NEW DELHI: Pogo and Cartoon Network, the kids‘ channels from the Turner stable, have hit upon films as the best formula for creating stickiness. Hence, big films like Krrish will be shown for the first time on Pogo, Turner International VP ad sales (India and South Asia) Monica Tata told indiantelevision.com.
Also aired will be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Gulliver‘s Travels and action-packed Trouble in Tokyo, as well as Ninja Turtles III and Bal Ganesh.
Indian mythological animation content Chhota Bheem, acquired from the Hyderabad-based Green Gold Studios, will also be premiered this summer.
“Basically, children are a difficult audience to control and please, and the issue was how to make them stick around on our channel for a longer time, which is why we were looking at ‘long form content‘ and strategically found movies to be the solution for fragmentation,” Tata said.
“Summer for us is akin to the festive season for GECs, and though we also do very well during the festive seasons, but during the last summer Cartoon Network and Pogo contributed 60 per cent of the total growth of the genre,” added Tata.
“Seeing this trend over the last two years, we had decided to launch itself on a major initiative that would include a lot of Indian content in the kids channels,” explained Tata.
She likened Indian summer to what in the US is called the “fresh content season,” which for that country is during fall time.
“We believe we shall have a very strong population on the channels because of this, who would stay connected to our network,” Tata said.
She also said that humour as a part of content is important, which is why a new show called Thumb Wrestling Federation will be aired. She expects this to become a “phenomenon,” as kids are likely to get into this sport in schools amongst peers.
As for marketing, it will primarily be on air as the maximum eyeballs we get are on our own network, Tata added.
Speaking about some programme promotional tie-ups, Tata said, “Pogo has tied up with Singapore Tourism to shoot MAD over there. This will help creating solutions for the network‘s clients to boost their marketing initiatives.”
“We have done ‘advertiser-funded programming‘, like the Bournvita Quiz Contest in the past but this Singapore Tourism tie-up with Pogo is the new one,” added Tata.
Asked about competition and the fact that on certain occasions rivals like Hungama TV are neck to neck with Cartoon Network, Tata said that it would not be fair to compare on a week to week or even hour to hour rating.
“Comparison should be on an annual basis and there if you see, we have been and are still the number one, with 99 out of 100 top programmes being with Cartoon Network and Pogo,” said Tata.
She backed up her claim by saying that Kids channel viewing (consumption) increased by 25 per cent for Cartoon Network and Pogo and only 15 per cent for rest of all the kids channels put together.
Turner and Disney went toe-to-toe in the HSM and Viacom‘s Nick saw a consistent growth by “practically re-launching the channel”.
Walt Disney International (India) SVP and MD Antoine Villeneuve said, “Hungama TV is all about madness. It has done well due to three reasons. Our positioning ‘Mad Fun‘ is clear, second our programming is relevant to our positioning and third, with the help of that, we have established a strong connect with our TG.”
The prize for most improved performance, however goes to Viacom‘s Nick, which a year ago was way behind the rest with a lowly 8 per cent share. In the second half of 2007, it‘s been a completely different story though. Nick, with an average relative share of 16.33 per cent, holds the overall third position ahead of Pogo‘s 15.83 per cent.
Turner infused a range of locally produced content in both its channels. “Localisation has been a critical mandate for us and Cartoon Network was the first to acquire Indian animation and to date offers the largest bouquet of Indian animation. We have acquired 16 home grown animations and all have been a huge hit with Indian kids. These include Pandavas – The Five Warriors, Sinbad – Beyond the Veil of Mists, Ramayan the Legend of Prince Ram, Alibaba & Forty Thieves, The Adventures of Tenali Raman, The Adventures of Chhota Birbal, Jungle Tales, Vikram Betaal, The four part Krishna series, Akbar-Birbal, The Legend Of Buddha, and Bal Hanuman,” adds Tata.
Nick India VP and GM Nina Elavia Jaipuria says, “This year we have practically relaunched the channel. We have seen a phenomenal growth in the last year. We are the fastest growing channel in the genre.”
On being queried on the top performing properties on the channel Jaipuria says, “Nick Home Cinema, Keystone, Sponge Bob have been the channel drivers. Apart from that, the 360 degree promotions across 38 major cities in HSM has helped us to get connected with these kids.”
That was not all, Disney‘s High School Musical 2 was exploited to its maximum. There were local songs composed and a nationwide dance contest conducted to establish this ‘Connect‘. However, on the performance charts, Disney came down from 16 per cent in July to 10 per cent in December.
The southern data saw a continuous zig zag fight among two channels Jetix, which is still going strong, and Chutti TV which directly jumped to the relative share of 26 in December from a single 2 per cent in the month of April.