CiTV, Nick UK look for new laffers

UK commercial children’s channels CiTV and Nickelodeon UK are both seeking to add new comedies to their schedules, as the genre continues to attract young audiences.

CiTV is chasing shows for 6-11s in the same vein as My Parents are Aliens and My Phone Genie following a decision to move away from preschool programming earlier this year.

“Comedy is currently an ITV focus across all digital channels and our primary focus for children’s. We have available slots for commissions to air in quarter four of 2014 and we’re looking at strong live-action comedy. Our priority is sitcom or comedy drama,” said CiTV’s programming head Jamila Metran (left).

Having aged up its content, CiTV will also seek to find a new factual entertainment series with a “playground chatter factor”.

“We haven’t focused much on it in the past couple of years… [but] ultimately we want something different that turns into a talking point.”

Pay TV channel Nickelodeon, meanwhile will announce another international coproduction “in the next few weeks” said VP and director of programming, Tim Patterson (right).

He said Nickelodeon was after “original, comedy-driven content”, “fresh ideas, new characters and concepts and funny stories” with comedy at the heart in both and short-long form. Shorter run concepts could be trialled up on an upcoming Nick App before making the transition to TV, he added.