Al Jazeera looks for a content oasis to stock its kidnet

The Middle East’s newest children’s channel is scouring the market for content to fill up its 18-hour broadcast day. Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC), which launched in September, is looking to pick up animation, documentaries, fiction, performing arts shows and music programming. A full 40% of its schedule needs to be comprised of commissions, and these should cover magazines, sports, news, current affairs, science, health and multimedia. A preschool block will also feature locally produced hosted segments.

All of JCC’s acquisitions and co-productions will be handled by French partner Lagardère Images International, along with the channel’s branding and website. Based in Doha, Qatar, the net is backed by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and the Al Jazeera Group. Its public service mandate is to offer free-to-air edutainment to both preschool and core kids in Arab countries, as well as in Europe via satellite.

Nelvana and ole strike a sweet-sounding deal

Hoping to take advantage of their animation assets in a new way, Nelvana has signed music publishing house ole to develop new business around the music in its 1,500-hour programming library. Under the six-year deal, ole will be responsible for putting together compilations of music from high-profile shows such as Babar, Franklin and Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends, and the Toronto, Canada-based company will also explore new opportunities for wireless ringtones and music downloads.