In the fifteenth year of the OKIDOKI children's program on ORF 1, a new program idea by Thomas Brezina was implemented in addition to the long-standing popular broadcast formats such as "ABC Bear", "Great Animals", "Schmatzo - Cooking with WOW", "Museum AHA", "1000 Tricks" and many more and will be broadcast from autumn 2023.
It is the program "Das Wunder DU", which takes the young target audience on a journey of discovery and amazement about - and even into - the human body.
We spend 24 hours a day with the miracle of the body and its functions always seem self-evident to us. However, pediatric surgeon and comedian Omar Sarsam and OKIDOKI presenter Melanie Flicker show which processes are constantly necessary and what fascinating abilities our bodies have, with the support of a team of children's guessers. Each episode is dedicated to an overarching topic, which is demonstrated using various examples, examinations and tests and also explained with clear graphics. Medical equipment is also used as a way of discovering and understanding the body. In this way, the invisible is made visible and understandable with the naked eye.
The topics of the individual programs are: Seeing, hearing, skin, bones, muscles, eating, breathing, feeling, heart, sleep, brain and blood. Work is already underway on a second season for 2024, which will offer further fascination and knowledge about our bodies.
Many exciting and interesting facts for children were also presented weekly in the "Hallo OKIDOKI" program in 2023. For example, the ORF focus topics "Consciously healthy" and "Mother Earth" were accompanied by several reports on the topics of health, nutrition, climate, environment and animals. Social issues were also addressed in the four-part series "Explain to me how you live!" from the ORF magazine "Heimat Fremde Heimat". Here, children with various disabilities provided insights into their world. They were accompanied by their peers through their everyday school and private lives, allowing them to get to know the different realities of each other's lives. The young viewers were given an insight into the local cultural scene by reporters from the program "Hallo OKIDOKI", who conducted interviews with actors and musicians at the Romy Gala and the Amadeus Music Awards, as well as meeting the Austrian participants of the Eurovision Song Contest and musical star Drew Sarich.
In autumn 2023, the OKIDOKI children's program was part of the EBU's #SayHi campaign, which called for dancing against bullying and for friendship under the motto "We belong!". The whole of Europe danced the same choreography to the same song, which each participating country presented in its national language with its own video.
language with its own video. Austria took part with the song "Wir fliegen", sung by the children's pop band Young Republic, and viewers were also able to take part in the campaign - as a sign against bullying - by sending in videos.
The children's news program "ZIB ZACK MINI" was also part of the EBU's #SayHi campaign. What does bullying actually mean? And what can you do about it? "ZIB ZACK MINI" explored these questions in several programs and, together with experts from "Rat auf Draht", offered guidance on what can be done to combat bullying. What is fake news and how do I deal safely with social media? The broadcast team also looked at these topics time and again. After all, it is particularly important to teach children how and where they can get information. "ZIB ZACK MINI" explained what is currently happening in the world, the latest events, in a child-friendly way, categorized them and offered guidance. The "ZIB ZACK MINI" team also repeatedly held talks and workshops for children on why it is important to find out about current topics and how to distinguish fake news.
Of course, the "ZIB ZACK MINI" team also wanted to know what children are concerned about in their everyday lives. Not only in the workshops and talks, but also in every program, the presenters called for questions to be sent in. Some of them were: "How does the ATM
How does payment at the supermarket till work and how does the supermarket get the money?", "Why can't we see the earth turning?", "How are pearls made?", "Who invented the piano?" and "Where does the universe end?" The "ZIB ZACK MINI" team was often amazed before they started their research, and experts were often consulted to find the answers. These were then written and drawn in a child-friendly way. Complex topics, where even the picture can sometimes be difficult, were prepared in a drawn explanatory video. ZIB ZACK MINI" also regularly highlighted topics in a monothematic program. To mark International Day of People with Disabilities, the editorial team created a program and met 15-year-old Jan, who told us about his life with Down's syndrome. To mark International Sign Language Day, "ZIB ZACK MINI" accompanied Finn and his family in a monothematic program to get an insight into their everyday life. Of course, many questions about the children's everyday school life were also answered in the programs. "Why is there a shortage of teachers?" and "How do you deal with grade stress?". ZIB ZACK MINI" gave children the space to make their topics visible and also to actively work on topics with the editorial team. Together with children, we also created our own programs and, for example, explored the question: "What are the topics for the future?".
As children's media use will continue to change in the future, ORF set up a project group from mid-2023 to develop and establish the new ORF KIDS streaming platform for children. Experts from a wide range of fields were regularly involved in the process in order to meet all requirements. The result is a broad range of children's content consisting of knowledge, entertainment, movement and information. The new program "Kling Klang", for example, takes children into the world of instrument making, the program "Yoga Kids" invites children to join in and the program "Hallo, was machst du?" offers children the opportunity to get an idea of what professions there are. A total of 14 new programs were combined with formats from the OKIDOKI program and "ZIB ZACK MINI" on the streaming platform kids.orf.at.
Current performance figures from 2023 can be found here - and the ORF offer for children can be found here.
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