Nick Germany extends preschool block

Nickelodeon Germany is set to extend its preschool branded block Nick Jr and has outlined plans to ramp up local commissions.

The kids channel will increase the Nick Jr block by an hour and a half a day, extending it from 6am to 830am to 6am to 10am in September. It will add Dora The Explorer preschool animated spinoff Go, Diego, Go to the block as part of this revamp.

Oliver Schablitzki, managing director of Nickelodeon Germany, told TBIvision that its current average audience age is 9 years old and it hopes to bring this down.

"Nickelodeon is well known for its preschool properties so we want to establish the international USP of Nick Jr in Germany," says Schablitzki

He adds that although Nick Jr is currently made up entirely of acquisitions from the Nickelodeon library, it is eyeing local commissions.

"For preschool, Nick shows are the backbone but for every channel you need a face and local production helps us establish that. We’ll build up the slot and in the future I imagine we’ll add local content," he says.

Nick Germany itself is looking to boost local content. Following the success of kids docusoap The Goal Pirates, it is working on a number of German productions, both live action and animation projects. Its latest commission is a gameshow, Ghost Traders, where kids investigate haunted houses for prizes.