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Daily Post 04 Mar 2015 hindi.televisionpost.com हिंदी में Television Turner mulls Hindi feed for Toonami; plans to launch more channels in India Posted on: 04/03/2015 08:18 AM Javed FarooquiShare on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on printMore Sharing Services MUMBAI: Turner International India has plans to have a Hindi feed for its newly launched action-adventure channel Toonami, a top company official executive told TelevisionPost.com The company will consider offering a Hindi feed once the channel attains a substantial reach across India. Targeted at boys in the 8–14 age group, the channel is currently available only in English. “To start with, we are doing it in English. Once we have a reach across the country, we are open to looking at Hindi feed. We have four language feeds on CN,” Turner International India SVP and South Asia MD Siddharth Jain told TelevisionPost.com. Identifying need gap in the action-adventure space Having firmly established Cartoon Network and Pogo in the kids’ TV space, Turner is looking to conquer the action-adventure space with Toonami. With Toonami’s launch, action-adventure has emerged as a key segment within the kids’ genre with Disney India’s Disney XD and Viacom18’s Sonic being the existing players. The fact that Disney XD and Sonic have shown slow growth has not deterred Turner from venturing into the action-adventure segment. “They [Disney XD and Sonic] have not really addressed the action-adventure market the way we are doing with world-class content,” said a confident Jain. According to Jain, the key reasons for launching Toonami was a clear need gap in the market and the opening up of bandwidth due to cable TV digitisation. “In the kids space, we did a lot of research and felt that this was a space which had good opportunity for us to attract viewers who are more action oriented with a little skewed towards higher age group,” Jain said. “Apart from that, we have opportunity that digitisation is providing. While the cost of launching a channel hasn’t really come down, you can actually reach out to a larger number of viewers through digital networks. Combined with all these reasons, we thought it was the right time to launch the channel,” he added. Superhero and Japanese anime content Toonami India’s content is based on two pillars—superhero content from DC Comics and Japanese anime content, which has found great resonance in India. Turner International India executive director and network head – kids Krishna Desai believes that Toonami has the best of both worlds, superhero content from the West and Japanese anime from the East. In superhero content, the channel will have marquee properties like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Flash. The Japanese anime properties include Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Yo-Kai. “It’s a combination of western international ones which we are familiar with and the best from the eastern side. So it’s this combination which will be very powerful to address this space,” Desai averred. He also stated that while Toonami India would not be too different from its DNA across the world, it would be localised to make it compatible with viewing trends in India. On launching local franchises, Desai said that it depends on how audience responds. In the same breath, he added that kids don’t differentiate between local and international content. Digital-first distribution strategy The pay channel, priced at Rs 17.07, will be first made available on digital platforms including cable TV and direct to home (DTH). Once the digital universe is covered, the channel will be distributed on analogue platforms. Distributed by Taj Television, the channel is currently available on Siti Cable, InCable, Home Cable, and JPR Cable Network across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. “Our priority is to get it on all the digital networks. We are not looking at analogue to start with. We had a good start so in the next 2–3 months we will be available on all digital cable networks and DTH. Once we cross that, we will start looking at analogue,” Jain stated. As a principle, Turner has been doing only cost-per subscriber (CPS) deal in DAS markets. Regarding carriage fee, Jain claimed that Turner is not paying any carriage fee for Toonami. He also said that though there has been some correction in carriage fee, it has not been in line with broadcasters’ expectation. No ads till BARC in place The channel will carry no ads until it achieves critical mass in reach. Another reason for not going after advertising is the change in rating currency with Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) replacing TAM. “At this point, we are not looking at advertising initially till we get a critical mass in distribution. There is also the BARC factor that we have taken into consideration. BARC will come out with a new set of data 40–50 days from now, which is why we have not planned for advertising for initial few months,” Jain explained. He is confident that BARC is going to throw some new light on viewership patterns. Portfolio expansion Jain hinted that the company has plans to add more channels in India. “Though it is a little premature to commit anything, there are enough plans to grow the portfolio,” he said, without revealing much. He also said that parent company Turner Broadcasting would always back the company in case of an opportunity to grow the business. “We are very happy with the way we are progressing and we are very happy with the way things are moving,” he noted. In India, Turner owns and operates CNN, Cartoon Network, Pogo, HBO, WB, and now Toonami. It also distributes ad-free channels HBO Hits and HBO Defined. With regard to HBO Hits and HBO Defined, Jain cleared the air by saying that the licences of the channels are with Turner while the programming is being handled from Singapore. “I don’t comment on conjectures. We hold the licences and we do the distribution. Turner and HBO are part of Time Warner. The programming of HBO Hits and HBO Defined is done from Singapore. I don’t know what has changed,” Jain said, in reply to whether Star would take over the distribution of the two channels. Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on printMore Sharing Services Most Read BCCI awards IPL US media rights to ESPN for $12.4 mn till 2017Former DEN CEO SN Sharma joins Reliance JioNDTV 24×7 to premiere documentary on Delhi gang rapeAjit Thakur joins as CEO of Eros’ new film production divisionMobile data traffic in India increased 74% in 2014: Nokia Networks studyCarriage fee dynamics in AgraRatings highlights: Zee TV back at No. 2 in Week 7 of 2015‘RIO strategy worked to keep our content costs under control’ICC World Cup: SC seeks response from Prasar Bharati on Star’s alternate channel proposalSET sketches new content plan About TelevisionPost|Management|Advertise With Us|Work With TelevisionPost|Terms of Use Privacy Policy|Contact Us / Feedback Copyright [COPYRIGHT SIGN] 2013 TelevisionPost.com — All rights reserved
Read more at: Turner mulls Hindi feed for Toonami; plans to launch more channels in India | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
Read more at: Turner mulls Hindi feed for Toonami; plans to launch more channels in India | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
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