TV channels aimed at children are becoming increasingly common in Europe, with Belgacom, Liberty Global’s Telenet and UPC, Numericable, Zon and Canal+ in Poland among the leading providers nationally on an on demand basis.
Data published by the European Audiovisual Observatory shows that most other on demand services are from traditional broadcasters, including those in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and UK.
On a pan-European level, the most important channels such as Disney, Nickleodeon, JimJam, Boomerang and Cartoon Network all have many on demand services targeting different European countries, with the majority of these services being registered in the UK.
The Observatory also says that in the case of the DTT sector, most children’s channels appear on free networks and are in fact public service channels, while a wide range of private children’s channels are available on pay-DTT networks in 14 countries.
All told, there are over 280 children’s channels in the EU and around 320 in Europe as a whole, and of these almost 300 are private and only 21 part of the public services broadcasting system.
Over 80 channels are focused on national markets and overall the most important pan-European brands are Disney (63 channels), Nickelodeon (44), Cartoon Network (29) and Boomerang (21).
