Recently I interviewed Kenneth Locker, Senior Vice President Digital Media for Cookie Jar Entertainment, whose latest project, Jaroo, is teed up to be an online video destination for the kid crowd. My impression of the site follows the Q&A.
Tell me a little bit about Jaroo and the premise behind the site.
When Cookie Jar entertainment acquired DIC Entertainment in 2008 we had a combined library of approximately 6000 episodes of high quality children’s programming. In analyzing the marketplace it was apparent that there was no video site for kids that provided full episodes of television similar to way Hulu, Fancast, and TV.com do for older audiences.
Although other studios have large amounts of programming online, they are generally short clips. Jaroo differentiates itself by providing full-length episodes of quality shows.
With loads of video sources on the Internet, what will set Jaroo apart from the others?
I believe the quality and diversity of our offering are unique. In addition to our library we will acquire distribution rights from other third party content holders and create original webisodes as well. At launch we will show 500 episodes on at a time from approximately 60 shows. We will add new episodes every week. Every day of the week new episodes will be added. We also feel we have created a very focused site. We have intentionally decided not to have games. We want to be a destination where kids can easily find tons of great video content and there will always be something new and different every time they visit.
What is the demographic you're trying to reach and why?
Our core demographic is 4 to 12 years old. This is the demographic for which we produce all of our shows. We have found that for the older shows there is a pretty significant nostalgia audience who can revisit the shows with which they grew up and share them with their kids.
What is the business model or revenue model that will help sustain this site?







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