Cyma Zarghami, president, Nickleodeon: Giving quality time to the kids
Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon, is this year’s MIPCOM Junior keynote speaker. In her address she will draw on her considerable experience to offer her take on the state of children’s media around the world.
“I’ve been in this business for 23 years and what I can say generally about children’s programmes is that bad stuff goes away quickly, and good stuff hangs
around for a long time,” Zarghami said. “I’ve yet to see much crappy product in the marketplace, and that’s partly because kids are sophisticated and discerning, and also because most people in the business really care about what they put out there.”
Zarghami said that one of the big challenges facing the industry currently is that children are now “programming for themselves”. She added: “But I do think that the role of hit content is a huge driver, whether it’s UGC or generated by us. We have to keep making hits, and we have to keep an eye on how children use new media. When content is truly mobile and downloadable, that will be a real challenge.”
In the US and many other countries, families are spending more time together in front of the television, Zarghami said. “It’s a tough economy at the moment and people are not going out. There are time constraints for single parents and kids are overloaded with homework. Time is tight, so now quality time together is often
spent in front of the TV. That’s OK. But our challenge is how do we entertain them as a family?”
This and more in the full MIPCOM Junior Preview magazine: here!
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