Tricolor TV adds new Russian kids channel to line-up

Russian pay TV operator Tricolor TV has added a new pre-school kids channel, Malysh – translated roughly as Toddler – from Gazprom Media TV channel unit Red Media to its line-up.

The channel, which will be part of Tricolor’s kids package, will include animated series and educational programmes, according to the operator. Malysh will be broadcast on the Express-AMU1 and Eutelsat 36B satellites in the MPEG-4 format.

According to Red Media, the channel will feature over 1,000 hours of exclusive content in the first year.

The company has teamed up with production outfit Tunza Entertainment Russia to develop the new service. It said that Malysh would be distributed in Russia, the CIS and Georgia as well as the Baltic States.

Red Media development and distribution director Anton Konshin said that the channel would focus exclusively on Russian content and that the schedule would take into account the likely age of viewers at that time.

Tunza Entertainment Russia CEO Leila Neumann said that the channel, which is aimed at under-sevens, would feature a block of development-focused content every morning aimed at children who were beginning to learn to walk and talk.