Cookie Jar Entertainment Launches Broadband Video Service for Children, Jaroo.com

Children's entertainment company, Cookie Jar Entertainment, has launched a free, advertising-supported broadband video service, called Jaroo.com, which it claims offers one of the largest selections of full-length episodes of current and classic children's programs and movies. At launch, the service offers around 500 on-demand full episodes from over 50 TV series, including "Inspector Gadget," "The Adventures of Paddington Bear," "Johnny Test," "Super Mario Bros.," "Zelda," "Madeline," "Ripley's Believe It or Not!," "Horseland," "Liberty's Kids" and "Cake" (note: each episode contains around a minute-and-a-half of unskippable commercials, targeted at children). The service is also offering what it claims is the exclusive US premiere of the cartoon, "Mona the Vampire." According to Cookie Jar, the service will add new shows and episodes daily, and will offer over 2,000 episodes over the next three months. "What makes Jaroo.com truly special is the breadth of popular kids' shows available in a single one-stop location," Kenneth Locker, Cookie Jar's SVP of digital media, said in a prepared statement. "Jaroo.com not only offers the largest variety of kids' programming, but the site was specially designed to be easily navigated and hosted in a kid-safe, kid-friendly environment. It's for kids and fans alike."

While Jaroo.com's programming line-up will initially be sourced from Cookie Jar's own library, which it claims includes 6,000 children's show episodes, the company says that it plans to add programming from other television distributors, as well as made-for-the-Web content. In its press materials announcing the service, the company cites figures from Nielsen NetView that purport to show that children aged 2 to 11 are spending 63% more time online than they did just four years ago (i.e. the average amount of time they spend online each month has grown from seven hours to 11).