What Does Mom Like?

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Paige Albiniak]
“Television is a shockingly powerful medium for children,” says Brigid Sullivan, VP for children’s educational and interactive programming at WGBH Boston, which produces PBS’ Arthur and Postcards From Buster and Discovery Kids’ Peep and the Big Wide World. “There’s almost nothing a 3-year-old would rather do than watch television. It’s frightening.” So how do you harness that power? “The quickest way to get [a series on-air] is not to spend years and years researching and getting educational consultants and constantly testing the shows,” says Linda Simensky, senior director of children’s programming at PBS. But because that’s the drill for educational shows, it often takes an extra year to get the program in shape. All that extra time and expense for a dwindling return on advertising is one reason the broadcast networks have ceded their Saturday-morning kids blocks to cable partners and another reason kids cable networks program pepper their after-school blocks with older-kids fare that seems heavy on fun but light on learning. “Nick’s attitude is that kids get education at school. What Nick wants to be for kids is a safe haven where they can find their favorite characters and play great games,” says Brown Johnson, executive creative director for Nick Preschool Television. “They have enough pressure from going to school, and then they have homework. Nick, and I think rightly so, doesn't think it needs to be more school for kids.”
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6283292?display=Special+Report&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)