Time Warner Cable Adds BabyFirstTV
Linda Moss
Multichannel News
May 5, 2008
BabyFirstTV, a
toddler itself, has marked its second birthday by
closing a carriage deal with Time Warner Cable.
The premium service, which launched in May 2006,
recently signed an affiliation agreement with the New
York-based cable operator, which has 13.3 million
subscribers.
BabyFirstTV is now on the road visiting Time Warner
systems to try to secure rollouts from the nation's
second-largest cable company, according to Glenn
Kopelson, the network's executive vice president of
distribution.
“We are now going out to their affiliates, and working
for distribution,” Kopelson said, talking from a hotel
room in Columbia, S.C.
BabyFirstTV, which offers developmental and educational
programming for infants and toddlers aged 6 months to 3
years, debuted on both direct broadcast satellite
services, DirecTV and Dish Network.
With the addition to Time Warner, the premium network
now has carriage deals, so-called hunting licenses, with
three of the top four cable operators. BabyFirstTV also
has an affiliation agreement with Comcast, which is
offering it in Richmond, Va., and Charter
Communications, which launched it in Alabama.
The premium network, which has a $4.99 monthly
subscription fee, also has a carriage deal with AT&T's
U-Verse video service, although it hasn't been launched
yet by the telco, Kopelson said.
He wouldn't disclose how many actual subscribers
BabyFirstTV has. Globally, the commercial-free premium
service, which has been dubbed in seven languages, is
now being offered in more than 30 countries — by British
Sky Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, for example —
and is available in more than 80 million homes
worldwide.
BabyFirstTV debuted amidst some controversy. For
example, the American Pediatrics Association had
declared that children under two should not be watching
TV. Kopelson claimed that now the category “has been
embraced by cable and satellite operators all over the
world,” referring to the success it's seen
internationally.
The premium service, guided by a panel of
child-development experts, offers interactive content
for tiny tots, and encourages parents to watch with
their young ones.
“Parents are the ultimate experts on this, and they're
also voting with their remotes, because they're watching
our channel,” Kopelson said.
The premium service's lineup is 80% original
programming, with the rest licensed content from DVD
makers, such as Brainy Baby. The service has been adding
to its schedule, with shows such as My Gym at Home, a
children's fitness series being done in collaboration
with the My Gym Children's Fitness Centers.
BabyFirstTV's investors are Regency Enterprises, which
is part of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group, Bellco
Capital and Kardan N.V.
Kopelson maintained that BabyFirstTV's subscribers are
very loyal to the service, and that loyalty benefits the
distributors that carry it.
While churn for cable and satellite customers averages
about 18% to 20% a year, overall churn for
cable-satellite customers who subscribe to BabyFirstTV
is only 1% to 2%, according to the premium service's
research.
“So our churn rate is phenomenally lower than the
average churn rate,” said Kopelson, adding “parents
really value educational programming.”
In fact, children's educational programming was a key
factor when consumers pick a satellite or cable
operator, according to BabyFirstTV research.
Research also found that 85% of BabyFirstTV's
subscribers watch the service every day, according to
Kopelson.
The service's marketing efforts on behalf of affiliates
have included giving away a college scholarship to the
first baby born at the start of the year at Comcast's
Richmond system, and training — and offering incentives
— for customer-service reps to really sell the premium
network.