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Tag: Discovery Kids

  • Business news emerges as most benefitted in Chrome DM Week 31

    Business news emerges as most benefitted in Chrome DM Week 31

    MUMBAI: Business news genre has grown by 4.60 per cent in week 31 of Chrome Data Analytics and Media data. In this genre, CNBC Awaz channel gained the highest OTS with 85.5 per cent in 6 metro markets.

    OTS is the actual census-based percentage connectivity of a channel spread across 81 million homes, as reported by Chrome DM, across analogue cable, digital cable, and DTH.

    This week, English movies genre gained second position and grew by 3.59 per cent in 6 metro markets. In this genre, Warner Brother gained the highest OTS with 46.2 per cent. English news genre stood in the third position by gaining 2.52 per cent in 6 metro markets. Republic TV secured the highest OTS with 97.7 per cent.

    Youth genre stood in fourth position in HSM excluding less than 1 lakh markets and grew by 2.17 per cent. MTV gained the highest OTS with 86.6 per cent. Kids stood in the fifth position and grew by 1.64 per cent in all India 1 Lakh+ market. In this genre, Discovery Kids gained the highest OTS with 88 per cent.

  • OTT has been favourable for animated content

    OTT has been favourable for animated content

    MUMBAI: Much of the Indian TV market is ruled in one way – the broadcasters keep IP rights for the shows and not the production houses. The scenario is the same whether it’s Hindi GEC or kids or lifestyle. Indiantelevision.com’s The Content Hub hosted a panel discussion ‘Animation Producers: Getting Animated’ with panellists Discovery Kids head Uttam Pal Singh, Golden Robot Animation head of business development RK Chand, Paper Boat Animation chairman, creative director Soumitra Ranade and Biscopewala managing partner Nishith Takia. The session was moderated by Kinsane Entertainment CMO Pranab Punj.

    Emphasising the retention of IP rights, Ranade said, “IP creation is a big thing and for this socio-political aspects are to be kept in mind as to what kids are watching now and five years later. But for this, we need to create relevant stories. It’s not going to work if we make B grade version of Disney or Pixar.”

    Singh said that Discovery Kids is making relatable shows for the Indian market and targeting global reach with OTTs. The idea behind making Little Singham was to create an IP and make it a brand.

    While speaking of the emergence of OTT platforms, Singh was of the opinion that he has not seen significant investment from the OTT players to create IPs which come to the OTT platform first and then on linear television. He added, “While OTT is growing and most of the English TV genres have been affected immensely in terms of audiences, the kids' genre, on the other hand, has grown on Indian television. It has grown to 8 per cent as per BARC report and we still see that a broadcaster has maximum reach as opposed to OTT platforms.”

    Moreover, Chand said that OTT platforms have given them the scope to explore new ideas and stories. He said, “The entire catalogue of Chhota Bheem was the first kids content on Amazon. OTT gives us a range of audience that isn’t restricted to TV. Netflix and Amazon have enabled us to innovate stories and characters.”

    Takia revealed that his company is talking to OTT platforms in a bid to make content for them. He added that budgets restrict the quality of animation. “We feel that very few people understand the aesthetic behind the project. Budgets also restrict the quality of animation. If you want to create high-quality content, you need high budgets,” he said.

  • Discovery Kids to premiere classic Japanese Animation series ‘Monster Kid’

    Discovery Kids to premiere classic Japanese Animation series ‘Monster Kid’

    MUMBAI: Discovery Kids, the fastest growing channel in the kids’ genre this year, has bagged broadcast rights of the animation series ‘Monster Kid’ from the house of Fujiko Fujio, the famous creator of Ninja Hattori series. Monster Kid, which has been well received throughout the world including Latin America, Europe, and all of Asia, will premiere on Discovery Kids starting November 26 at 12 Noon.

    Monster Kid, the prince of Monster Land, travels to Human realms along with his companions Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein to be trained for his preparation to become the king. Monster Kid uses his superpowers to overcome various challenges and develops a special bond with a human boy Hiroshi. This special bond between Monster Kid and Hiroshi has attracted the attention of kids across the world.

    Talking about the development, Uttam Pal Singh, Head – Discovery Kids, Discovery Communications India, said, “Kids are always curious about monster and monster stories! One of the key reasons of the exponential growth of Discovery Kids is that we have singled out shows which went on to captivate and engage kids in India. We are excited to partner with the legendary Japanese creator Fujiko Fujio Ⓐ and TV Asahi on this series and we believe that ‘Monster Kid’ has all the elements to engage, entertain and tickle the curiosity of kids.”

    Speaking on the occasion, Takahiro Kishimoto, Head of Animation, International Business Department, TV Asahi, said, “We are delighted with this exciting opportunity and look forward to further strengthening the partnership with Discovery Kids.  We hope ‘Monster Kid’ will turn out to be another animation sensation from TV Asahi in India.”

  • Hill+Knowlton Strategies India wins communication mandate for Discovery India

    Hill+Knowlton Strategies India wins communication mandate for Discovery India

    MUMBAI: After a competitive multi-agency pitch, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, one of India’s premier communications consultancies, has been awarded the communications mandate for the country’s leading infotainment player – Discovery Communications India and its portfolio of channels in India including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery HD World, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Kids, Discovery JEET, Animal Planet HD World, TLC HD World and Discovery Tamil. The appointment will see Hill+Knowlton Strategies rollout strategic communications solutions for the network’s channels to drive greater engagement with viewers across India.

    Confirming the appointment, Sameer Bajaj, Director, Corporate Communications & External Affairs, Discovery Communications India, said, “We are delighted to partner with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, India as our strategic communications partner to deliver our vision as a brand, better engage with viewers and drive our narrative in a more compelling manner. Their strong experience in media & entertainment, in-depth understanding of our market requirements and passion gave us the confidence to award them this mandate. I believe, together as a team, we will further strengthen the Discovery brand in India.”

    Commenting on the win, Kavita Rao, President & CEO, India, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, said, “We are thrilled that Discovery Communications has chosen us to partner them in managing their strategic communications of their corporate brand as well strong portfolio of brands in the country. With committed teams and our in-depth domain knowledge and experience across sectors, H+K India is well positioned to drive the desired impact and outcome for Discovery Communications India.”

    Hill+Knowlton Strategies India has a strong track record in the media and entertainment sector, working with clients such as Sony Entertainment Television (SET), Sony Music, Times Network and in the past with Colours from Viacom and Turner Broadcasting

  • Discovery Kids to celebrate festive season with special episodes of Little Singham

    Discovery Kids to celebrate festive season with special episodes of Little Singham

    MUMBAI: Discovery Kids, the fastest growing kids channel this year, will premiere special episodes of Little Singham to celebrate the forthcoming festive season. The festivities start on October 10 with the campaign ‘10 Days 10 Villains’ with special content lined up for kids. Little Singham will travel to Ahmedabad to dance on the beats of dandiya, little does he knows that danger is awaiting while he is practicing his moves. Immediately after Navratri, The Dussehra special episode on 19th October will have Little Singham fight with a life-sized mechanized robot who has been replaced by the statue of Raavan on the day of Dussehra to create havoc in Mirchi Nagar. He will come face to face with 10 new monstrous, more powerful and dangerous villains to tackle new difficulties with same zest and style.

    Discovery Kids in collaboration with Rohit Shetty Picturez and Reliance Animation, launched Little Singham at a never-before scale, and the show made immediate connect with children across the country Little Singham, India’s youngest supercop, has received huge traction amongst the advertisers as well. The property ‘10 Days 10 Villains’ is Presented by Hershey’s and Co-Powered by Lost Kitties (Hasbro).

    Speaking about the special programing Uttam Pal Singh, Business Head of Discovery Kids, said, “Little Singham has become a rage leading to more and more children joining the Little Singham squad daily. We are bringing exciting offerings this festive season with full blown fun package of fresh content, action filled episodes supplemented by on-ground activities through our school contact program.”

    Little Singham is creating history across dimensions. The IP has helped in propelling ratings of Discovery Kids by more than 400% this year. ‘Little Singham’ Mobile Game added to the IP’s success hitting the top of the charts in the Arcade section by garnering more than 5 million downloads till date.

  • Little Singham propagates the importance of Self Defence in Discovery Kids’ school contact Program titled ‘Little Singham Squad’

    Little Singham propagates the importance of Self Defence in Discovery Kids’ school contact Program titled ‘Little Singham Squad’

    MUMBAI: Discovery Kids, India’s fastest growing kids channel, announced the launch of an all India School Contact program titled “Little Singham Squad” targeting more than 500+ schools in 11 cities across the country. Little Singham animation series, inspired by ‘Singham’, one of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters and mentored by ace director Rohit Shetty, has in a short span garnered unprecedented traction across the country.  Little Singham, as a part of the school contact program, will sensitize young minds about the importance of self-defense. The initiative has garnered support from marquee advertisers including Dabur, Cipla, Unicharm, Dettol, and Gulf Oil.

    As a part of the special contact initiative, Discovery Kids will showcase a specially created movie offering practical tips to children to handle difficult day to day situations such as a powerful elder grabbing a young one et al. The aim is to make the child more aware about the situations that can arise and offer a guidance towards a plausible solution.

    Vikram Tanna, Head of Advertising Sales, Discovery Communications India, said, “This special school contact program will work towards enlightening young minds about learning practical ways to defending themselves in the hour of need. Little Singham is an inspiration to young children – he is brave, intelligent, responsible, patriotic, honest and is an agent of change. We want our audiences to imbibe these positive traits of Little Singham and join the Little Singham Squad.”

    Talking about the activity, Harkawal Singh, Marketing Head- Oral Care, Dabur India Ltd, said, "Dabur is committed to its motto of being dedicated to the health & wellbeing of every household. Oral hygiene is an important part of being fit & healthy. If you look after your body and your eating habits, it's also equally important to look after your basic oral and dental hygiene. However, brushing your teeth is generally seen as a mundane and routine activity. So, there's a need to educate consumers about oral-care and its impact on overall well-being. With this initiative, Dabur has taken the onus of promoting oral hygiene among school kids."

    "Immuno Boosters by Cipla Health is proud to partner with Discovery Kids in their School Contact Program. It allows the brand the opportunity to strengthen our connect with kids by educating them about the importance of 'Suraksha and immunity' via a much-loved character like Little Singham. We are sure that through the engaging content that the teams have built, kids will be more mindful of their nutrition and learn various ways to improve their own immunity," said, Ketan Mohile, Category Director (Kids Nutrition Category), Cipla.

  • Double tashan and double fun with Season 2 of Little Singham

    Double tashan and double fun with Season 2 of Little Singham

    MUMBAI: Discovery Kids, India’s fastest growing animation channel, is geared to launch the season 2 of Little Singham on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Reliance Animation & Rohit Shetty Picturez’s Little Singham, launched in collaboration with Discovery Kids, has become one of the favorite characters in a very short span of time.   Starting September 13, season 2 of Little Singham will introduce crazy new villains, new adventures & locations topped up with festive themes like Ganpati, Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali promising great entertainment, superb action and laughter moments under the theme double tashan and double fun!

    Little Singham animation series, inspired by ‘Singham’, one of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters and mentored by ace director Rohit Shetty, is creating history across dimensions. The IP has helped in propelling ratings of Discovery Kids by more than 400% this year. ‘Little Singham’ Mobile Game added to the IP’s success hitting the top of the charts in the Arcade section by garnering 3 million downloads within the first two weeks of its launch.

    Uttam Pal Singh, Business Head, Discovery Kids, said, “Little Singham’s swag, action and humor, has won the hearts of Indian Kids and they have been demanding for more since the launch. Season 2, scheduled to be launched on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, with the theme of ‘Double Tashan-Double Fun’ promises the kids more entertainment, more action, crazy new villains and great laughter moments with their favorite character – Little Singham.”

    “Little Singham’s success has further reinforced my conviction about the strength of Singham franchise. I knew that Little Singham would be a runaway success even before the IP was officially launched earlier this year – but the scale of it has made me numb. My gratitude to the audiences who continue to shower their blessings on brand Singham.  Little Singham has in a way expanded the loyal following of Singham brand even further by getting the youngest of the audiences to its fold. The second season of Little Singham will take the fun quotient even higher – get ready for it! We will bowl you over,” said, Ace Director, Producer & Mentor of Little Singham, Rohit Shetty. “The Singham franchise is a tribute to the selfless contribution of police forces to our society. The youngest super-cop Little Singham provides an inspiration to the children to fight against the evil.” 

  • Discovery Kids aims 35% reach with English audio feed

    Discovery Kids aims 35% reach with English audio feed

    MUMBAI: The kids channels have finally woken up to the importance of animation in regional languages.  

    Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam are the existing languages that are working quite well in the overall industry as well as in the kids segment. Keeping in mind the parents’ concerns for their kids to learn and grow, the broadcasters thought of launching English feeds as well. Recently, Sony Yay made its footprint in the English space and now, Discovery Kids has also added this feed in its bouquet.

    Discovery Kids was launched in 2012 and has already Tamil, Telugu and Hindi audio feeds that helped the channel to leap-frog to fourth rank in the existing cluttered market from ninth rank in the beginning of the year riding on 426 per cent growth in TV ratings. Discovery Kids head Uttam Pal Singh said, “Our channel’s reach has doubled from 9 million in week 1 to 18 million in this week (33) as per the BARC data.    

    He said that since the regional languages are important in the industry, Discovery launched those before entering the English segment. “For Discovery Kids it’s almost like a clean slate when we started it out with the launch of Bandhbuk aur Budbak and Little Singham. So first was definitely getting Tamil on board and as and when we added these regional languages, we got good response,” he said.

    The next step is to get maximum reach in the SAARC countries. “The addition of Telugu feed in April earlier this year helped increase our reach by over 50 per cent in the state of Andhra Pradesh/Telangana. We expect that the English feed will help us penetrate deeper in select pockets in India as well as SAARC countries,” he added.

    The mobile game of Little Singham hit the No. 1 spot in the Arcade section by garnering 3 million downloads within the first two weeks of its launch.

    The network claims to have a daily time spent of 82 minutes on the channel and has observed a significant hike in the ratings due to its programming on the occasions of Friendship Day and 15 August. “We released special content on Desh ka Sipahi Little Singham and focused on Bandhbuk and Budbak on Friendship Day. We gained 9 GRPs in the last week and now as far as the channel’s reach is concerned, we want to reach about 30-35 per cent.”

    As per the BARC data’s week 33, Nickelodeon stands at the first position with 135622 impressions (000s) sum. Disney Channel, Hungama, Discovery Kids and Pogo TV stood at second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively with 125920 impressions (000s) sum, 110826 impressions (000s) sum, 81728 impressions (000s) sum and 78145 impressions (000s) sum.  

  • Discovery Kids pays tribute to the Armed forces with an Independence Day special ‘Little Singham – Desh Ka Sipahi’

    Discovery Kids pays tribute to the Armed forces with an Independence Day special ‘Little Singham – Desh Ka Sipahi’

    MUMBAI: Discovery Kids, India’s fastest growing kids channel this year, will premiere special content dedicated to Indian Armed Forces this Independence Day. The premiere of 90 minutes special episode of Little Singham aptly titled ‘Desk Ke Sipahi’ will be showcased at 1:30 pm August 15. An extra-ordinary tale of patriotism, courage, action and adventure, Desk Ke Sipahi showcases journey of an eight-year-old Ajay, a regular school going student, who becomes part of Sher-Dil-Mission and transforms into India’s youngest super-cop Little Singham. Together with the armed forces, the young protagonist fights against the enemies to protect the motherland.

    Speaking on the occasion, Uttam Pal Singh, Business Head, Discovery Kids, said, “Little Singham- Desh ka Sipahi is a very special story. This Independence Day we want to Inspire and ignite the feeling of patriotism among kids and pay tribute to the Braveheart’s of the nation.”

    Discovery Kids has emerged as India’s fastest growing channel in the kids’ genre as the TV ratings have grown by more than 3.5 times since the start of the year. The resurgence of Discovery Kids has been led by two shows – Bandhbud aur Budbak and Little Singham. Infact, both the IPs feature amongst the top 3 Indian IPs on air as of now. Little Singham is creating history across dimensions – the mobile game of Little Singham hit the No. 1 spot in the Arcade section by garnering 3 million downloads within the first two weeks of its launch.

  • Big Trunk Communications bags digital mandate of Discovery Kids channel in India

    Big Trunk Communications bags digital mandate of Discovery Kids channel in India

    MUMBAI: Big Trunk Communications, a Mumbai-based full-fledged creative digital agency, has acquired digital duties for Discovery Kids channel in India.The business was won as part of a pitch against leading digital agencies.

    The mandate entails building brand awareness and strengthening the brand’s digital presence as a part of its digital duties by highlighting their existing and upcoming animated shows and building a strong  digital  community.  Big  Trunk  Communications  will  be  involved  in  the  strategy,  content creation and design across all Social Media platforms, along with Online Reputation Management.

    Big  Trunk  Communications  already  has  a  diverse  social  media  portfolio  from  across  product categories such as Realty, Luxury Retail, BFSI, Food & Beverages, Fashion & Clothing, Media & Entertainment, Media, and E-Commerce, since its inception 5 years ago.

    Discovery Kids channel which went through a complete revamp earlier this year with its new IPs and featured Bandbudh Aur Budbak which increased its TV ratings steadily with Big Trunk’s expertise in digital. To top it off, recently the launch of Little Singham skyrocketed the channel to the top tier league in the kids genre.

    Speaking on the occasion, Discovery Communications India, Director – Marketing, Issac John said, “We were looking for a partner that understands the dynamic digital landscape for Kids and who could translate our vision into reality. Big Trunk has the leverage in the industry to engage with the fan base extensively. What the Big Trunk team came up with was very disruptive, adding a new dimension to digital marketing in the current context as well as the future. It’s my pleasure to extend a cheerful welcome to the team.”

    The  mandate  includes  social  media  strategy,  content  management  and  creative  strategy  on Facebook and YouTube. Big Trunk Communications with this move, has cemented its portfolio in the kids segment.

    Here’s what Akhil Nair, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Big Trunk Communications had to say about this achievement, “We are pleased to have won this opportunity, to be their official digital media and creative partners. Discovery Kids is a leading kids entertainment channel looking for strong digital play. We are committed to them delivering their business objectives. Our aim is to bring the best with our expertise which we have built over the last 5 years and look forward to creating successful digital campaigns for the brand that shall definitely result in a huge impact on the audience”.