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Turner eyes India's untapped kids TV market

NEW DELHI - Following up on the success of its Cartoon Network Channel, Turner International is launching a slew of initiatives to strengthen its new kids' channel POGO, which includes increasing Hindi content to 80 percent by this year-end and having programs in vernacular languages like Telugu and Tamil.

The children's entertainment market was witnessing a healthy growth and currently enjoys a total advertising spending of Rs 1 billion (US$22 million), Turner International Managing Director Anshuman Mishra told newspersons.

"The number of channels for kids are very few in India and we believe there is a huge untapped market. According to market figures, currently 20.1 million children are watching these channels," he said.

As part of brand-building exercise, the channel will be screening the popular movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone later this month and will be investing in cross-channel promotions, advertisements in leading dailies, trade magazines as well as in kids-specific publications.

POGO will also be targeted at adults, though in a limited way. Launched on January 1, 2004 and distributed by Zee Turner Pvt Ltd, POGO offers programming from production which includes Ragdoll Ltd, BBC and HIT International PLC.

Its product portfolio includes programmes like Mr Bean, Barney & Friends, Teletubbies and The New Adventures of Superman.

(Asia Pulse/PTI)

May 19, 2004

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