If you haven’t had a chance to check out Phil Vischer’s new children’s project (Phil is the Veggie Tales guy) you should definately head over to jellytelly.com. They went live today with a new online children’s network, and so far I’m fairly impressed. The subscription is $2.99 a month (you can have a month free trial) and they plan on making it “pay what you want” as they progress.
The videos are fun and engaging and they are airing the programming in day blocks. In other words, every day you can go there with your kids and click Monday or Tuesday and see that day’s entire block of programming (20 minutes or so?). There are also fun little flash games to play as well. I should warn you that this is somewhat of a beta test for them and they will be redisigning and perfecting the technology over the next few months before they do a major launch in the future. So a bit of patience may be in order especially with the design.
Phil has always had a unique way of programming to kids while not talking down to them and making it fun for adults as well. My only complaint is that the video is not quite as user friendly as I would like. For instance, if you watch 10 minutes of the programming and then stop next time you go back you have to watch that 10 minutes again instead of just picking up where you left off. I’m hoping it’s issues like these that get resolved in the next few months.
I plan on introducing my boys to Jelly Telly tonight to see what they think, but I imagine it will be an entertainment hub for them for years to come, and who knows, maybe someday Jelly Telly will compete with Nick and Disney for the eyes of children in the culture at large.