Tigerbox CEO Martin Kurzhals: “50 percent of children’s entertainment is pointless”

Tigerbox CEO Martin Kurzhals
“50 percent of children’s entertainment is pointless”

Mr. Kurzhals, why did you develop the Tigerbox? What distinguishes the product?

We have noticed that flat rate models such as Netflix or Apple Music have long since found their way into parent entertainment. We are fully digital and always have a huge selection at hand. Then the question arose how this can also be implemented in the children’s room. There were no age-appropriate answers. With the Tigerbox Touch and the associated streaming service Tigertones, children can freely and independently click through their favorite stories and songs in a protected space and choose from over 6,000 titles. That makes them proud and makes it easier for parents – especially in times like these – to keep their little ones busy.

What is the most successful content at Tigermedia? Do our childhood heroes also work best digitally?

Absolutely. Even the classics from back then – Bibi and Tina, Three Question Marks, Benjamin Blümchen, Das Sams etc. – are still very popular today and are heard a lot. New heroes are added through TV series, movies or Disney. Children live in certain clouds, a content world in which they stay for six, twelve or even more months and soak up everything they can get. After that, new heroes are very popular again. But you can say that the classics make up 50-60 percent of our streams.

Much of the content is completely meaningless

Another lockdown, again millions of parents have to replace daycare centers, schools and social contacts. What about kids entertainment in 2021?

There are countless formats that pound the kids. In the past you had one, two or three series that all the kids watched, heard or read and that you talked about in the schoolyard. Today we are experiencing a flood of media that poses a threat to children and overwhelms parents. I praise curating places like bookstores, toy stores, libraries. We want to meet this responsibility. The radio play that a child takes to bed in the evening should never cause nightmares. In my opinion, 50% of the content on the German media market is demanding and pointless entertainment because children don’t take anything away from it – no ideas, no fantasy, no knowledge. You will only be immobilized for a short time.

“We have a social and corporate responsibility.”

In the first lockdown in March 2020, we decided to support parents in this special exceptional situation. To this end, we made all audio tracks in the media library available free of charge for one month, so that even parents without a Tigerbox or Tigertones subscription could register for free via the app and test our offer. At the end of the month, the access expired automatically.

Tens of thousands of people took advantage of the offer. Now that a lockdown is paralyzing social life again and parents need to keep their children busy as much as possible, we have put in place a home schooling program. You can practice English with the little witch or learn math with a rap. That is our social and corporate responsibility.

The author and filmmaker Thomas Brezina praises the “value of boredom” because it challenges and encourages children. How do you feel about it?

I fully subscribe to that. My children are teenagers, so smartphones and laptops are firmly anchored there. Sometime last year our family got to a point where it was getting too much and we confiscated the pieces. After a few grumpy days, the big guy started to work his way through our cookbooks and got stuck with a recipe for cheese spaetzle. The challenge of doing everything on your own, from shopping to cooking, was suddenly a real drive. What can I say: There is definitely still a need for culinary improvement, but I think the initiative is great. Boredom makes children stronger, smarter, and more creative.

This text first appeared in February 2021 on Gala.de.

Brigitte