Kids channels face Space war

How much competition can the newly-launched edutainment channel Spacetoon Kids TV give to the well-established players such as Cartoon Network, Pogo, Nick, Toon Disney and Hungama in a scenario of shrinking ad spends and media fragmentation, is something that will be keenly watched over the next one year.

For starters, the free-to-air channel from Dubai-based Spacetoon Media Group, which was launched in India recently sans a high-profile ad blitzkrieg, has got media planners zapped.

“The pre-launch buzz about the channel should have been very high,” said a senior media planner. “They haven’t pitched themselves strongly enough to media agencies at all, which is surprising.”

In India, the channel is owned by Kids Media India (KMI), which has been in the business of kids’ television programming and licensing of cartoon characters for a host
of brands under Marvel, WWE, etc.

Japanese animation firm Animation International holds 51% in Kids Media.

Rajiv Sangari, managing director and chief executive officer, KMI, said, about $20 million will be invested in the channel.

It has a library of 4,200 episodes sourced globally, which includes the likes of Ninja Turtles, Super Mario, Sherlock Holmes, Incredible Dennis, etc. The channel will also look at creating an hour of localised content produced in India.

“With 360 million kids, India is one of the largest markets for Spacetoon products and services. Though we are the ninth entrant in the space, we are confident that the channel will be well accepted by the audience and will create a niche in kids’ entertainment,” Sangari said.

The channel is targeted at 2-12-year-olds and will position itself on a 10 planet programming concept with every hour of the day dedicated to a particular planet — action, history, science, adventure, etc.

However, Sudha Natarajan, chief operating officer, Lintas Media, wonders whether the differentiated offering will be able to break the hegemony of the well-established entertainment channels.

“Spacetoon will have to get into good character-based animation. Rather than concepts, character-based programming works. That’s why Spongebob, Ben 10, Shinchan are so popular,” she said.

According to data provided by Lintas Media Group, despite ad spends on kids channels growing by 15% over 2007, its share in the total revenues of all channels put together remained stagnant at 2.2% in the same period. The genre’s share in the total viewership also fell from 4.7% to 4.4% (4+ years, all TG) and 5.8% to 5.4% (4+ years C&S homes).

Total number of advertisers also fell 17% from 298 to 246. Certain advertisers in the banking, financial services, consumer durables sector, who flirted with spending on kids channels hoping to cash in on pester power, are rationalising their monies towards media outlets that solely address their target groups.

This means, no channel is going to have it easy battling for ad revenues.

According to LMG, in terms of advertising revenues, out of the Rs 180 crore spent on kids’ channels this year, Cartoon Network (CN) attracted 29% share and Turner consolidated its share at 52%.

CN, Disney and Pogo attracted a higher share in ad revenues than their share in viewership and Nickelodeon’s share in the ad revenues was half of its viewership share.
It is still unclear what kind of ad revenues Spacetoon will seek in the year ahead, but Sangari said the channel was aiming at a 10% share in viewership by the end of 2010.
But it’s obvious that to woo advertisers, mere TV spots won’t be enough.

Nina Elavia Jaipuria, senior vice-president and general manager, Nick India, said, “We’re looking at an aggressive growth through more ground events and innovative activities with our viewers. Events like Boomer Bubble Blowing Contest or the Colgate Little Dentist contest were really successful. It is experiences like these that kids remember, since they also get to interact with their favourite Nick characters.”

In fact, this is one of the reasons why a key feature of Spacetoon’s marketing initiative includes a school contact programme, wherein one shall see the channel doing a host of activities at schools across the country.

“We’re not just looking at cities and towns, which account for TRPs. We’ll be targeting SEC C towns, as well,” Sangari said.