SVT Barnkanalen (in English, SVT Barn), the free-to-air children’s channel owned by Swedish public service broadcaster SVT, airs 15 hours a day and targets kids ages one to 12. It is currently looking for live-action dramas, as well as comedy-driven animation and sitcoms targeting seven- to 12-year-olds, says SVT acquisitions executive for children's content, Linda Granath. SVT is specifically looking for shows with strong female characters.
The broadcaster leaned into this female-led content strategy in 2019, and picked up two seasons of 2D-animated preschool series MyaGo (52 x 5.5-minute each) to air in Q1 2020, and the preschool series Luo Bao Bei (52 x 11 minutes). These two shows, with their focus on young girls exploring their worlds, fits into the broadcaster’s catalogue of grounded and more realistic animated fare. The broadcaster also pads out its catalogue with animated preschool series from eOne, including Peppa Pig and PJ Masks. It often picks up internationally made animated preschool content, compared to its live-action acquisitions, which often come from the region.
SVT has a deep catalogue of live-action educational programming, including Swedish-made The Morning Show, Alex Hittar Hobbyn and sex-education series Puberty, as well as a variety of fictional live-action shows for a tween audience, including Soon 13 and Classes, which tracks tweens and teens as they come-of-age.
Recently, the broadcaster has expanded its offerings of tween-skewing dramas with its live-action digital-first series Eagles (eight x 20 minutes), about a group of teenagers in a small Swedish hockey town who struggle to cope with love, friendship and rivalries on the ice. SVT greenlit the series for a second season after it racked up half a million viewers per episode online (about 5% of Sweden’s total population).
Team
Linda Granath Acquisitions Executive, Children's Content
