Children's power drives Indian
channels By Indrajit Basu
KOLKATA - Come December 18 and a programming
board of 20 members of Hungama, India's newest kids' TV
channel, will converge at the channel's headquarters in
Mumbai for its first "board meeting" since its launch in
September. On the face of it, there's nothing unusual
about this. All TV channels have program selection
boards, which meet from time to time to chalk out their
strategy. But Hungama's is unique - all its members are
between eight and 15.
"Make no mistake, these
kids have serious business on their agenda," said
Purnendu Bose, chief operating officer of Hungama, which
in Hindi means "fun". "Their primary job is to advise on
and choose content for Hungama, but they will also
advise us on how to run the channel, its marketing
strategies, and even the sort of public relations
campaign that Hungama should follow," said Bose. The
board was a result of a huge selection process in which
150,000 applicants from all over the country were tested
and interviewed to select the "20 smartest and brightest
kids for the job". The plan is to conduct a "board
meeting" every quarter for one year to ensure that
Hungama remains "a channel for the kids, by the kids".
Elsewhere, in about 800 schools
across the country, select children are busy preparing
for an essay competition based on a TV show called
My Schools Days
that's aired by Splash, yet another kids' channel.
Anbu Nirai, head of content of Splash, which is part of
the country's leading media-software company Pentamedia,
said the winner of the competition will be felicitated
through program telecast. "There will be many more such
competitions in future."
Call
it kid power, innovative marketing, or simply the
changing face of globalizing India, but
with increasing competition, such channels as Hungama and Splash are going
all out to attract young eyeballs.
And suddenly, children's channels, as elsewhere in the world,
have become serious business. Since January, India has seen
the launch of three new kids' channels - Pogo, Hungama
and Sony's Animax. Going by media reports, at least
three more could join the bandwagon. This includes the
original kingpin, Walt Disney Television International,
which according to industry sources is likely to launch
more than one channel. The other big name that has plans
for a kids' channel called Space Toons is the country's
largest local entertainment channel bouquet, the Zee TV
Network.
Why the sudden rush? For years,
Indian kids had little in terms of entertainment. Until
about 2001, they had just one channel: the first
mover, Cartoon Network, which for nine years maintained
its premier position capitalizing on the paucity
of television entertainment for children. Subsequently,
two national kids' channels - Nickelodeon and, on a
very limited basis, Splash - entered the fray. But
there, too, content-wise they offered very little choice
and programs were mostly imported or, at best, dubbed
in Hindi. Even the so-called local shows that one or
two foreign channels air are basically conceptualized
and composed by non-Indians, which basically means that
they lose the local flavor. "Even now there is a huge gap
in kids' content," said Bose, according to whom most
kids' channels are still churning out largely animation
and cartoon content. So, added Rajat Jain, chief
executive officer of the Indian subsidiary of Walt Disney,
the time is right for entry into the children's and
family-entertainment segment in India.
Conservative estimates suggest that there are more than
50 million Indian kids who have just hit their teens
and have access to satellite and cable television.
This has created a huge consumer base that marketers
can hardly ignore anymore. A study by Hungama indicates that
about US$7 billion of consumer spending every year is
influenced in kid categories when it comes to choosing a
brand. Humgama calls it "pester power". In a recent
global survey conducted by Synovate, an international
market-research firm, 42% of the respondents in India agreed
that their choice of car was entirely dependent on their
children's wishes. "Kids are king in India," said the
Synovate study.
According to Bose, kids' sway
over Indian parents has also resulted in kids' channels
encroaching on the revenues of other mass-entertainment
channels. "Nowhere in the world would you find a
financial product advertised in a kids' channel. But in
India, there is ICICI Bank hawking its kids' insurance
product on one such channel," he said. "Today seven out
of 10 commercials have kids in them and everyone accepts
that children are strong influencers in the
decision-making process. This power has made them an
important target for ad-spends."
The
successful launch of a kids' channel also offers
opportunity of additional revenues from other
sources, such as brand licensing and content
syndication. Children's programming or products that
spin off from kids' channels can be money-spinners by
way of licensing, product merchandising and events. A
good example of this concept is the global success of
Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles
that has spawned comic books, computer games,
movies and countless commercials on radio and TV. "The
Indian market hasn't yet explored this kind of marketing
effort," said Anjani Kalgutkar, a kids' channel
executive. Hence the opportunity is huge.
But a plethora of channels also
means that winning over Indian kids is not going to be
easy. Experts say that Indian children, fed up with
the content of cable and satellite television, have
become more discerning and finicky than back in the
1980s when it was much simpler as children were forced
to settle for imported shows such as Jamie and the
Magic Torch or My Little Pony
on a
state-controlled TV channel, the only channel in those
days. Moreover, children now, say industry sources, have
a much shorter attention span "of about half a second".
This is why all kids' channels are trying so
hard to differentiate themselves from each other, and
from the notion that a children's channel must be solely
cartoon-based. "We do not air just entertainment
content," said Bose. "Instead, we churn out what we call
edutainment, which is a mix of entertainment and
education. You will not find any other channel airing
mixed content like drama, science fiction, quiz, etc
besides the usual cartoons and animation." Anbu Nirai of
Splash too claims that his programs are "more local with
local flavor ... Our target is to have 70% local content
soon." Walt Disney also says that in India it is
"committed to localization".
But with the advent
of so many kids' channels, would it be a case of too
many cooks spoiling the broth? No, say Industry players.
Kids' channels so far have just skimmed the surface.
There are 315 million kids under 15 in India, which is
one-third of the country's population. This segment is
bigger than the corresponding age group in all of
Western Europe put together. France, which has just 11
million under-15s, has 11 kids' channels and the United
Kingdom, with a similar kid population, has 24. The
Indian broadcasting industry is also growing, at an
annual 15%. "The market is growing," said Bose. "And
more channels would make the pie larger."
% share of children's fare on Indian
TV
2003
2004
Kids' fare
8.2
9.8
Entertainment
43.8
40.5
Sports
11.8
13.6
Hindi movies
10.2
10.9
News
4.1
4.9
Others
21.9
20.3
Source: TAM Media
Services
Indrajit Basu is a
Kolkata-based equity analyst
turned journalist with more
than 12 years of experience in business/finance and
technology journalism. Besides writing for Asia Times
Online, he also writes for US-based publications, as
well as IT companies.
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Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
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