How Akili Kids! Is Thinking Differently About…

By Eddie Olang | May 21, 2020 |

Scheduling Strategy

The free-to-air TV market in Kenya is dominated by Citizen TV, KTN, NTV, K24 and KBC. This dominance is both from audience ratings and revenue making. The common belief is that TV consumption REALLY starts at 6pm and daytime advertising does not attract a lot of revenue because most of the biggest shows on TV air after 6pm, with the peak advertising / programming slots being between 6pm – 10pm. Daytime programming is restricted to news related content, lifestyle features, West African soap operas, repeats of shows and fillers.

Akili Kids! has come in with a totally different proposition with extreme focus during the daytime (6am – 6pm). We are not only the first free-to-air kids TV channel but we are also the first to have a clear focus on daytime programming, and this is simply because that is when our children are most active and will most likely be allowed to watch TV by their parents or caregivers.

At launch, we imagined a typical (pre-COVID) Weekday would break down as follows:

6 am to 7 am – Family programming, all Ages

7 am to 12 pm – Early Childhood programming, 2 to 5

12 pm to 3 pm – Early Childhood programming, 2 to 6

3 pm to 5 pm – After-School programming, 7 to 11

5pm to 6 pm – Tween programming, 12 to 14

On weekends we have a slightly different strategy, focusing on older kids during the mornings and younger kids in the afternoon.

This programming strategy enables us to present the appropriate programs to the correctly aged audience, to facilitate learning outcomes.

Advertising Strategy

Kenya has yet to enforce a ‘strict’ advertising policy that governs what advertising can be placed around children’s content. Most free-to-air television stations currently show all forms of content targeting everyone in the household at different times. This means there is no specific time kept aside for children by law.

Akili Kids! has taken it upon themselves to create a strict advertising policy. As such, we have a responsibility to ensure that advertising around our content is appropriate and does not encourage children to undertake harmful activities. For instance:

Advertising must NOT contain anything that is likely to result in the physical, mental or emotional harm of children.

Advertising should NOT encourage children to copy any practice that might be unsafe for them, or present children in unsafe situations.

Advertising should not contain behavior that is likely to be easily imitable by children in a manner that is dangerous. For example, advertisements should not depict children in hazardous situations or behaving dangerously such as crossing a main road without appropriate adult supervision.

Advertising Must NOT encourage children to enter strange places or talk/communicate with strangers. For example, advertisements should not encourage children to use websites which are not suitably moderated or social media sites that are not designed for users under the age of 14.