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Re -Branding A Favourite
Why Fox Kids TV Network is moving on to Jetix
S
pider-Man is busy scaling the wall, while a red Power Ranger stands, arms crossed, looking on rather disconsolately. Having walked into the building downstairs and found
Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc. handling security (well, standing by the entrance), Spidey and his masked kung-fu friend don’t seem so strange now.
Welcome to the UK offices of Jetix, the new and improved Fox Kids televi- sion network, an airy, American-style building in a new business park in West London. It’s not surprising that it feels like Burbank – the company’s biggest shareholder is Disney.
In fact, the company originally started its European channel opera- tions in October 1996, with founding shareholders Rupert Murdoch (hence the Fox tag) and Haim Saban, the billionaire entrepre-
neur behind Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers.
The majority
stake was
sold to
Disney in
October
2001,
while the rest, 26% of the company is floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. As a result, it was time for a name change.
“We haven’t fully become Jetix in the UK yet,” says Ian Finnegan, Managing Director of Fox Kids UK. “The corporate arm is, but we here at the channel are gradually changing. We have a Jetix block, but we are due to officially change on January 1, 2005.”
And for this company, re-branding is particularly difficult, since they broadcast in 79 countries and in 18 languages. So why Jetix?
“We spent a lot of time and effort researching names in every country we’re in,” admits Finnegan. “One of the early ideas turned out to be a very rude word in German slang, so we had to be very careful what we chose. We wanted something that was universal, but gave us a degree of local flexibility, because we programme all the chan- nels locally.”
Found towards the end of the EPG
on your digital box, alongside the end- less other channels
aimed at children, Fox Kids is one of
the strongest Photo above left: Ian Finnegan, Managing Director of Fox Kids UK; Main: Jackie Chan’s Adventures
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