Now TV to launch new Kids Pass

Now TV Kids Pass

Sky’s standalone over-the-top service, Now TV, has announced plans to launch a Kids Pass, offering children’s TV content for £2.99 per-month.

The Now TV Kids Pass will let children watch six dedicated live TV channels, and thousands of episodes and box sets on-demand from Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, NickToons, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito, CBeebies, CBBC, and Milkshake.

The new offering will be available alongside Now TV’s existing Entertainment, Movies and Sports passes and is due to launch on June 21.

“We want to make sure that everyone in the family gets the best entertainment experience possible and that includes our younger viewers,” said Now TV director, Gidon Katz.

“We’ve created a vibrant, engaging world just for kids, so finding an episode of Dora the Explorer will be almost as fun as watching it. By creating a separate enhanced Now TV Kids Pass our customers have even more choice when it comes to selecting the shows that are right for them, all with no contract.”

In March, Sky launched the Sky Kids App for its Sky TV customers, letting younger viewers stream series from Cartoon Network, Disney, CBeebies, CiTV, Nickelodeon and Milkshake.

At the same time the pay TV operator said it is moving into original children’s commissioning and it is working with production company Aardman on a new version of Morph – Sky’s first kids original. This will also now be available to watch via Now TV later this year, Sky confirmed.

Speaking at the IHS Technology London Media Seminar last week, Sky’s business development and strategic partnerships director, Emma Lloyd said that the Sky Kids App is already proving popular with viewers and “kids is an area that we’ll be investing more in.”

However, she said this investment is most likely to be through partnerships rather than acquisitions: “We’ll look to work with the best across the board, rather than looking to invest in any of those players.”

The news comes less than a month after the BBC launched a kids-specific version of its iPlayer on-demand service.