The Virgin Kids App is designed specifically for pre and early primary school children (3-7 years old) for kids aged 3-7, and will offer more than 2,000 episodes of on-demand kids TV programming at launch, plus games and reading books.
Virgin’s chief digital entertainment officer, David Bouchier told TBI the app would be a “safe space” for children with no advertising, commercial influences or in-app purchase opportunities.
Show available at launch come from Virgin’s partners, including Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney. They include Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Thomas & Friends, Angelina Ballerina, Mike the Knight, Bob The Builder, In the Night Garden, Masha and Bear, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, and Monkey See, Monkey Doo.
Book titles available at launch include Monsters Love Underpants, Princess Evie’s Ponies, Dogs Don’t Do Ballet and the Robot with No Bottom, whilst the games list includes Playful Kitty, Bubble Gems, Kids Tangram and Doctor Teeth.
Virgin customers can download the Virgin Kids app from the Apple and Google download stores, with shows available to view offline when abroad. The app is available at no extra cost to Virgin customers who have the Fun or Full House TV package.
“Our Virgin TV Kids app is a safe and fun space designed exclusively for pre-schoolers, Virgin TV’s youngest customers,” said Bouchier. “Parents and carers can let their children explore the best children’s TV shows from all their favourite channels such as Disney, Nick Jr, Boomerang and more, as well as a wide range of books and games safe in the knowledge that kids can never be exposed to age inappropriate or harmful content.
“Our Kids app has not only the UK’s best selection of pre-school entertainment, but it comes with added peace of mind for parents – an environment free from ads and other commercial influences.
"Best of all it comes at no extra cost to Virgin TV customers who subscribe to our kids channels. What could be a better parental antidote for the holidays!"
Virgin’s music and kids content editor, Sarah Aspinall, first mentioned the service earlier this summer. She also revealed the service was looking at original commissioning.
The launch of the Virgin Kids App follows Sky launching the Sky Kids app, which offers a similar service, in March 2016.
To celebrate the launch of the Virgin Kids App, Virgin Media held a special event in London:
Kids are jumping for joy in London today to celebrate the launch of our new Kids App. 2,000 eps of top TV shows, books & games! #AppyKids pic.twitter.com/BqvQEH5fdv
— VirginMediaCorporate (@VirginMediaCorp) August 24, 2017
Virgin TV Kids Mobile App Download Links:
Google Play (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.virginmedia.kidsapp&hl=en_GB
iTunes App Store (iOS): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/virgin-tv-kids/id1258115045?mt=8
From the Virgin TV Kids App Description From Google Play
Designed for kids aged 3-7 the Virgin TV Kids app lets you conjure up entertainment with the tap of a finger (or the stamp of a foot) at home – and on the go.
There’s top telly available on demand, brilliant books and great games for developing curious minds. Loads of TV favourites are there, ready to watch – from Nick Jr, Cartoonito, Milkshake and TinyPop. There are hundreds of hours of shows on demand including Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, Pingu, Mike the Knight, Peppa Pig, Thomas & Friends, In The Night Garden, Paw Patrol, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom and more.
And it’s not just TV. There are lots of games and books to enjoy together, too. The best thing is,
there are no ads to skip, or breaks to huff and puff through. And there’s no way they can rack up costs with in app purchases. Phew
You can set up separate profiles for each child and the app will remember the most recent activities done on the app so it’s quick and easy to continue where they left off. You can even select the loop button to repeat the same show 5 times.
Key Features:
As a Virgin TV customer, this app lets your child:
– Watch loads of kids content on demand
– Play kid friendly games
– Read children’s books
– Watch on up to 4 compatible devices
Kidscreen interviewed David Bouchier, Virgin Media’s chief digital entertainment officer, about the launch of Virgin TV Kids:
Inside Virgin Media’s brand-new preschool app
Virgin Media's chief digital entertainment officer talks Virgin TV Kids, and why preschoolers are a key component of the pay-TV value proposition.
UK pay-TV operator Virgin Media has released Virgin TV Kids, a safe, dedicated iOS and Android app for preschoolers featuring a carefully curated selection of popular on-demand programs from the likes of Viacom, Turner and Disney, as well as interactive games and books.
The app, available to all Virgin TV subscribers on the network’s Fun and Full House bundles via free download from the Apple App Store and Google Play, is devoid of advertising and in-app purchases. It offers thousands of episodes of kids programming from Virgin channel partners including Boomerang, Cartoonito, Disney Junior, Tiny Pop, Milkshake!, Nick Jr., NickToons, Tiddlers TV, VTV Kids and ZooMoo, along with an expansive book library and 14 interactive games. Its unique “repeat” button lets kids watch the same episode of a show five times in a row, and parental settings allow for offline viewing, as well as usage history of games, books and TV shows.
According to David Bouchier, Virgin Media’s chief digital entertainment officer, the decision to launch Virgin TV Kids was driven by the fact that preschool is a key component of the pay-TV value proposition, given that a significant chunk of Virgin’s roughly 40% of subscribers with children under 16 are, in fact, preschoolers.
“It’s also about exploiting and developing the unique position we have as a platform with the best content partners in Viacom, Turner and Disney,” says Bouchier. (Virgin renewed its multi-year programming deal with Viacom in the UK and Ireland in October 2016. Part of that deal brought Viacom-owned Channel 5′s preschool programming block Milkshake! to the operator a month later, along with access to Viacom’s mobile streaming apps Nickelodeon Play and Nick Jr. Play. Virgin also extended its long-term content deal with Turner in November 2016.)
Other reasons for the release, according to Bouchier, include Virgin’s need to follow its increasingly on-the-go, tech-savvy younger audience that’s demanding content across every screen. He points to the app’s ability to provide offline downloads as a key component for serving this demo.
“Netflix recently allowed temporary downloads, and Sky Go Extra in the UK has had the functionality for a few years, but we did not offer it on our streaming app. Virgin TV Kids is our first app for temporary downloads, which is a big deal,” he says.
As for competing with established products in the region like the Sky Kids app, Bouchier says Virgin purposely designed an app dedicated to preschoolers from the get-go to help it stand apart. “We have a lot of respect for Sky and how they operate, but their strategy is different from ours,” he says. “We deliberately did not try to create a soup to nuts, big age group kids app because we would alienate the older kids, not engage the younger ones and potentially expose preschoolers to inappropriate programming.”
Among the shows debuting on the app are Bob The Builder, Mike The Knight, In The Night Garden, Thomas & Friends, Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol, Masha and Bear, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, Monkey See, Monkey Doo and Angelina Ballerina. (Content will be refreshed monthly.) For its book library, the app features Monsters Love Underpants, three Princess Evie’s Ponies titles, Dogs Don’t Do Ballet, Barry The Fish With Fingers and No-Bot, the Robot with No Bottom, to name a few. Its games include Playful Kitty, Bubble Gems, Kids Tangram and Doctor Teeth.
“It’s very difficult in the current media environment to try and be the one place for everything. We do know that if you build a fantastic proposition, you’ll get your audience,” Bouchier says. “With Viacom, they have created complementary streaming environments, so why wouldn’t we offer those to our customers? Nickelodeon Play allows us to hit all the other demos and maximize the investment that they bring.”
The app launch follows the arrival of former Azoomee creative director Sarah Aspinall as Virgin’s kids and music editor last December. Reporting to Virgin Media’s director of subscription services Pete Chapman, Aspinall is currently responsible for Virgin’s kids programming including channel relationships, on-demand strategy and kids initiatives.
“Bringing Sarah in was a very good move to strengthen Pete’s team in the area of kids and get a dedicated head for that area,” says Bouchier. As Virgin grows its kids business across screens, the operator may soon invest in original commissions to help keep pace with Amazon and Netflix.
Bouchier, however, says the biggest challenge going forward is getting more subscribers to pay for TV. “In the UK, we have exactly the right brand, market position, product and triple-play, quad-play offer, but we need to ensure we keep delivering the value proposition. To get people to pay for TV is always the challenge,” he says.
--Ends--
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Sources: TBI Vision, Digital TV Europe, Advanced Television, TVBEurope, RegularCapital.com, Virgin Media Customer Help and Support.
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