The Guardian newspaper in the UK reports on the “marketing alliance” of the Fox Kids and Toon Disney channels to create a new kids TV brand, to be named Jetix. Fox Kids Europe, which was sold to Disney two years ago, will be totally re-designed as Jetix, while Jetix branded program blocks will also play on ABC Cable Networks and Toon Disney. The new banner, to be filled mainly with animation, will apparently reach 137 million homes in 77 countries in 18 languages.

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MULTIMILLION DOLLAR TV BRAND TARGETS CHILDREN WORLDWIDE

Matt Wells
Media Correspondent

At the moment, the word Jetix does not mean anything to anyone apart from some very important television executives. But, as a result of a multimillion dollar marketing alliance announced by some of the biggest global media names yesterday, millions of children around the world will soon be in its thrall.

Fox Kids, the worldwide children’s television brand launched by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and ABC Cable Networks, which is run by Disney, unveiled a corporate revolution that will result in children in countries as far apart as Israel and Brazil feasting on an action-adventure diet of Power Rangers, X Men, Spiderman and Inspector Gadget.

“Jetix will be among the most widely distributed television brands for kids around the world and a showcase for new and existing action adventure programmes, including the new season of the best-known series in the genre, Power Rangers” said Anne Sweeney, president of ABC Cable Networks Group and Disney Channel Worldwide.

It is a formidable partnership. Fox Kids and ABC claim that programmes produced and broadcast under the new banner, mainly animation, will reach 137m households in 77countries in 18 languages. The alliance will enable the broadcasters to share costs in buying programmes, as well as making them.

The name will appear first in the US next month, with Jetix-branded programmes appearing in the morning on the ABC Family network, and in prime time on Toon Disney.

In Europe and the Middle East, Fox Kids channels will start to show Jetix programming blocks in April, in the autumn the channels will be renamed Jetix. The same process will be mirrored in Fox Kids channels in Lantin America.

Bruce Steinberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Kids Europe, said the Jetix name was an “empty vessel” into which the companies’ brand values would be injected. It implied action, adventure, humour and edginess, he said.

Fox Kids Europe was sold by Mr Murdoch in 2001. It is now in multiple ownership, with Disney holding a controlling stake.

The alliance will alarm many people already concerned at the apparently unstoppable march of media globalisation. The subject is particularly sensitive in children’s broadcasting, where TV programmes are used as hooks to induce parents to buy merchandise.

Mr Steinberg said the move would increase choice, rather than impose a diet of mind-numbing programmes. He said that Fox Kids channels around the world make and schedule their own programmes.

Susan Stranks, the former children’s TV presenter who campaigns for better children’s radio, said judgment should be reserved on the new venture: “A lot of parents are concerned about the violence in some animation these days. I think it’s a matter of balance”.

Source: The Guardian, UK