Dailymotion to launch cross-platform premium channel. For Kids.

Last Friday, Les Echos reported that Orange-owned Dailymotion will be looking to differentiate it’s 100% ad-based revenue model by introducing a premium channel for €4.49/month – the catch? It’s a Kids channel. Having signed partnership deals with several major television producers, notably Cookie Jar, a Canaditan TV producer which owns licensing to many of the most popular Kids TV shows, such as Inspector Gadget, Dinosquad, and Strawberry Shortcake. The premium plan will allow unlimited access to 1,000+ kids programs, and will be available on PC, smartphone and tablets (iOS & Android), allowing them to provide premium level content with a minimum amount of investment.
For the second-tier Video site, this new differentiation marks an end of their 100% competition with YouTube. Although YouTube has been offering premium branded pages for some time, it’s nothing in comparison to producing premium content. In addition, targeting Kids, whom by now have grown up accustomed to playing with tablets & iPhones, is an excellent choice. I will be curious to see how hard they push this new model – Les Echos quotes Dailymotion VP Martin Rogard, who has been put in charge of the Dailymotion team in charge of this new segment, as saying that the product may be profitable in a year or two.
Dailymotion has, in the past six months, done tests in this avenue, and clearly they produced favorable results. Orange, who now owns 100% of Dailymotion, seems a little less convinced – they’ve been shopping around with a few American companies to buy up part of Dailymotion.
Should this gain traction, Dailymotion will likely consider other verticals of content, similar to telecom company and Triple Play provider Free has offered to its customers[fr].