Independent travel: Shayan TV to begin broadcasting round the clock
The children’s TV channel will fully air on 12 November
Shayan TV children's Tatar channel, which has been working in test mode on TNV, will begin broadcasting fully on 12 November. Tatar-speaking children from all over the world will be able to watch its programmes. A namesake website will be launched simultaneously with the channel. This was told at a press conference at TNV. Realnoe Vremya tells about plans to develop the round-the-clock children's channel, difficulties in search of national content and subtleties of ownership.
To inculcate love for the Tatar language
A new children's TV channel Shayan TV will officially enter the media space on Monday, 12 November. The namesake website shayantv.ru will start operating on the same day, which will daily and online acquaint children from different parts of the world with the channel's content.
''It's planned to broadcast with Tattelecom cable operator, digital air multiplex and on the Internet,'' Director General of TNV Ilshat Aminov told the details at a press conference dedicated to the launch of Shayan TV. But the TV channel will go further, it's planned to gradually expand the coverage.
''Our task is to begin broadcasting in all environments as soon as possible. I offered to include Shayan TV in Tricolour TV package for children. It isn't a cheap pleasure. Broadcasting of one channel on two Tricolour satellites costs 3,5bn rubles a month on average. And prices annually grow. It's the largest satellite operator. Tricolour has 300,000 antennas only in Tatarstan, most of them are in the countryside. Our channel is a novelty for Tricolour. They are thinking now, we're waiting for an answer,'' Aminov said.
The mission of the children's channel is to create a single cognitive and educational space in the Tatar language for children who live not only in Tatarstan but far from it.
''We want to inculcate love for Tatar in children, so that the language will be popular, one would want to study it, speak it,'' Executive Director of Shayan TV Ramilya Sakhabutdinova specified.
Shayan TV is designed for children from 0 to 15 years. The programme plans to have over 20 original cognitive, educational and developing programmes, game shows and contests as well as animated, popular scientific, documentary and feature films translated into the Tatar language. The channel will broadcast round the clock. There is a six-hour block in its foundation, which will repeat then. It's important that children from different regions and countries be able to watch a favourite programme at an appropriate time. Their own programmes will take 1 hour 45 minutes a day, purchased content will total 4 hours 15 minutes a day.
160m rubles for five minutes of its own content
Representatives of the TV channel told about the content in detail.
''We created a focus group consisting of children from 0 to 15 years and chose the content together with them. As a result, we purchased only the materials our viewers like,'' Ramilya Sakhabutdinova told journalists about the content selection principle. Tatar artists will do voice-overs of children's cartoons and films. According to Sakhabutdinova, the TV channel cooperates with the Tinchurin theatre and Ekiyat Puppy Theatre's actors. According to the order of the day, when dubbing, Shayan TV switched from two-voice translation to many voices.
The TV channel also projects educational programmes. As representatives of Shayan TV told, enlightening programmes won't copy subjects but will correlate with them.
''There is a section Funny Experiments, for instance, we will read literature. I won't reveal ideas, many interesting projects are planned,'' the TNV director assured.
Going on talking about the content of the children's TV channel, Ilshat Aminov also mentioned some difficulties in production.
''Before launching Shayan TV, we collected about 20 commercial offers, talked with every local producer, calculated their production. In the end, we had a five-minute line at 160m rubles. 3D cartoons are especially expensive. They can be understood, their product's prime cost is high. And we have a limited budget. We try to find common points within these limits,'' Aminov said.
In addition, many companies require advanced payment.
''At the moment, it's hard for us to pay for 20 series of a cartoon, we've seen just its teaser,'' Aminov noted. There are stumbling blocks in organisation. ''For instance, we need a programme to air twice a week. Producers reply they can air only once a month. But it's not a programme if it airs once a month. This is impossible,'' the TNV director explained.
Best to be selected at festival
Shayan TV is a state order. This is why the TV channel discusses all projects in the Tatarstan Ministry of Education and Science first and then approves in the Public Council.
According to the TNV director, the example of Kazakhstan is illustrative in this issue where there is a scholarship for content makers every year: ''Producers come to a meeting where the press minister of Kazakhstan decides what will be financed. The experience is interesting, I liked the idea. We're going to implement it on both Shayan TV and TNV Tatarstan. We want to annually hold a content festival, meet with producers to offer the job to the best,'' Ilshat Aminov told about plans.
Organisers give an important role to the namesake website in promotion of the TV channel.
''The Internet requires special formats, but no more. It's a broadcasting environment that isn't better or worse than others. The distribution of the Internet 100 kilometres from the city leaves a lot to be desired. This is why television remains a traditional device to reproduce channels,'' Ilshat Aminov explained his position.
Republic doesn't have Tatar games
The design of the bilingual interface of the website includes bright colours and is aimed to become exciting for the main target audience. Entering the page of shayantv.ru, Tatar music starts to play, which, according to the page's creators, is urged to plunge a person into the national atmosphere. On the website, one can watch the TV channel's live transmission, read the news and watch favourite programmes in the video archive.
''In the News section, young viewers from the countryside can send information about some important events. It's also possible to send photos for publication,'' the website's editors told.
In addition, one can play games on the website. But there is a problem with Tatar games at the moment. It's another priority task of the team.
''Unfortunately, we don't have our own Tatar games now. Now we're looking for someone who could invent them. We've turned to Innopolis, the IT lyceum,'' told Ilshat Aminov.
As for online rights, 90% of cartoon rights holders don't give permission to place cartoons on the Internet on a permanent basis. They can be watched during a live transmission on the Internet, they can't be uploaded to the video archive.
''Tatarcartoon is the major supplier of cartoons that can be uploaded to the archive,'' the TNV director told. And he added not all rights holders permit to change characters' names.
Prehistory
Shayan TV children's Tatar-speaking channel was presented to the Tatarstan president this January. The choice was made by vote. Shayan has three meanings in Tatar: funny, curious, mischievous. The channel began broadcasting in test mode on Novy Vek TV channel on 1 February. The licence for TV broadcasting was 25 October.
The Tatarstan Ministry of Education and Science, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, World Congress of the Tatars, Tatarstan Institute of Education Development and several ministries and departments are the channel's partners.
The first session of the public council of Shayan TV children's channel was on 2 November, it included representatives of authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan, artists, pedagogues – 18 people in total.
