Becca's Bunch | Choosing Friends #TeachableMoment
Becca's Bunch | Find Sylvia's Bag #AdventuresCalling
Sylvia's Abra-ca-Bag-ra bag goes missing the bunch help the town find their lost belongings as well as Sylvia's bag - but where could it be? Can you help Becca's Bunch find it?
In Wagtail Woods one little bird, Becca, and her Bunch of friends are ever ready for adventure. Becca, a happy bobble hat wearing bird sees adventure in every situation and as a result often bites off more than she can chew; landing herself and her Bunch – Russell, Sylvia and Pedro – in some sticky situations. But it’s in the midst of these ‘oops’ moments that Becca’s unique ideas, heart, positive-thinking and leadership skills really shine. And that’s when simple kid relatable challenges take a bold turn towards the best day ever! Thinking on her feet, Becca will urge a generation of kids to never give up, aim high and have big ideas. Because, once they do, like Becca, adventures just seem to happen.
Watch Becca’s Bunch on Nick Jr.!
Follow Becca’s Bunch on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!
More Nick: JAM Media Taps JAKKS Pacific as Master Toy Partner for 'Becca’s Bunch'!
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Thursday, March 28, 2019
Sterre maakt Zee Slijm! 💚 KCA 💚 | TubeTube | Nickelodeon Nederlands
Sterre maakt Zee Slijm! 💚 KCA 💚 | TubeTube | Nickelodeon Nederlands
De laatste gast van Nienke is Sterre Koning! Sterre is genomineerd voor Favoriet Aanstormend Talent voor de Kids' Choice Awards!
Meer Nick: Dutch and Belgium Favourites Win Big in Nickelodeon's Kids’ Choice Awards 2019 | Nickelodeon Benelux!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2019 News and Highlights!
De laatste gast van Nienke is Sterre Koning! Sterre is genomineerd voor Favoriet Aanstormend Talent voor de Kids' Choice Awards!
Meer Nick: Dutch and Belgium Favourites Win Big in Nickelodeon's Kids’ Choice Awards 2019 | Nickelodeon Benelux!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2019 News and Highlights!
On This Day | Victorious Premiered on Nickelodeon
On This Day | Victorious Premiered on Nickelodeon
9 years ago we first walked the halls of Hollywood Arts High with Victorious! 🎭
Sing, dance and Make It Shine with the official theme song of Victorious!
Check out Nickelodeon's On This Day and Remember When Facebook pages to find out awesome Nick moments from every era throughout Nickelodeon history!
Watch all your ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s Nickelodeon favorites on NickRewind, your late-night destination for your favorite childhood Nickelodeon cartoons and live-action shows! NickSplat doesn't question football-shaped heads, but embrace them - along with Reptar bars, a Big Ear of Corn, orange soda, and even slime for Pete (and Pete's) sake. Make your slime-covered Nickelodeon childhood dreams come true every night at 11 PM ET/PT on TeenNick USA, and anytime you want on NickSplat on VRV!
Like NickRewind on Facebook, subscribe to the NickRewind YouTube channel and follow NickRewind on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive digital content from all of your throwback favorites like Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, iCarly, Victorious, Kenan & Kel, CatDog, Doug, Rocko’s Modern Life, The Amanda Show, Clarissa Explains It All, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and so much more!
More Nick: SDCC 'Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling' Sneak Peek | Rocko's Modern Life | Nickelodeon!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Classic Nickelodeon, NickRewind and Victorious News and Highlights!
9 years ago we first walked the halls of Hollywood Arts High with Victorious! 🎭
Sing, dance and Make It Shine with the official theme song of Victorious!
Check out Nickelodeon's On This Day and Remember When Facebook pages to find out awesome Nick moments from every era throughout Nickelodeon history!
Watch all your ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s Nickelodeon favorites on NickRewind, your late-night destination for your favorite childhood Nickelodeon cartoons and live-action shows! NickSplat doesn't question football-shaped heads, but embrace them - along with Reptar bars, a Big Ear of Corn, orange soda, and even slime for Pete (and Pete's) sake. Make your slime-covered Nickelodeon childhood dreams come true every night at 11 PM ET/PT on TeenNick USA, and anytime you want on NickSplat on VRV!
Like NickRewind on Facebook, subscribe to the NickRewind YouTube channel and follow NickRewind on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive digital content from all of your throwback favorites like Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, iCarly, Victorious, Kenan & Kel, CatDog, Doug, Rocko’s Modern Life, The Amanda Show, Clarissa Explains It All, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and so much more!
More Nick: SDCC 'Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling' Sneak Peek | Rocko's Modern Life | Nickelodeon!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Classic Nickelodeon, NickRewind and Victorious News and Highlights!
Kids’ Choice Awards 2019 Brings in Great Ratings for Nickelodeon Australia
Nickelodeon’s 2019 Kids’ Choice Awards premiere pulls a crowd
Sydney singer and Brisbane gamer win at Kids’ Choice Awards
Nickelodeon’s 2019 Kids’ Choice Awards were held in Los Angeles last weekend and the broadcast in Australia this week was ranked #1 STV program.
The 2019 event was hosted by music mogul DJ Khaled, and the unpredictable and always messy awards show ranked as the #1 STV program within its 5.30pm (AEDT) timeslot, amongst kids 5-12 when it was broadcast in Australia on Monday 25th March 2019 on Foxtel.
With a 44% increase in audience year-on-year (YoY), Aussie kids tuned in to celebrate their favourites in pop culture, television, music, social media and movies, in addition to seeing which of their local nominees, for whom they voted, would dominate in the Australian and New Zealand award categories.
The news follows Nickelodeon USA's Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice 2019 simulcast (Saturday, March 23, 8p.m. [ET/PT]) becoming the week’s number-one program on broadcast and basic cable across kid demos, including Kids 2-11 and Tweens 9-14. KCA ’19 also ranked as the number-one kids’ program among total viewers, and Nickelodeon itself finished the week as the number-one entertainment network with kids and total viewers.
The Fave Sports Star winner was New Zealand NBA star Steven Adams, Fave Music Maker winner was 16-year-old Sydney born singer Ruel, and Fave Content Creator as 23-year-old Brisbane-based gamer Lachlan Power, who is the first Australian gaming YouTuber to reach 10 million subscribers.
“Every year Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards get bigger and better, and this year was no exception with an amazing new host, more star-studded slimings and fantastic live performances,” Ben Cox, Vice President (VP) General Manager (GM) Nickelodeon Australia and New Zealand, told Mediaweek.
“In addition to nearly double the amount of kids tuning in to the show locally, we also saw great digital engagement resulting in some of the best local voting numbers on record. Our fans are eager to see their favourite Aussie and Kiwi nominees take home a Blimp and working collaboratively with our local nominees allows us to generate greater excitement. This year we collaborated with some of our content creators including top gamer and Youtuber Lachalan Power and soccer trick-shot social sensation Jed Hockin who attempted a Guinness World Records title as part of his voting campaign.”
This year’s party kicked off with DJ Khaled making his way to the Kids’ Choice Awards in style, with an assist from friends Kylie Jenner and the Jonas Brothers. His next-level arrival began with a ride in a Rolls Royce Phantom, followed by a cruise on a luxury yacht, and a trip on board the “Kids’ Force One” helicopter before landing at the Kids’ Choice Awards at USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles, California.
There was no shortage of slime and epic moments from this year’s show: Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott from Disney’s Aladdin arrived on a magic carpet and made the audience’s slime-filled wishes come true, dousing Smith and kids in green goo. DJ Khaled had to don a JoJo bow after losing a dance battle to JoJo Siwa in a live vote before Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez and Michael Peña, from Dora and the Lost City of Gold, world premiered the trailer for the upcoming Paramount Players live-action movie, released Thursday, September 19, 2019 in Australia.
Additional celebrities in attendance include Paris Berelc, Ally Brooke, Lana Condor, Joel Courtney, Jennifer Hudson, Jack & Jack, Liza Koshy, Caleb Mclaughlin, Janelle Monáe, Shameik Moore, Bebe Rexha, Kiernan Shipka, Lilly Singh, Sssniperwolf and Jason Sudeikis; cast members of Shazam! (Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer and Zachary Levi) and Fuller House (Andrea Barber, Soni Nicole Bringas, Candace Cameron Bure, Michael Campion, Elias Harger, Jodie Sweetin and Scott Weinger) plus Nickelodeon stars from Henry Danger, Cousins For Life and Knight Squad.
Following are the international winners of Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards 2019:
TELEVISION:
Favorite Funny TV Show
Fuller House
Favorite TV Drama
Riverdale
Favorite Reality Show
America’s Got Talent
Favorite TV Host
Ellen DeGeneres (Ellen’s Game of Games)
Favorite TV Judges
Simon Cowell, Mel B, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel (America’s Got Talent)
Favorite Cartoon
SpongeBob SquarePants
Favorite Male TV Star
Jace Norman (Henry Hart/Kid Danger, Henry Danger)
Favorite Female TV Star
Zendaya (K.C. Cooper, K.C. Undercover)
FILM:
Favorite Movie
Avengers: Infinity War
Favorite Movie Actor
Noah Centineo (Peter Kavinsky, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before)
Favorite Movie Actress
Joey King (Shelly “Elle” Evans, The Kissing Booth)
Favorite Superhero
Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man, Avengers: Infinity War)
Favorite Butt-Kicker
Chris Pratt (Owen Grady, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
Favorite Animated Movie
Incredibles 2
Favorite Male Voice from an Animated Movie
Adam Sandler (Dracula, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation)
Favorite Female Voice from an Animated Movie
Selena Gomez (Mavis, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation)
MUSIC:
Favorite Music Group
Maroon 5
Favorite Male Artist
Shawn Mendes
Favorite Female Artist
Ariana Grande
Favorite Song
thank u, next (Ariana Grande)
Favorite Breakout Artist
Billie Eilish
Favorite Collaboration
“No Brainer” (DJ Khaled, featuring Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Quavo)
Favorite Social Music Star
JoJo Siwa
Favorite Global Music Star
North America: Taylor Swift
OTHER CATEGORIES:
Favorite Video Game
Just Dance 2019
Favorite Social Star
David Dobrik
Favorite Gamer
SSSniperWolf
How Do You Want to Help?
Help Animals (rescue, wildlife and more)
Viewers can visit http://kca.nick.com.au to relive the best moments from KCA 2019.
More Nick: Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2019 International Nominees & Winners!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2019 News and Highlights!
Viacom Digital Studios Makes Big Streaming Push to Woo Next-Generation Audiences
After years of mostly sitting on the sidelines of the digital land grab, Viacom has gotten serious about investing in an online future for its stable of youth-skewing TV properties like Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and Comedy Central.
Credit: Cheyne Gateley/Variety
A cornerstone of Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Bakish’s digital road map is Viacom Digital Studios (VDS), led by president Kelly Day, a longtime digital-media exec whom Bakish hired in the fall of 2017. “A lot of people at the time were like, ‘Is Viacom really serious about this digital thing?’” Day tells Variety.
There was plenty of reason for skepticism: Even Day acknowledges that Viacom had underinvested in digital. “Their strategy was to just harvest the linear-TV business,” says Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence for GroupM, WPP’s media investment group.
The new digital push became inevitable as TV audiences continued to shrink, Wieser notes. It’s not getting better: Viacom Media Networks ad sales fell 6% in the fourth quarter of 2018 on lower linear-TV ratings. “At a certain point, it becomes difficult to manage a declining entity,” the analyst says.
A little more than a year into VDS, Day says her team — comprising more than 400 employees — has achieved real momentum, programming specifically for different platforms with new original series and harnessing Viacom’s intellectual property. According to research firm Tubular Labs, in October 2017, Viacom ranked No. 24 among media and entertainment properties for online video views. Fast-forward to February 2019: The company had jumped to No. 9 on that same leaderboard, with 3.54 billion cross-platform views across brands (up 57% from a year earlier).
That puts Viacom in the same league as BuzzFeed (3.5 billion views in February), while it trails other conglomerates like WarnerMedia, Disney and Comcast/NBCUniversal. Viacom’s brands have a collective social footprint of some 860 million fans.
“Our mission is about repositioning our brands in the minds of consumers,” Day says. “Younger audiences had moved heavily into digital, and the brands got a little bit lost in that equation.”
VDS isn’t profitable today, according to Day, as it continues to spend on building the business. Viacom doesn’t break out digital revenue but analysts say it’s still a fraction of the TV side of the house. “Yes, we want it to be a fast-growing, profitable business,” Day says. “But it was a big investment in our brands and content, and that’s still the driving force behind this.”
Kelly Day, president, Viacom Digital Studios. Credit: Brooke Alexander/Studio Brooke
She’s set up a diversified portfolio for the unit, with multiple revenue streams. Last summer, she led the acquisition of Awesomeness — the digital studio and network founded in 2012 by now Nickelodeon President Brian Robbins where Day had been chief business officer for almost four years — from owners Verizon, NBCU and Hearst at a fire-sale price sources have pegged at less than $50 million. VDS also acquired VidCon, producer of the industry’s biggest YouTube and online-video conventions, and influencer-marketing firm WhoSay.
For VDS, Day says, it’s critical to have multiple revenue streams that span online advertising, branded content, live events, content licensing and merchandise. It’s a rough time for companies trying to monetize digital content: In the last few months, Machinima, Defy Media and StyleHaul’s U.S. operations have winked out of existence, and BuzzFeed and Vice Media have undergone substantial layoffs.
“There’s no silver bullet for building a profitable digital media business,” says Day.
Awesomeness tucked into the VDS lineup neatly, with a slate of digital, film and TV originals aimed at young girls — older than Nick’s audience but younger than MTV’s. In addition to its YouTube channel (with 6.6 million subscribers) and shows for Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, Awesomeness is the studio behind Hulu series Pen15 and Light as a Feather, as well as Netflix hit teen romance To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (for which a sequel is in the works).
The sale to Viacom “was almost like it was meant to be,” says Rebecca Glashow, co-head of Awesomeness alongside Shelley Zimmerman. “It’s so rarely such a plug-and-play in terms of personalities and our goals.” Glashow acknowledges that Awesomeness went through a stressful period when the company cut nearly 100 employees — about half the staff — after the sale by the company’s prior owners Verizon, NBCU and Hearst. The cuts have made Awesomeness more efficient, Glashow says, as the group now leverages Viacom’s centralized resources like legal, operations, HR and communications groups. “That was something we were never able to do when we had three owners,” she says.
VDS, given its past acquisitions, is now seen as a potential buyer. Day gestures to a visitor sitting on her office sofa on the 26th floor of Viacom’s New York City midtown headquarters. “There are a lot of people who have sat on that couch and said, ‘Please buy my company,’” she says.
For Viacom’s core TV networks, VDS now has an established process for expanding output on social and digital platforms. VDS represents “the fundamentals of how a cable network also becomes responsive to digital,” says Jennifer Danielson, Senior Vice President (SVP) of digital for Comedy Central, Paramount Network and TV Land.
The traction Danielson’s team saw with the Comedy Central Stand-Up channel on YouTube last fall led to the launch of its first YouTube channel for originals. That features new shows like Shane Torres Conquers Your Fears, in which the comedian leads guests through ridiculous immersion-therapy exercises, and upcoming series including Sex Fails, featuring cringe-worthy stories of sexual misadventures. The YouTube channel also provides a new home for popular returning digital originals like short-form mockumentary series Mini-Mocks.
“Now we have enough content — and the process — to lean into what those originals look like,” says Danielson.
MTV in particular has worked with VDS to tap its library of intellectual property to create digital series and reimagine franchises for a new generation of mobile-first audiences. Those include a reboot of dating show Singled Out on YouTube (with Season 1 garnering more than 20 million views to date) and Basic to Bougie, tied to talent from the fan-favorite comedy-improv series Wild ‘N Out. VDS also teamed with MTV to launch clips from old episodes of Wild 'N Out on a dedicated YouTube channel and launched a channel for Jersey Shore featuring offshoot series Cooking in the Crib With Snooki & Joey.
“Our secret weapon is our treasure trove of IP,” says Jacqueline Parkes, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Executive Vice President (EVP) of digital studios for MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo.
Nickelodeon, too, has moved more aggressively in partnership with VDS to feature digital-native talent, including JoJo Siwa, a hugely popular 15-year-old internet star, for whom VDS is producing events, consumer products and originals like the animated The JoJo and BowBow Show, co-starring her adorable Yorkshire terrier. “We weren’t doing this a year ago,” says Kim Rosenblum, Nickelodeon’s head of marketing and chief creative officer.
Day says data shows VDS’s increased output isn’t the reason viewers are peeling away from TV. Around 30% of people 18-34 don’t even have cable TV anyway, per Nielsen. “We’re not directing people away from TV to YouTube – we’re tapping into people who are already on YouTube,” she says. “We aren’t just marketing at them, throwing tune-in at them. It’s stuff they like.”
VDS is trying to replicate the model internationally, launching Viacom Digital Studios International in August 2018. The group, led by General Manager (GM) Brendan Yam, who previously headed multiplatform content for MTV and Comedy Central, is focused on creating content around its brands outside the U.S., working with 52 international offices to produce content in 17 different languages.
It’s still early days, but Yam says VDS International digital views are already on the rise. “What we’re trying to solve is, How do you knit all these people and brands together to localize great content, and share it around the world, and have these teams work together in a 24-hour-a-day way?”
For now, Viacom is mostly avoiding the rush to subscription video-on-demand (VOD) to chase market leader Netflix. Day also points to Viacom’s $340 million purchase of free video-streaming start-up Pluto TV, which has 12 million monthly unique viewers — a built-in outlet for VDS content. “Disney and AT&T are going hard after an SVOD model,” she says. “We think there’s a huge opportunity in ad-supported businesses. Consumers like free.”
Day still confronts naysayers who think Viacom is too late to the party. “Companies walk in here and say, ‘We’re building the next MTV,’” she says. But MTV is already a digital powerhouse, Day counters — it snared 8 billion video streams across all platforms in 2018.
“The viewership on these platforms, it’s a hockey stick,” she says. “And advertisers follow eyeballs.”
Anchored by the VDS strategy, Viacom is positioned to win more digital ad business, according to GroupM’s Wieser. But, he adds: “You’re not going to be successful just by showing up. You have to execute.”
More Nick: Nickelodeon Embarks on New Direction with its Biggest, Most Wide-Ranging Content Slate Ever!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon and Viacom News and Highlights!
Credit: Cheyne Gateley/Variety
A cornerstone of Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Bakish’s digital road map is Viacom Digital Studios (VDS), led by president Kelly Day, a longtime digital-media exec whom Bakish hired in the fall of 2017. “A lot of people at the time were like, ‘Is Viacom really serious about this digital thing?’” Day tells Variety.
There was plenty of reason for skepticism: Even Day acknowledges that Viacom had underinvested in digital. “Their strategy was to just harvest the linear-TV business,” says Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence for GroupM, WPP’s media investment group.
The new digital push became inevitable as TV audiences continued to shrink, Wieser notes. It’s not getting better: Viacom Media Networks ad sales fell 6% in the fourth quarter of 2018 on lower linear-TV ratings. “At a certain point, it becomes difficult to manage a declining entity,” the analyst says.
A little more than a year into VDS, Day says her team — comprising more than 400 employees — has achieved real momentum, programming specifically for different platforms with new original series and harnessing Viacom’s intellectual property. According to research firm Tubular Labs, in October 2017, Viacom ranked No. 24 among media and entertainment properties for online video views. Fast-forward to February 2019: The company had jumped to No. 9 on that same leaderboard, with 3.54 billion cross-platform views across brands (up 57% from a year earlier).
That puts Viacom in the same league as BuzzFeed (3.5 billion views in February), while it trails other conglomerates like WarnerMedia, Disney and Comcast/NBCUniversal. Viacom’s brands have a collective social footprint of some 860 million fans.
“Our mission is about repositioning our brands in the minds of consumers,” Day says. “Younger audiences had moved heavily into digital, and the brands got a little bit lost in that equation.”
VDS isn’t profitable today, according to Day, as it continues to spend on building the business. Viacom doesn’t break out digital revenue but analysts say it’s still a fraction of the TV side of the house. “Yes, we want it to be a fast-growing, profitable business,” Day says. “But it was a big investment in our brands and content, and that’s still the driving force behind this.”
Kelly Day, president, Viacom Digital Studios. Credit: Brooke Alexander/Studio Brooke
She’s set up a diversified portfolio for the unit, with multiple revenue streams. Last summer, she led the acquisition of Awesomeness — the digital studio and network founded in 2012 by now Nickelodeon President Brian Robbins where Day had been chief business officer for almost four years — from owners Verizon, NBCU and Hearst at a fire-sale price sources have pegged at less than $50 million. VDS also acquired VidCon, producer of the industry’s biggest YouTube and online-video conventions, and influencer-marketing firm WhoSay.
For VDS, Day says, it’s critical to have multiple revenue streams that span online advertising, branded content, live events, content licensing and merchandise. It’s a rough time for companies trying to monetize digital content: In the last few months, Machinima, Defy Media and StyleHaul’s U.S. operations have winked out of existence, and BuzzFeed and Vice Media have undergone substantial layoffs.
“There’s no silver bullet for building a profitable digital media business,” says Day.
Awesomeness tucked into the VDS lineup neatly, with a slate of digital, film and TV originals aimed at young girls — older than Nick’s audience but younger than MTV’s. In addition to its YouTube channel (with 6.6 million subscribers) and shows for Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, Awesomeness is the studio behind Hulu series Pen15 and Light as a Feather, as well as Netflix hit teen romance To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (for which a sequel is in the works).
The sale to Viacom “was almost like it was meant to be,” says Rebecca Glashow, co-head of Awesomeness alongside Shelley Zimmerman. “It’s so rarely such a plug-and-play in terms of personalities and our goals.” Glashow acknowledges that Awesomeness went through a stressful period when the company cut nearly 100 employees — about half the staff — after the sale by the company’s prior owners Verizon, NBCU and Hearst. The cuts have made Awesomeness more efficient, Glashow says, as the group now leverages Viacom’s centralized resources like legal, operations, HR and communications groups. “That was something we were never able to do when we had three owners,” she says.
VDS, given its past acquisitions, is now seen as a potential buyer. Day gestures to a visitor sitting on her office sofa on the 26th floor of Viacom’s New York City midtown headquarters. “There are a lot of people who have sat on that couch and said, ‘Please buy my company,’” she says.
For Viacom’s core TV networks, VDS now has an established process for expanding output on social and digital platforms. VDS represents “the fundamentals of how a cable network also becomes responsive to digital,” says Jennifer Danielson, Senior Vice President (SVP) of digital for Comedy Central, Paramount Network and TV Land.
The traction Danielson’s team saw with the Comedy Central Stand-Up channel on YouTube last fall led to the launch of its first YouTube channel for originals. That features new shows like Shane Torres Conquers Your Fears, in which the comedian leads guests through ridiculous immersion-therapy exercises, and upcoming series including Sex Fails, featuring cringe-worthy stories of sexual misadventures. The YouTube channel also provides a new home for popular returning digital originals like short-form mockumentary series Mini-Mocks.
“Now we have enough content — and the process — to lean into what those originals look like,” says Danielson.
MTV in particular has worked with VDS to tap its library of intellectual property to create digital series and reimagine franchises for a new generation of mobile-first audiences. Those include a reboot of dating show Singled Out on YouTube (with Season 1 garnering more than 20 million views to date) and Basic to Bougie, tied to talent from the fan-favorite comedy-improv series Wild ‘N Out. VDS also teamed with MTV to launch clips from old episodes of Wild 'N Out on a dedicated YouTube channel and launched a channel for Jersey Shore featuring offshoot series Cooking in the Crib With Snooki & Joey.
“Our secret weapon is our treasure trove of IP,” says Jacqueline Parkes, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Executive Vice President (EVP) of digital studios for MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo.
Nickelodeon, too, has moved more aggressively in partnership with VDS to feature digital-native talent, including JoJo Siwa, a hugely popular 15-year-old internet star, for whom VDS is producing events, consumer products and originals like the animated The JoJo and BowBow Show, co-starring her adorable Yorkshire terrier. “We weren’t doing this a year ago,” says Kim Rosenblum, Nickelodeon’s head of marketing and chief creative officer.
Day says data shows VDS’s increased output isn’t the reason viewers are peeling away from TV. Around 30% of people 18-34 don’t even have cable TV anyway, per Nielsen. “We’re not directing people away from TV to YouTube – we’re tapping into people who are already on YouTube,” she says. “We aren’t just marketing at them, throwing tune-in at them. It’s stuff they like.”
VDS is trying to replicate the model internationally, launching Viacom Digital Studios International in August 2018. The group, led by General Manager (GM) Brendan Yam, who previously headed multiplatform content for MTV and Comedy Central, is focused on creating content around its brands outside the U.S., working with 52 international offices to produce content in 17 different languages.
It’s still early days, but Yam says VDS International digital views are already on the rise. “What we’re trying to solve is, How do you knit all these people and brands together to localize great content, and share it around the world, and have these teams work together in a 24-hour-a-day way?”
For now, Viacom is mostly avoiding the rush to subscription video-on-demand (VOD) to chase market leader Netflix. Day also points to Viacom’s $340 million purchase of free video-streaming start-up Pluto TV, which has 12 million monthly unique viewers — a built-in outlet for VDS content. “Disney and AT&T are going hard after an SVOD model,” she says. “We think there’s a huge opportunity in ad-supported businesses. Consumers like free.”
Day still confronts naysayers who think Viacom is too late to the party. “Companies walk in here and say, ‘We’re building the next MTV,’” she says. But MTV is already a digital powerhouse, Day counters — it snared 8 billion video streams across all platforms in 2018.
“The viewership on these platforms, it’s a hockey stick,” she says. “And advertisers follow eyeballs.”
Anchored by the VDS strategy, Viacom is positioned to win more digital ad business, according to GroupM’s Wieser. But, he adds: “You’re not going to be successful just by showing up. You have to execute.”
More Nick: Nickelodeon Embarks on New Direction with its Biggest, Most Wide-Ranging Content Slate Ever!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon and Viacom News and Highlights!
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