Cox Communications has begun testing a mobile online video service of its own. Flare Kids, which launched as an iPad app a few days back, looks at offering children free and ad-free access to clips and entire episodes from TV shows like Sesame Street, SpongeBob SquarePants and Doc McStuffins, among others.
Flare Kids currently offers content from a across 10 networks and publishers, including PBS Kids, the Disney Channel, Nick Jr. and National Geographic Kids. However, instead of inking licensing agreements with these publishers, all it is doing is simply aggregating content already available elsewhere, with some of the videos being extracted even from YouTube.
According to officials at Cox, additional content such as eBooks, games and music will soon be added to the app in the future. The Flare Kids app is optimised for families with young children, offering parents the ability to set up individual profiles for up to three children, and then set time limits as well as content restrictions for each of these profiles.
Flare Kids is being run by Flare Entertainment LLC, a Cox subsidiary that is also running the subscription video game service FlarePlay. Cox is also using the Flare brand for MyFlare.com, a media-centric cloud storage and synchronization service that allows users to back up and share their photos, videos and music.
The cable company’s app as of now is completely free to download, and doesn’t come with any ads. Instead, it offers parents in-app purchases. At launch, parents can buy their kids new themes to personalise the app for $0.99 each. It would be available all across the US, with the exception of Texas.