Nickelodeon Launches Noggin, A Video Subscription Service for Preschoolers

This Thursday Nickelodeon is launching Noggin, a kid-friendly, mobile, video subscription service for $5.99. Targeted at kids ages 2 to 6, the ad-free app

This Thursday Nickelodeon is launching Noggin, a kid-friendly, mobile, video subscription service for $5.99. Targeted at kids ages 2 to 6, the ad-free app will feature TV shows no longer available on Nick Jr. In addition to reruns of older shows like Blue’s Clues, Noggin will offer educational videos featuring favorite characters like Moose A. Moose and Zee D Bird, Franklin the Turtle and Little Bear.

Initially, the app will only be available for iOS, but an Android version of the app is in development. Nickelodeon is discussing other options with cable and satellite companies, including offering Noggin as a premium add-on for subscribers. According to Variety, Noggin will complement the Nick Jr. app, a live, linear feed of the Nick Jr. preschooler cable network for existing subscribers.

This news comes just a week after YouTube announced its new, free app for kids called YouTube Kids, developed for children 4 and up. Currently available for iOS and Android devices, YouTube Kids features a video library of kids’ favorites including Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Reading Rainbow and Thomas the Tank. YouTube also plans to create original content for the app.

Insider Take:

These are interesting ideas, but they raise an obvious question – do kids really need their own apps? Even if kids have their own smartphones (gasp!), the parents are in control of the buying decisions and paying monthly subscription bills. Are YouTube and Nickelodeon trying to create a need that doesn’t currently exist? According to this Noggin announcement in MediaPost, Common Sense Media did a study in 2013 that shows that 72% of children under the age of 8 – including a third of babies under the age of 2 – had used a smartphone or tablet. Regardless, this is a decision for parents to make.

Setting aside the perceived need for apps for preschoolers, we think Nickelodeon is smart to respond to its declining TV audience. For example, for the week of February 15, Nickelodeon’s ratings for kids between 2 and 11 were down by 35%, says Todd Juenger of Bernstein Research in the Variety article. Though it isn’t clear if that ratings figure is year-over-year, that’s a huge drop, which will affect advertising dollars and the network’s bottom line, making the launch of Noggin a do-or-die venture.

If Nickelodeon is lucky, Noggin will allow the network to show parents that it recognizes their need for mobility and choice, giving parents a way to entertain their children on the go. It also allows Nickelodeon to capitalize on archived content and recapture its demographic, if it isn’t too late already.

The launch of Noggin will generate some additional revenue as Nickelodeon considers what other changes it needs to make to save the network. Its talks with cable and satellite operators are crucial, because traditional TV viewing is losing favor with younger generations and cord cutters, and there are so many options to choose from (e.g., Amazon Prime, HBO Now, etc.). Nickelodeon has to find new ways to attract and retain viewers and fast. Our guess is that Noggin is just the beginning.

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