ITV

Tag: Ronojoy Chakraborty

  • Sony YAY! expands its toon universe with two new shows ‘Ha.Go.La’ and ‘Robotan’

    Sony YAY! expands its toon universe with two new shows ‘Ha.Go.La’ and ‘Robotan’

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India’s (SPNI) kids channel Sony YAY! has announced that it will further grow its toon universe of 100+ toons and increases its content library of over 700+ hours with two brand new show launches – Ha.Go.La‘ and Robotan.

    Ha.Go.La a conversational comedy, set in the Northern heartlands of India, transports kids into the world of three crazy friends – Hathgola, Goli and Lattha, where inanimate objects come to life to go on misadventures of a lifetime. In another new launch Robotan, a friendly robot – Robotan and his creator cum friend Kan- chan will come together to take kids on a rib-tickling joy ride with their hilarious adventures.

    Sony YAY! head programming Ronojoy Chakraborty said, “Kids are at the centre of the Sony YAY! universe, and it is no different as we bring to our audiences a new homegrown offering – Ha.Go.La. The show celebrates the nuances of day-to-day seemingly mindless, giggly meandering conversations of kids, with a cultural setting close to home. With the launch of these two brand new shows, we increase the width of likeable genres that Sony YAY! offers to kids.”

    Actor and musician Raghubhir Yadav said, “Lending my voice to songs of animated characters has always been a thrilling experience for me. For a brief period, you enter the world of these funny characters and learn to laugh and have fun in their unique universe. With Ha.Go.La, I got to enjoy the unique and uncanny friendship between three household objects and this new song brings that out wonderfully. I hope that kids will love singing along to this fun song we have curated for them.”

  • Sony Yay! unveils its content lineup for festive season

    Sony Yay! unveils its content lineup for festive season

    Mumbai: Sony Yay!, the kids’ entertainment channel under Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), has announced to serve audiences 140 hours of fresh content during the festive season including six shows and eight telemovies.

    The channel has unveiled a slate of new launches, fresh programming and films for shows like “Oggy and the Cockroaches,” “Taarak Mehta Kka Chhota Chashmah,” “Haste Raho Henry,” “Obocchama-Kun,” “Honey Bunny Ka Jholmaal,” and “Paap-O-Meter.”

    “Sony Yay! has created and curated an expansive library of 550+ hours of animation content, 800+ episodes including six original shows, and 70 telemovies, successfully reaching over 50 million kids,” said the company in a statement.

    “Earlier this year, the channel also treated its young audiences with ‘Taarak Mehta Kka Chhota Chashmah’ which went on to become the most popular kids’ entertainment TV show of 2021,” it added.  

    “The current situation has transformed the content consumption pattern by creating a growing demand for fresh and varied content,” said Sony Pictures Networks India business head – kids’ genre Leena Lele Dutta. “While Sony Yay! continues to serve them with new narratives around its home-grown content it has also further increased its content offerings by introducing a wide range of new shows, endearing characters, and engaging activities.”

    The channel will launch a brand-new show “Haste Raho Henry” that will begin airing on 25 September at 1 p.m every Saturday and Sunday. “Honey & Bunny” franchise films will begin airing every Sunday at noon from 3 October. “Oggy and Cockroaches” created by French animation studio, Xilam Animation, will begin airing on 18 October and new episodes and films of “Paap-O-Meter” will be launched in December.

    “This festive season, each new narrative and character is handpicked to suit the ever-dynamic palate of Indian kids and our goal is to curate a wholesome experience of their favourite characters at one destination,” said Sony Yay! head of programming Ronojoy Chakraborty.

  • Pre-school kids content’s monetisation and viewership challenges

    Pre-school kids content’s monetisation and viewership challenges

    MUMBAI: Animators have long contemplated the complexity of producing pre-school content for the ages of two to four years. On the third day of FICCI Frames 2019, executives from the industry spoke about ‘Catching youngest viewers: Powering the kids network and advertisers ecosystem through data’. It had panellists BARC India senior VP business development partnerships Elbert D’silva, Sony Yay head programming Ronojoy Chakraborty, DDB Mudra Group executive director Sathyamurthy Namakkal, GroupM business head entertainment, sports and live events Vinit Karnik, Viacom18 head content kids TV network Anu Sikka and Graphiti multimedia co-founder Mujal Shroff. The session was moderated by Punaryug Artvision founder Ashish Kulkarni.

    Sikka threw the limelight over the issue that the industry had been facing since the start and the reason why the kids genre is under-indexed. She said that at first it was a question of finance and so the industry depended on acquired content and later realised the need to produce home-grown content. Parents also exert some control over what the kid watches. A kid may have no issue with Dora being Indian or not, but it is the parents who demand local content. They would want their kids to watch localised content. “Kids from age five demand local content, but in case of kids from the age group of 0-2, the parents are the gatekeepers,” she concluded.  

    She further added that now is the time that we need to cater to specialised content. “If you look at our Nick Jr. channel, it has grown three to four times this year. But unfortunately, if you look at the overall programming, we don’t get viewership of the two to fourteen years age group. And that is why there is a lack of pre-schooling content,” she said.

    On the other hand, Shroff said that there is also a placement issue. He said, “If you look at the viewing pattern, as the child evolves these days, it is on multiple devices. But some age groups still prefer TV.” Kids aged 5-6 or 9-10 tend to consume content on their parents mobile phones or any other device but a 2-year-old kid still watches TV.

    Chakraborty explained that pre-school programming is only justified if it can be monetised. “If you look at our category, one-fourth share is GECs but the revenue share for kids category is one-tenth. Hence the revenue here is very less and therefore, broadcasters are not creating content,” he said. If BARC were to provide some viewership cuts for the pre-school audience rather than keep it as a part of the entire kids genre, broadcasters will be able to curate better content.

    Agreeing with him, Karnik said that it would be difficult to strategise programming for the pre-schooling kids as the category as a whole is under-indexed in terms of advertising. Despite witnessing a hike in ratings, revenues are increasing at a snail’s pace.

    Namakkal chipped in with a different standpoint. He said that the industry shouldn’t get greedy about data because there is already information overload. “One-third of kids consume one and a half hours of video on TV screens. But while we talk about advertising revenue, it will never be equal to viewership share,” he explained.