Moonbug Entertainment, a provider of preschool programming with a YouTube focus, will debut a special channel on MultiChoice’s DStv pay TV service in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Launching in October, the Moonbug Kids channel will feature material from the entire Moonbug library. The English-language preschool programme will be accessible to all 21.7 million DStv subscribers in 45 African nations and will feature CoComelon, Blippi, Gecko’s Garage, Morphle, Arpo, as well as recently acquired shows like Little Angel and Oddbods.
The channel, which will broadcast in English, will be accessible to all 21.7 million DStv subscribers in 45 African nations.
Nicolas Eglau, managing director of Moonbug EMEA and APAC, told DTVE in an exclusive interview that the company sees a significant opportunity to launch premium, ad-free linear channels with pay TV operators, especially in light of the fact that Hollywood studios like Disney have shuttered channels in order to concentrate on their own streaming platforms.
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He cited Asia as an example, where the sudden removal of kids channels gave Moonbug the chance to establish its first two linear channels in the Philippines and Malaysia. “It has opened up the market because pay TV operators are now hungry for new content that we can supply,” he added.
According to Eglau, the European market will closely follow the APAC market, opening up opportunities for new channel providers to meet the need of pay TV providers.
He added that Moonbug is currently preparing to work with a few operators to establish a channel in Turkey later this year.
For the first time, the Turkish channel will be entirely localised.
“We are eager to carry out this. We can do this in other markets, and Turkey is a sizable market with a young demographic,” said Eglau.
The business is willing to offer additional linear channels in EMEA, including in western European areas, according to him.
In order to advance its operations in the region, Moonbug earlier this year engaged Dilek Doyran, a former executive at Discovery as well as the chief content officer and CMO of Digitürk, as director, distribution and content partnerships, EMEA.
According to Eglau, Moonbug is now in sight of launching a second channel thanks to its strategy of continuing to amass content that may be distributed in a variety of ways.
I think we might create a second channel in some markets since we have so much programming, he added.
He stated that the second channel would be geared toward the same pre-school audience as Moonbug Kids, but with a different combination of content and “a selection of businesses that would follow a specific logic.”
