Kids channels move to level 2; local programming gains foothold

Starting from June 3, 2010, DMK-backed Kalaignar Television Network has added one more channel – Chithiram TV – to its bouquet. Chithiram, a 24-hour info-edu-tainment kids’ channel, will compete with Sun Network’s kids’ channel, Chutti TV, and other channels in the domain.

Commenting on Chithiram TV, an official from the channel said, “As the title clearly indicates, the channel will be a visual delight for children. Top class animated movies and popular cartoons will definitely attract attention. We have gone through the selection of cartoons spread across different platforms worldwide and are ready to offer the best to the children. Most of the cartoons would be telecast for the first time ever.”

Moreover, some in-house content of Kalaignar TV will also be aired on the channel, besides the channel has also entered into some strategic tie-ups for international shows like ‘Zodiac Kingdom’, ‘Kung Fu Story’ and ‘Ruffs Patch’.

The teasers of the cartoons have been running on the flagship channel Kalaignar TV for sometime. Since its inception in the year 2007, Kalaignar TV Network has expanded its bouquet of channels in various segments. The Network currently has six channels – Kalaignar TV, Isai Aruvi, Seythigal, Sirippoli, Kalaignar Asia, and now, Chithiram TV.

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Kalaignar Television Network to enter regional kids’ TV space with Chithiram

Walt Disney Television International India is rebranding its Jetix/Toon Disney platform to Disney XD, a boy-focused, girl-inclusive entertainment brand for kids in the 6-14 age group, on Children’s Day, November 14, 2009, from 12 noon. Disney XD’s content will be marked by themes of adventure, accomplishment, gaming, music and sports.

Also debuting in November is the immersive online destination, Disney XD.in, a new entertainment choice with regularly updated, interactive games, brand new cyber zone with videos, information and downloadable content about all the Disney XD channel shows.

Natasha Malhotra, Vice-President and General Manager, Walt Disney Television International India, said, “Today’s tweens place incredibly high standards on their entertainment choices. Disney XD will continue the successes of Jetix by taking boy-focused, girl-inclusive entertainment to the next level. Disney XD will feature characters and stories in a wide range of formats – animation, live action, movies and sports – focussing on the core value of accomplishment, in line with the aspirations of tweens today.”

She continued, “Creating meaningful experiences for all Disney consumers across multiple platforms is a Disney hallmark. We focus on creating world-class, award-winning experiences by connecting stories to communities of kids and tweens online. Disney XD.in is a unique opportunity for us to not only provide additional content to our existing Jetix fans, but also attract a whole new audience through its fun, interactive and boys-focused, girl-inclusive content.”

Disney XD will premiere with Disney’s hit comedy series ‘Phineas and Ferb’, and ‘Aaron Stone’, an original adventure series about a champion video game player who, in a popular game called Hero Rising, uses a crime-fighting avatar named Aaron Stone – at least until the game’s billionaire creator asks him to become the real-life Aaron Stone.

The Walt Disney Company India offices have been busy with various announcements of late – from senior level appointments and internal shifts and role changes to hiring of new advertising partners. The company has one more announcement now, which is the creation of a new specialised unit – Disney Media Solutions and Alliances – to offer all the commercial opportunities generated by the Disney universe in India.

According to Disney officials, the attempt of Disney Media Solutions and Alliances was to offer “unique marketing solutions through various opportunities that are multi–target, multiplatform and multi-property”.

Disney’s own hand, Vijay Subramaniam, will lead this endeavour. In conversation with exchange4media, Subramaniam explained that this effort would allow Disney to engage partners in building sustainable relationships and forming long term commitments. “Which is why we see this as a key step in Disney’s growth in India,” he said.

He reiterated that Disney’s biggest strength was in its storytelling and that this division, too, would not stray away from that philosophy. The attempt of this division would be to provide current and potential business partners with the ‘Disney Difference’.

Subramaniam explained that this included offering solutions from multiple creative engines for all different lines of business, including studios, television, publishing, home entertainment, music, online, live in-market events, etc., to attempting to connect with consumers wherever they are located, taking advantage of all available technology platforms in a timely manner throughout the year.

In the past, the company had focused its advertising sales business on the selling of TV spots on its multiplex of channels (Disney Channel, Jetix, Hungama TV). With this new division, the intent is to allow meaningful experiences for clients. Subramaniam said, “It is after all about reach, relevance and experience, and Disney Media Solutions and Alliances would focus on these points.”

exchange4media caught up with Duncan Morris, Vice President, Research and Marketing Development, Turner International Asia Pacific Ltd, on the occasion of the unveiling of Cartoon Network’s kids’ lifestyle research titled ‘New Generations’.

As per the eighth edition of the ‘New Generations’ survey, Indian kids are more concerned about poverty and hunger, but they are less aware of swine flu. They prefer the 20-20 format of cricket than One-Day Internationals. And they would like to see Sonia Gandhi as prime minister of the country. Interestingly, very few of the kids want to marry by the age of 30. The New Generations’ survey was conducted across 3,431 children in the 7-14 age group across 15 centres in India.

Speaking to exchange4media, Morris said, “This is the first time that parents of younger kids (in the 4-6 age group) have been included in ‘New Gen India’. Mothers of these kids have answered on behalf of their children. We asked them about their household spending – keeping the economic downturn in mind, are they spending less or more.”

“We found more influence of parents on kids in this age group (4-6 years). There are very little differences between a 14-year old and a 4-year old kid when it comes to playing games or watching cartoons on TV,” he pointed out.

Elaborating on the responses of Indian children on questions regarding global concerns, Morris said that issues like climate change and environmental pollution were not the key issues for them, however, they strongly reacted on issues like poverty and hunger.

The survey found that pocket money given to Indian children has gone up despite the economic slowdown. As per the survey, pocket money has increased by as much as 34 per cent at Rs 258 per month from Rs 154 in 2006. According to Morris, this increase was mostly due to the reason that India had not been as badly hit by the global recession as most parts of the world.

When asked how this research would help in the content creation of Cartoon Network, Morris explained that though it would not directly impact the programme or content, the survey results would help in finding the right target audience and they could reach out to them using the Internet and engaging the children in other ways.

On the access of kids to social networking sites, Morris said, “This is the first time we have included social networking sites in our research. In the last one month alone, nearly 14 per cent children have visited sites like Orkut and Facebook. These sites are basically for adults, but still some new trends can be seen in our research.”

Launched as a pan-Asia Pacific initiative in 1998, ‘New GenerAsians’ is one of the largest kids and lifestyle surveys in the Asia Pacific region. Cartoon Network raised the bar on this survey in India and remolded the research to focus solely in India, along with increasing the scope to 15 cities and including parents as respondents. First unveiled in 2001, this remolded India-only version was renamed ‘New Generations’ and is said to be the largest kids’ research in India.

ACK Media, one of India’s leading entertainment and education companies for young audiences, and Turner International have entered into a strategic content partnership to produce two animated films and 26 half-hour episodes of the Amar Chitra Katha stories. ACK Media will produce the TV series and films in the inimitable ACK art-style reinvented for the world of 2D animation and will be seen on television for the first time ever on Cartoon Network and POGO. The films are being developed under the tutelage of Cartoon Network animation experts.

Announcing the partnership, Monica Tata, Vice-President and Deputy General Manager – Entertainment Networks, South Asia, Turner International India Pvt Ltd, said, “As a great believer in the Indian storytelling heritage, Turner has successively contributed to keeping India’s treasure trove of stories alive with animation through its leading kids’ channels, Cartoon Network and POGO. We are ecstatic to provide a platform to recreate the magic of the legendary Amar Chitra Katha stories in an animated format.”

Elaborating on the TV films, Samir Patil, CEO, ACK Media, said, “The two films are titled ‘Sons of Rama’ and ‘Tripura – 3 Cities of Maya’. Of these, ‘Tripura’ is slated to go on air in the first quarter of 2010, while ‘Sons of Rama’ would be aired in the third quarter of 2010.”

He further said, “We have been in strategic talks regarding this partnership with Turner for nearly a year. After seeing tremendous growth in the print medium, we decided to now push Indian animation to the next level. Broadcast is the most important medium today, and hence, this is kind of a rediscovery of Amar Chitra Katha in the television medium.”

Adding to this, Tata said, “Indian animation has worked well in terms of revenues and ratings. The biggest connect to a child is the story. Story is the biggest hero today, and what better than to have characters and heroes steeped in Indian tradition and culture. Amar Chitra Katha has always had characters from Indian mythology and history that have appealed to not just children, but parents and grandparents as well. Thus, we look forward to attracting an audience of not just kids, but three generations.”

On the marketing and promotional activities, Tata said, “We will be revealing more on the activities around the films and TV series closer to their launch dates.”

Kalaignar Television Network all geared to enter the regional kids’ television space. The Network, which already has Kalaignar TV (GEC), Isai Aruvi (music channel), Seithigal (news channel) and Sirippoli (comedy channel), will enter the kids’ television space with Chithram. Chithram will compete with Sun Network’s kids’ channel Chutti TV.

According to an official source from Kalaignar TV, the new kids’ channel would go on air before the end of this year. Kalaignar TV Network has already obtained the license for the kids’ channel.

Preceding the launch of kids’ channel will be another GEC in the Kalaignar TV Network bouquet – Kalaignar Asia, which will cater to the Tamil Diaspora in South East Asian countries. To be broadcast through THAICOM-5 satellite, this channel will function from the Kalaignar TV premises in Chennai.

The telecast of Kalaignar Asia will commence at 3.30 IST (6 am in the South East Asian countries). Kalaignar TV will not create fresh content for Kalaignar Asia, but will instead air the best of programmes from other existing channels of the Network. However, thrust would be on serials, reality shows and film-based shows.

The Kalaignar TV official informed that the test run of Kalaignar Asia had already begun. The channel will be officially launched from the first week of September.

Meanwhile, Kalaignar TV will introduce two new shows – ‘Poova? Thalaya?’ and ‘Karuthu Yutham’ – soon. Both the shows will go on air from the first week of August. Popular yesteryear Tamil actresses Sripriya and Khushboo will play host in ‘Poova? Thalaya?’, where the duo will lock horns over various issues concerning women.

‘Karuthu Yutham’, another talk show, will go on air from August 2, 2009. To be aired between 1.30 pm and 2.30 pm, ‘Karuthu Yutham’ will see participants debating the emerging nightlife culture in Chennai. The show will also have a panel of counsellors evaluating the social implications of such emerging phenomenon.

POGO has been making some concerted efforts to provide kids wholesome entertainment. For starters, the channel has been moving away from airing a lot of fiction towards providing a mixed bag with its POGO Original Productions, talent awards, games, movies, format shows and animation. In keeping with its strategy, the channel has launched ‘FAQ’ (Frequently Asked Questions), which is the 10th POGO Original Productions, aimed at encouraging kids to question and learn the process of exploration and discovery via experiments and cool trivia.

Speaking about the show, Krishna Desai, Director Programming, South Asia, Turner International India, said, “Making learning fun for kids is something we strongly believe in. POGO is a destination for young minds, who dream bigger, think louder, play smarter and bounce higher. In the past, we have launched many other successful ‘edutaining’ shows such as ‘M.A.D.’, ‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’ and Tiny TV. ‘FAQ’ is by far the most challenging show as we aim to re-introduce science as an engaging, fun and exciting subject.”

Elaborating further on the strategy, he said, “We don’t have many fiction on POGO as the non-fiction has been doing very well for us. ‘M.A.D.’ has been doing very well for us and has also helped push up the ratings. We provide an amalgamation of shows, which makes POGO the best place for kids to be on and this varied programming has helped in opening up the entire kids entertainment genre. The idea is to have kids think out of the box, help them dream bigger, think louder and play smarter. Our Original Productions has helped us in achieving that with ‘M.A.D.’, ‘Hole in the Wall’, POGO Amazing Kids Awards, and ‘Chhota Bheem’, among others.”

‘FAQ’ has been created for kids aged 9-13 years and marks POGO’s 10th live action show, made in India for India. ‘FAQ’ will air every Sunday at 10:30 am. The show will be hosted by a new face on POGO, Prateek Sethi, along with his robot assistant ‘Crash’. Each ‘FAQ’ episode begins and ends with some tricks that quiz the mind and go on to explore everyday phenomenon.

To promote ‘FAQ’, the channel is going to schools in about 20 cities and engaging with over 900,000 kids in on-ground activity co-sponsored by Perfetti Mentos and ParleG. There is also an interactive micro-site on www.pogo.tv, where kids can send questions to Prateek, look up DIY experiments, games, videos and a ‘Did You Know’ section with trivia.