Fine-tuning Turner Africa's TV strategy

In the past few weeks, we've seen the launch of Cartoon Network's new website, Cartoon Network Imagination Studios - a specially-crafted, creative online platform to inspire, motivate and celebrate the wild imagination of children across Africa, as well as a new children-centric TV channel, Boing. With Boing already available on pay TV platforms in Nigeria, South Africa and the Seychelles and now available for all new pay TV operators on the continent in English and French with programmes like Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo, this effectively increases youth animation accessibility to a larger number of households throughout Africa.

The common thread among these TV trappings is that they're all from Turner Africa.

Pierre Branco, VP and general manager France, Portugal and Africa at Turner (Time Warner), talks us through their growth strategy on the continent.

1. How is Turner Africa growing as a platform on the continent?

Pierre Branco

Branco: As a pay-TV operator, we offer a variety of channels to a pay-TV audience across 49 countries on the African continent. Turner Africa's channels provide local platforms with quality international productions, while also taking into account the African audiences' expectations with regards to programming.

We're the leader in the kids' segment in Africa with Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and have further expanded our reach with the Portuguese version of Boomerang in Angola. But it's not all 'child's play', as another of Turner's successful brands is CNN International, currently ranked as the top international news brand on the continent as the channel is committed to telling Africa's stories through five weekly local programming strands. CNN also supports its own journalistic enterprise with the annual CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards. With its five African shows - African Start-Up, African Voices, Africa View, CNN Marketplace Africa and Inside Africa, CNN covers different trends, personalities and countries on a regular basis. Local relevance is a pre-requisite for the channel, and is ensured thanks to Africa-based correspondents such as David McKenzie in Johannesburg or Robyn Kriel in Nairobi, as well as through deployments from other bureaus.

Finally, Turner Africa operates the general entertainment film channel, TCM, which was recently rebranded with a refreshing new look and feel in a shift from its classic, black-and-white movie content to a strong lineup of contemporary, action-driven films and supporting productions. This updated focus aims to position TCM as the go-to channel for entertaining American cinema for movie-lovers across the continent. Becoming more consumer-centric, the channel ratings increased by an incredible 85%. This success has enabled TCM to increase its distribution across Africa. Where it used to be available on DStv's Premium packages only, TCM has now extended its reach to the DStv Compact package, thus reaching a far wider audience base in various territories outside South Africa.

2. Sticking with the topic of success, how did two of your brands become the first and second kids' channels in Africa?

Branco: Turner Kids is the first multiplex kids' channel in Africa. Cartoon Network (CN) and Boomerang are universally appealing to kids who enjoy unexpected comedy, and creative and qualitative content. Beyond our content, our channel brands are top of mind and have become a favourite destination for kids. CN's core target is 7- to 12-year-old kids who look for irreverent humour such as Clarence, as well as fresh, action-driven shows such as Ben 10 Omniverse.

Boomerang, on the other hand, presents a lineup of timeless and contemporary cartoons programmed for families and their younger children between the ages of four and seven to enjoy together. All-time favourites and modern remakes such as Mr Bean, Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo are streamed on Boomerang.

Bugs and Squeaks

Our channels' strengths lie in our qualitative content and our famous franchises. People know them and many of our loyal audience has grown up with these brands from when they were children. Now, as young parents, they are now reliving those happy times as they introduce their children to the channels' timeless shows and characters.

But it's not about being safe and looking at past hits... it's all about looking for new talent, being spontaneous and innovative, and doing things that have not been done before.

While we remain faithful to our brand DNA and our flagship shows, we constantly refresh our channel content. For example, in 2016 Turner's kids' channels will launch 700 new episodes of programming on its various African platforms, ensuring that kids enjoy more than 200 hours of fresh content across both channels.

3. Share some insights into the average African TV viewer.

Branco: The younger audiences love great content with strong storytelling and innovative characters. This explains the success of Cartoon Network and Boomerang, which introduce children to the true creativity of our shows.

But it's not just the children - families across the continent enjoy watching TV together - for example, enjoying Tom and Jerry on Boomerang presents one of those rare moments where there is not an argument about who owns the remote!

Where there's a happy media audience, there are happy advertisers - a true tale of success by remote control.

For more on Turner Africa, visit the website or follow its Twitter feed.