Upfronts 2014: Nickelodeon Plans to Launch Nick Jr. App

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Dora the Explorer is really going mobile.

Nickelodeon announced that this spring it will launch an app for its Nick Jr. brand that will give pre-schoolers additional access to many of their favorite TV characters.

The company said the app will feature interactivity, educational entertainment, short-form video and, with authentication of a pay-TV subscription full-length on-demand episodes of shows and live streaming of the Nick Jr. 24-hour cable network.

The Nick Jr. App will be ad-supported with a commercial load similar to Nickelodeon’s preschool television block, with ads playing before episodes begin, but not within episodes, the company said.

The announcement will be part of Nickelodeon’s upfront presentation to advertisers Thursday afternoon in New York.

The Nick Jr. app follows the Nick app launched last year.

“Like the Nick App, our Nick Jr. App creates an entirely new platform for our preschool content and is literally designed to put characters like Dora and Peter Rabbit at preschoolers’ fingertips,” Cyma Zarghami, president of Viacom’s Nickelodeon Group, said in a statement.  “The Nick Jr. App offers a broader content experience unlike anywhere else, along with deep interactivity and educational elements to keep preschoolers engaged and learning.”

Features of the app include:

  • A carousel menu featuring the channel’s preschool characters to help start their journey through the app
  • Educational and entertaining interstitials and Nick Jr.-themed music videos
  • Curriculum content included in the app
  • A linear feed of Nick Jr. channel
  • The Nick Jr. programming schedule

The app will be available free for iPad devices via the App Store, and will roll out on additional platforms in the coming months.

Nickelodeon has agreements to steam content to authenticated customers with 18 distributors including AT&T U-verse, Bright House Networks, DirecTV, Cablevision, RCN, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. Those distributors collectively reach 50 million homes.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.