Taran Swan - Nickelodeon Latin America

History

Swan served as the launch director and general manager of Nickelodeon Latin America. She had written the business plan, Compiled a team and brought it through it first 18 months. The channel is for kids 2-11 years old, which include a variety of programming, not just cartoons. The US, Nickelodeon idea was being expanded by Viacom and each international market would have its own on-air identity and slogan.

In 1993 Swan was exploring business opportunities in Latin America for Nickelodeon; however the company focused on Europe. The director in Germany was failing so the company had Swan take his place. There she was successful in the channels launch. She continued to explore opportunities in Latin America and was finally able to convince the corporate office of Viacom to enter Latin America. Due to her success in Germany she was appointed launch director. In order to get full backing from Viacom; Swan had to secure a minimum distribution of 2 million households. Viacom remain skeptical because MTV Latin America had not produced the response they had been projecting.

Competition

Competition had begun to enter kids' media in Latin America, including the Cartoon Network (1993) and Fox Kids Network (1993). Swan felt now was the time to make a move into Latin America before the market became saturated. The entry barriers were low so competition was growing quickly and dividing up the advertisement dollars quickly. Revenues were derived by attracting dollars by being available on the basic platform.

Customers

The customers could be mistaken as the kids that watch but the real customers are those they are advertising for. Revenues are generated by 2 sources advertisements and by selling the channel to cable and satellite operators. Nickelodeon wanted to be on the basic platform where a customer didn't have to upgrade to receive the channel. This made the channel available to all subscribers of basic cable or satellite services allowing them to reach more households with advertisements.

Current situation

Taran Swan unexpectedly has to return home four months into a high risk pregnancy. She will have to remain in bed for the rest of the next few months. She has just successfully launched Nickelodeon Latin America. It has become the fastest growing channel in Latin America during its first year of operations and now is entering its second year. Swan has been very successful by the use of teams and was trying to capitalize on the momentum built form the first year. Many projects are in the works as she departs. Some of which include the launch of Portuguese- language feed service to Brazil and the negotiations with an affiliate in Argentina. However advertising sales missed their target by 11%.

Central Issue facing Swan: Team Paradox

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