The ultimate kick for Hispanic youths

Sorpresa! Network invites kids to enter videos

May 9, 2008
By Toni Fitzgerald

These days it’s not enough to simply target kids with TV shows. You have to have interactive TV and online crossovers to keep them interested.

Nickelodeon was one of the first with “iCarly,” its hit TV show that includes user-submitted online videos. Disney Channel superstar Miley Cyrus (“Hannah Montana”) has her own YouTube channel, and Cartoon Network has a Facebook fan group.

The latest to get into the UGC-TV trend is Sorpresa! Network, the only Spanish-language kid-focused cable network. Yesterday Sorpresa! and Major League Soccer launched a new contest for kids that invites them to submit their own videos for a chance to become a reporter for the network.

To enter the “Reporterito” contest, kids submit videos of themselves showing their reporting skills tomorrow through June 13 via Sorpresa!'s web site, where kids will also vote on the best entries. The network will fly the winner to July’s MLS All-Star Game and the MLS Cup, the league championship, in November, where he or she will serve as a sideline reporter.

But those without journalistic aspirations can also submit videos asking MLS stars to provide tips to become better soccer players. Again, viewers will vote on the best videos, which will be presented in a TV special later this year featuring players answering the questions.

Obviously Sorpresa! is playing to its target audience of Hispanic kids 2-17 with the contest, with soccer the most popular sport among that demographic. Mexican league football games are far and away the highest-rated show on Telefutura among kids 2-11 and 12-17.

But the Sorpresa!-MLS partnership also speaks to a UGC trend that will likely come to dominate kid-targeted TV over the next few years. The networks’ web sites have already seen their content expand exponentially over the past few years.

Yet posting branded games, sneak-peak episodes and forums are no longer enough for kids growing up with Facebook and MySpace. Instead, they want to feel like they are part of the media they consume.

That’s why on Sorpresa!'s web site you can download customized ringtones. At The N, Nickelodeon’s sister network for teens, there are places to upload pictures and make your own mash-up video with The N snippets. And PBSKids.org offers popular songs from its shows for kids to sing along with.

Source: Media Life Magazine