KTV On Demand - Kids'WB.com

TV Week's Vlada Gelman interviewed Warner Brothers' Senior VP, Digital, Brett Bouttier. The exec. proved to be something of a mensch, giving a young journalist an interview while he was still at the hospital after the birth of his son.

As Gelman's interview points out, since 2007 Bouttier has played a key role in making WB's program library available over the Internet and making those websites arenas for new program development. These are just a few of the pots Mr. Bouttier has been stirring; for instance, he drove development of the women's oriented parenting site momlogic.com. For you TV trivia buffs: He also held some responsibility for bringing TMZ to the broadcast screen.

As a result of his efforts, many of the shows that built KidsWB's popularity now live on line at KidsWB.com. Just as adults increasingly turn to Netflix on demand or Hulu.com, children are finding programming at the click of a mouse as readily as a click of the remote. As with Hulu.com, KidsWB.com provides perennial favorites that do not necessarily conflict with broadcast line-ups. There is little to no overlap with the material shown on CW4Kids, Warner's current Saturday morning offering.

Today's visitors navigating to Kids'WB.com can choose to watch a selection of classic Looney Toons and Tom and Jerry shorts; episodes of classic series including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, and Thundercats; and such newer shows as Ozzy & Drix. The site also vigorously cross-promotes Warner-property DC Comics, inviting visitors to play games, download wallpaper and other digital goodies, and purchase toys and other merchandise featuring the likes of Batman, Green Arrow, and The Flash. Youngsters (or oldsters) who register with the site can create avatars that gain, store, and redeem points as they play games--presumably solidfying their loyalties to Warner's content.

At the moment, the site does not carry embedded commercials as Hulu.com does. Nevertheless, WB remains fixed on the bottom line. Links connect the acquisitive to a Batman-theme DC-branded online toy shop or to a store specializing in DVD packages. The latter appeals as much to parents as to youngsters. Compilations called Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s and Max Fleischer's Superman share shelf space with volumes of Freakazoid! and Star Wars: The Clone Wars--all processed through the WBshop.com.

Kids'WB.com is consciously aimed at kids between the ages of six and eleven. A sister site, Kids'WBjr.com provides content for younger viewers. For reasons that remain unclear, it uses a different video player from its older sibling--and this one keeps shutting down my browser. The shows are Baby Looney Tunes (inexplicably) mixed with a few Scooby-Doo and Flintstones episodes. The games and activities are simplified, presumably for smaller kids, although one wonders which preschooler would actually play these somewhat-small, not-quite-obvious pastimes. In short, it seems the digital world still has not yet figured out how to reach the youngest of us.

The sites do take pains to assure parents that Warner Brothers maintains only a limited interest in their children's identities and information. As with all children's content providers, they have to walk a thin line. On the one hand, they are aiming to provide the richest on-line experience possible, which includes some degree of interactivity. On the other hand, they need to reassure parents that their loved ones will remain safe. The Warner Brothers team works as hard as anyone to walk that line.

As Gelman's interview makes clear, Bouttier and the other folks behind WB's online world, like good TV people, remain focused on audience and audience demographics. In a phrase that begs further explanation, Bouttier noted, "KidsWB is growing at an immediately fast clip, reaching tons of kids and boys through the D.C. side of it."

Is it still a truism that girls are always just about to become very very important even as boys remain the most sought-after market? Is the basic assumption still that girls will watch programming for boys, but not vice-versa? Or was an executive who was more preoccupied with a new baby than his work just pointing out that his web site gets a lot of traffic from boys who love their comic book characters?

In any case, if you are reading this there is a good chance you will enjoy Kids’WB.com as much as any youngster.

Check out Vlada Gelman’s full article here.