H20: Just add branding: Producing high-quality children’s TV drama for multichannel environments

This is a case study of the Australian company Jonathan M. Shiff Productions and its ‘tween’ program, action series H 2 0: Just Add Water. The program has sold in 150 countries including the United States, where it was ‘the first non-American live action to be bought by Nickelodeon in America’ and screens every Sunday night as family entertainment. It is also the highest rating children’s drama series on Nickelodeon UK. While Australia’s content regulations are important to its production, of critical importance is ZDF Enterprises, the commercial arm of one of Germany’s two public service broadcasting channels, and worldwide distributor and production partner for all Jonathan M. Shiff productions. Case studies such as the following provide useful insights into the shape and operations of mediascapes elsewhere, and where our own media environment may be heading. They also offer a glimpse into the way the international market place is organising along forms of cooperation designed to facilitate global distribution of cultural content. A central proposition of this case study is that the structural conditions of multi-channel environments require certain adjustments in form, content and business modelling that have essentially coalesced around the operation of brand management.