Da Vinci Kids has had a busy beginning to 2022, with new rollouts in Asia and Europe, an upsized focus on social emotional learning content, and games and other digital initiatives to bridge its channel & app experiences.

Ukrainian children taking refuge in Germany right now are watching a slate of TV shows, in Ukrainian, provided by global content platform, Da Vinci Kids to Vodafone in Hungary and Deutsche Telekom in Germany. The initiative speaks as much about being part of the worldwide support for Ukrainian families forced to flee as about being walking, talking, living examples one of the network’s core values.

Developing a sense of responsibility, care and concern for others is part of Da Vinci Kids’ focus on content that promotes social emotional learning, says Estelle Lloyd, co-founder/COO of parent company, Macademia. 

Speaking at the end of a bustling first quarter, which included increasing language tracks to 22, Lloyd says the expanded focus on social emotional learning in 2022 runs alongside the network’s ongoing concentration on STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) content. 

The priority is “content that kids and parents will find inspirational, which reflects some of the challenges that they may be going through in their lives, either as a family or as kids themselves,” she says.

One of the content examples she gives is "The Treehouse Stories", where a group of children talk about life issues – a new baby in the family, losing a favourite toy, being bullied at school...  

“The social emotional learning category is not new to us, but we’ve really made a decision this year to invest and source more content and look into co-producing unique content in that space,” she says.   

Lloyd highlights Da Vinci Kids’ storytelling values; “We love content with a great story arc because it’s easier to get the message across... We think that it is very important that we represent the world in the content that we have on the platform, the channel and the app.”  

Diversity is another core value, as is the focus on the environment, with, for example, shows such as "Go Green with the Grimwades", about a family that wants to be environmentally friendly but finds it’s not as easy as they thought. Lloyd says the series is action-based and shows how children can make a positive difference to the environment by being conscious and doing simple things every day. “There are ways to make very serious topics accessible for younger audiences,” she says. 

The network has also upsized its games, boosting engagement around critical thinking and creativity, and is planning to add content-related quizzes and badges this year. The aim, Lloyd says, is to “create a bridge between the channel experience and the app experience”.

The distribution side of Da Vinci Kids’ business has been equally active. In addition to launching a programming block in South Korea on The Kids, the brand has just rolled out the Da Vinci Channel on StarzPlay in the Middle East and North Africa – its first launch in the region – and entered Greece for the first time. In some territories, the app is hard-bundled into some devices, and has been integrated into other kids’ devices, for example, STEM toy robots. 

As much as has been achieved, including discussions for its FAST launch in the U.S., Lloyd says there is a way to go. ”We’re filling demand as fast as we can. It’s never quick enough,” she says, adding: ”Our goal, literally, is to be everywhere”. 

Sponsored content brought to you by Da Vinci Kids. Published in ContentAsia April 2022 magazine