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“The Fox Kids channels continue to perform strongly in a year that saw new channel competition. Fox Kids’ audience shares lead the pack in many major markets, and several channels saw unprecedented performance.”
Paul Taylor replaced Marc-Antoine d’Halluin as Group Managing Director of Channels & Online on March 17, 2003. Mr. Taylor brings substantial experience to the Company, joining from British Sky Broadcasting plc where he was responsible for running Sky Movies and Sky Box Office.
Subscribers increased by 2.5 million to 34.8 million, maintaining our position as the most widely distributed children’s channel in Europe and the Middle East. Existing affiliate agreements were extended in many markets, including TDC Kabel in Denmark, which was extended through 2005, Digiturk in Turkey which was extended through 2007 and Star TV in the Middle East that was extended through 2008. Our channels now broadcast in 57 countries via 13 feeds in 17 languages.
We continue to connect with our audience both on and off air.
Off-air events in the current fiscal year include the Fox Kids Cup and Fox Kids Planet Live. The 2003 Fox Kids Cup involved more than a million children participating in a global soccer tournament, with this year’s final being held at Sportclub Feyenoord’s stadium in Rotterdam in June. The Fox Kids Cup won the Gold Award at the prestigious Kid Power Awards 2003 beating more than 60 entries including Nickelodeon, Hasbro and M&M/MasterFoods. The 2003 Fox Kids Planet Live was a series of pop concerts for families and children featuring global artists such as Blue, Gareth Gates, Liberty X and Atomic Kitten. Each of the three concerts was sold out. These shows were broadcast to at least 100 million homes across Europe with presenters from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the UK adding a local flavour.
The Fox Kids channels performed strongly in a year that saw new channel competition. Fox Kids’ audience shares lead the pack in many major markets, and several channels saw unprecedented performance. In the Netherlands, where we reach over 96% of all TV households, April’s average monthly market share of 42%4 of all kids was the highest since launch. The first broadcast of Fox Kids Planet Live attracted a record-breaking 77% share of kids, up 30 share points versus 2002. Many other Fox Kids channels showed year-on-year increases in ratings and share, maintaining their leadership positions among kids channels. On the back of continued ratings success, our afternoon branded block in Italy, which reaches 16 million free television households daily, was expanded from one hour to one and a half hours, and a new 75 minute block was launched in the morning.
We also extended the hours of our channels in France, the Netherlands and Poland during the year, whilst our UK channel became a 24-hour channel in November, just after our fiscal year-end. In Turkey, which was previously covered by a local language version of our Central and Eastern European feed, we signed an agreement to launch two channels targeting the Turkish market directly. These channels will allow dedicated local advertising to be sold in addition to pan-regional deals. The first channel launched in October 2003, and targets a slightly younger demographic than our existing CEE feeds. It carries English, Russian and Polish language tracks in addition to Turkish, allowing the potential for further carriage in neighbouring markets. The second channel carries Turkish and English language tracks and is due to launch in January 2004, replacing the existing CEE feed in Turkey.
In December 2002 we acquired the 49.5% shareholding in Fox Kids Israel which was owned by our joint venture partner MECH BV, as well as the Israeli rights to the Saban library and certain other Israeli rights, for $20.5 million5, which was in line with our forecast.
The integration of our online activities into the channel division that we started last year was successfully completed. We are now experiencing the benefits of this initiative both through lower costs and as more effective co-ordination between the businesses. Our Fox Kids Play service was relaunched in the UK on Telewest in July and our first content deal for mobile was signed with WIND, one of the leading mobile telephone suppliers in Italy. |
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