CONTENT OPPORTUNITIES: Nickelodeon International
C21Kids | Spring 2020
Making friends N Nickelodeon International is expanding its g global production activities and eyeing more p partnerships with overseas players. By Gün Akyuz
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iacomCBS-owned global kids’ brand Nickelodeon is busy diversifying its global activities and ramping up its studio production under president Brian Robbins. While Nickelodeon’s US studio remains the production engine for the lion’s share of its originals worldwide, outside the US the network deploys a ‘studio without walls’ model, says London-based Nina Hahn, senior VP of production and development at Nickelodeon International. Hahn, who oversees the group’s global content slate outside the US, says Nickelodeon International will pair up with external studios on any continent. Stateside, Nickelodeon’s expanding studio strategy has already led to interesting bedfellows, such as its recent content production partnership with Netflix. “Being at the centre of what kids want, and with Brian Robbins at the helm of Nickelodeon globally, there’s a real push to rejoice in the kid experts that we have always been and figure out what that looks like today,” says Hahn. “One of the great things that Nickelodeon International brings to the table is the unique boutique of so many different cultures, with so much different talent both in front of and behind the camera.” The Nickelodeon brand is currently available to 400 millionplus households in more than 170 countries, through 100 locally programmed linear channels and branded blocks, spanning Nickelodeon and preschool service Nick Jr. There is also the Nick Play app, featuring shows and games, while
the Nick Jr. channel on YouTube has about 12 million subscribers. A core mission for Hahn is ensuring Nickelodeon continues to reflect the reality for kids in an ever-shifting landscape. Hahn says Nickelodeon’s route is to create content that feels relevant to today’s culturally agnostic kids, who are used to hearing different accents and understanding multiple ways of looking at things. Diversity is a notable feature in Nickelodeon’s shows. “We have a lot of shows on the docket that speak to a lot of the diversity, authenticity and inclusion aspects of what is second nature to kids today,” says Hahn. Examples of such diversity include Emmy-winning animated series The Loud House, featuring same-gender parents; its spin-off The Casasgrandes, which includes a character with Down’s syndrome and was renewed in February following its launch in the US last fall; hit preschool show Nella the Princess Knight, preschool’s first mixed-race female knight; and live-action series Hunter Street, now in S4, which centres on a family of foster kids. Such programmes are “really trying to show the new definition of what it means to be a family, what it means to be a tribe or what it means to belong to something, across both the domestic and the international side,” says Hahn. Behind the scenes, Nick’s production models are becoming increasingly multi-faceted too. Set to launch soon is It’s Pony (20x11’), X
It’s Pony and Deer Squad (below) are both multinational productions
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