realizing a participatory element more through the online arena.

I think the challenge with interactive television tends to be that the idea of it is often ahead of the deployment of the necessary technology. And also, our audience isn’t quite as adept at using buttons and remotes as some of the older-kid audiences. Nevertheless, it’s something we would be interested in exploring. But right now, we think that online–and broadband in particular–offers a lot of the same opportunities.

[itvt]: Though if the remote is problematic for your core audience, isn’t the mouse also problematic?

Wax: Actually, even at 2- and 3-years old, kids have become very adept at the mouse. We’ve designed the games on www.SproutLetsGrow.com to take into account the fact that kids aren’t going to be able to click on a very small area. You need to give them a bigger area in which to click.

So we’ve designed the games with the sizes of their hands and with their motor skills and cognitive skills in mind. But we are finding that kids seem to be able to just jump right into the online environment at a very early age–particularly the ones with older brothers and sisters, because they get a lot of help and encouragement with the computer from their siblings, as well as their moms and dads.

[itvt]: Let’s talk more about how your on-demand service relates to your linear service…

Wax: Well, our VOD service was launched first, and served to get the Sprout brand out there. It probably served to get people to think, "Hey, this is a really different channel," because it was a different way of watching television.

We did some focus groups in January where we asked a group of moms: "Why do we need a linear channel? We’ve got all this great programming on-demand." They said, "We usually go to the linear channel first to see what’s happening," and they also pointed out that there are things on linear, like "The Good Night Show," that they don’t get on the VOD service.

But what they also said was that they love on-demand for…well…its ability to provide programming on-demand! They’d tell us things like: "My kid just loves Thomas the Tank Engine and Teletubbies, and VOD means that those programs are right there for me when I need them."

 

In general, having both a linear channel and a VOD service allows you to keep viewers within your franchise, so to speak. So, if they missed a show on your linear channel that morning, they can go watch it on-demand: they don’t drift off and watch programming from another provider. It allows you to retain viewers. Another thing we’re finding with VOD is that it provides a very good way to launch new, original shows that build up an audience on VOD, and then you can launch them on the linear channel. So "Fireman Sam," for example, is currently doing very well on our VOD service, and we’re going to continue to track its performance with an eye to migrating it to our linear platform.

Another thing that I should mention is that having a rich on-demand platform allows us to schedule the programming a little bit differently on our linear channel than we would otherwise. Our VOD service serves as a destination where children can get a solid dose of their favorite shows: so the idea is that, if your child really loves "Thomas the Tank Engine," you can go to the VOD service and give them a full half hour or more of the show, and they’re happy. Because our VOD service fulfills this function, it gives us more flexibility in   programming our linear channel: we can program it in such a way as to provide more variety and spontaneity. And also to address the fact that kids’ attention spans at this age are really in the five- to ten-minute range. Most children’s networks schedule shows in half-hour segments, but there’s really no reason to do this from a child-development standpoint, because children’s attention spans at that age are six, seven, eight, nine minutes. So what we do is schedule, say, 10 minutes of "Jay Jay the Jet Plane," followed by 10 minutes of "Bob the Builder," followed by a five-minute episode of "Pingu." In other words, on our linear channel we deconstruct these artificial half-hour blocks that are standard in linear TV, and instead offer them on our VOD service for children who are so interested in a particular show that they’re willing to spend half an hour watching it. This allows our linear channel to offer a lot of variety, a lot of sampling–and thus to speak to the attention spans of this age group.

I think what makes us different from other programmers is that most programmers start with a linear TV channel, and then put a selection of their product on-demand. So for them, VOD is very much a secondary offering. Because we actually launched as a VOD service, VOD and linear TV are equally important to us, so I think we always have thought about the right way to use one in relation to the other. While we’re not currently offering the full level of interactivity that hopefully TV will eventually offer, we’re thinking a lot about how our audiences interact with our programming when they have both on-demand and linear available to them.

[itvt]: So the audience is constantly switching between your linear and your VOD offerings…

Wax: Exactly. The audience goes back and forth between them, which we love. There’s a sort of triangular usage pattern between the VOD service, our Web site and the linear channel: you watch something on-demand, and that makes you want to play. So then you go online and play a game with Barney. Then you go back and see what’s on the channel, and so on. I think parents realize that our content is very solid, curriculum-based and developmentally appropriate, and they see that it has a significantly lower commercial load than the competition, and that we don’t have the flashy, hard-sell toy commercials that a lot of children’s programming has. And, at the same time, we are offering them all these different options within our content proposition, so I think we make it easier for parents to encourage their kids to stay within this walled garden, so to speak, of PBS KIDS Sprout.

[itvt]: Do you have any plans to offer your programming on mobile phones? Obviously your audience is too young to be mobile phone customers themselves, but…

Wax: I definitely think it’s a possible scenario. Obviously, it’s still not proven what 3-, 4- and 5-year olds would want to do with a mobile phone, and it’s unclear that parents would want their kids to be using their mobile phones. Nevertheless, there’s been a lot of talk about how you might be, say, standing in the line at the grocery store, and you could pass the phone to your child to keep them occupied with programming. Now, with phones costing $200 to $300 these days, I’m not sure whether that’s a likely scenario. I think there’s a lot of research to be done about what families want to do with these devices. But we are creating our original content so that it could live on multiple platforms. The idea is for Sprout to be wherever kids and families are.

[itvt]: Do you have any plans to offer programming on other platforms, such as game consoles or iTunes?

Wax: No, not at this time.

[itvt]: What kinds of programming offerings should we expect to see from PBS KIDS Sprout going forward?

Wax: We’re currently very interested in developing more short-form content, and we’re in the early stages of development for a couple of interstitial series. These would have episodes of around one or two minutes in length, and would probably air both on our linear and VOD platforms.

Short-form content is not only appropriate for the attention spans of very young children, but is also great for portable devices and broadband. So it works on a number of different levels. We also feel that we already have such strong long-form content in our library, that we can focus more now on short-form, which also serves as a test bed for new characters and new ideas.

URL: http://www.sproutletsgrow.com

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