TV commissioner: Nina Hahn tells Oli Hyatt how to pitch to kids' TV shows to Nickelodeon

Nina Hahn, senior vice-president Nickelodeon, explains the keystones of the kids’ TV channel’s content – “heart, fart and smart”. Based in the UK, Nina’s role is to drive the development process for animation, live-action and pre-school content shown on 177 channels all over the world. Talking to Oli Hyatt, co-founder of Blue Zoo, she reveals that Nickelodeon has commissioned even more programmes during lockdown than they did before. She says the channel has a declaration of kids’ rights and explains the difference between the way Nickelodeon promotes those principles and the way a public broadcaster does. The session is packed with tips on pitching ideas to Nickelodeon and what email address to use. About Nina Hahn Nina is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in creating and producing content for kids spanning all genres, from pre-school and kid’s animation, to live-action and TV movies. Since joining Nickelodeon in 2005, Hahn has been responsible for overseeing the production and development of some of Nickelodeon’s biggest hits including live-action favourite House of Anubis and pre-school animation Nella the Princess Knight. Working closely with Nickelodeon US, Hahn is also the driving force behind the Nickelodeon Writers Program, designed to attract, develop and staff writers with diverse backgrounds and experiences on Nickelodeon Network Productions. About Oli Hyatt and Blue Zoo Oli Hyatt is a co-founder of Blue Zoo an animation company that has twice won the BAFTA for Independent Production Company of The Year. As well as producing animations such as Digby Dragon and Go Jetters, Blue Zoo helps to develop the animation industry as whole. It helped found Animation UK which went onto successfully campaign for the introduction of animation tax reliefs, for which Oli received an MBE. About the event This conversation took place on 24 June 2020. It was introduced by Sarah Joyce, ScreenSkills head non-scripted and children’s TV, and supported by the ScreenSkills Television Skills Fund which invests in training for the freelance television workforce thanks to contributions from the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5.