Powered by TMCnet
 
| More

Cable Technology Feature Article

January 15, 2014

Viacom to Bring Customizable Kids' TV to Verizon FiOS

By Tara Seals, TMCnet Contributor


Personalized TV has been the holy grail for content companies and pay-TV operators alike, ever since digital delivery and IPTV (News - Alert) became a reality. Yet efforts so far have been timid, focused mainly on enabling the ability to create on-demand and DVR queues and leveraging mobile or online apps to provide a personal overlay to linear TV. But Viacom (News - Alert) is looking to change that with a new, programmable channel for kids called My Nick Jr.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, My NIck Jr. will be a premium offering, delivered ad-free—a move sure to win big bonus points with parents. It will allow parents to essentially create their own programming schedule, to be delivered via the linear TV interface. To start, they can choose preferred themes, with categories like "word play," "super-sonic science" and "get creative." That content will then be pulled from Nickelodeon's catalog of both current and library content, and linear and on-demand fare, featuring popular shows for the preschool set like Dora the Explorer or the Backyardigans.

Then, in a Pandora (News - Alert) Radio-like scheme, kids and parents can give a smiley or a frowny rating to shows as they’re presented—if one show is liked, then more content like that will be presented in the future. If a show gets a bad review, then it and content like it will be pushed down the priority list.

Verizon's FiOS (News - Alert) service has already signed on to carry the channel, which will run adjacent to the current Nick Jr. station, with more pay-TV deals expected to come. 




Edited by Cassandra Tucker


blog comments powered by Disqus