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Purnendu Bose, COO, Hungama TV, has been spearheading the operations of the channel right from January 2004 when UTV officially announced the project. Starting from scratch, he led the team to launch the kids channel.
Bose's expertise has been widely used in launching several media properties and brands such as Radio City and STAR News. Before joining UTV, he has worked for four years with STAR India where he worked with various departments starting from sales, broadcast, operations, engineering and even special projects.
In an interview with Prajjal Saha of agencyfaqs! Purnendu Bose, COO, Hungama TV, talks about UTV's latest venture and the television habits of kids.
Edited Excerpts
Till a year back, there was only one channel in the kids genre. Now that there are at least five channels, how much sense does it make to join the bandwagon now? What kind of initial hurdles are you expecting?
Yes, but there hasn't been a single “Made in India” channel. What I mean to say is, there was not a single indigenous kids channel dedicated to the Indian kids. It was unbelievable that this happened in a country, which is home for 18.7 per cent of world's kids population!
There exists a strong untapped potential for a truly Indian kids channel in the market today. Hungama TV aims to fill this void for a truly ‘Made in India’ kids channel with localised, multi-genre, culture-specific content that Indian children can relate to. By having the unique distinction of being India’s sole 24-hours kids entertainment channel, Hungama TV aims to redefine the kid’s entertainment space by consistently endeavoring to give children what they consider to be quality entertainment.
Moreover, the children viewers' segment has evolved into a highly specialized target group with its distinct needs and viewing preferences. The need of the hour is to replace generic content with age-specific time bands. In realization of this, Hungama TV has devised its programming based on research of the intelligent and discerning viewing habits and interest-levels of various age categories, be it pre-schoolers or older secondary schoolers.
However, the road to success will not be easy for Hungama. Challenges are plenty.
The first challenge pertains to connectivity. Monopolistic cable distribution environment encourages some of the major cable operators to demand hefty, unjustified carriage fee even for kids channels. Every day, we are flooded with calls from kids, from their parents and even from the schools but we can do very little – considering the existing monopolistic cable distribution environment on ground. The only thing I would like to say at this point of time is that we are trying our best and hope to resolve all distribution issues within a few weeks.
The second issue is about the very little work that has been done on kids programming in India. For example, out of the hundreds of movies that are produced in India every year, how many are kids movies? The Hungama team is still thirsting to source some good kids movies and quality kids programming.
The third challenge deals with the fact that Indian kids are very witty, intelligent, and spirited. They possess an all-rounded personality with a very high expectation of quality entertainment with depth and width. The challenge is to understand children's logic and try and meet their rising quest for variety programming on this dedicated 24x7 kids channel.
What kind of research have you done on kids and their viewing preferences? What does the study reveal? Are children happy with what they watch on TV today?
Research has always been of paramount importance to gauge kids’ television viewing habits and preferences, right from the very inception of the Hungama TV to conceptualization of programming content. We had commissioned primary research through AC Nielson across 10 cities and over 7,000 children.
Research actually helped us to create the Hungama TV identity and the Hungama brand personalities – made in India “indiantainment”; empowering; participative; unexpected; full of surprises and irreverent & witty.
During the course of research, what kind of differences and similarities did you witness among Indian, Asian and European kids vis-a-vis television consumptions and viewing habits?
That will be like revealing our entire FPC strategy. However, what I can share with you is that there is a gaping need for a kids channel with original programming and localised content and it is evident that the prevalent trend leans towards a more localized Indianised multi-genre content that Indian children can easily relate to. Hungama TV is planning to bridge this gap.
UTV has its expertise in making drama and fiction shows for general entertainment channels. Going by this, why did you launch a kids channel and not a general entertainment channel?
UTV’s forte has always been creation of specialized content. The company is now expanding to new mediums like movies and broadcasting besides television. UTV has been a pioneer and a prolific creator of content for kids segment. Right from 'Mathemagic' in 1987 for Doordarshan to 'Snakes & Ladders' for Zee in 1992, through 'Junglee Toofan Tyre Puncture', 'Hip Hip Hurray', to 'Shararat'. 'Shakalaka Boom Boom' on STAR Plus today which is the longest running kids show till date. We consistently did well in this genre possibly because we understand kids preference and thus decided to take this tried and tested successful formula a step further with Hungama TV.
Our accumulated expertise across the spectrum of multimedia entertainment, complemented by our excellent track record in each of the categories, have led to the creation of Hungama TV. This initiative synchronizes with our corporate philosophy of being an integrated media company with business interest across the media spectrum.
Having a television channel is a forward integration for a content creating company. But will that stand in a way of your relations with other broadcasters for which you make shows and are in competition with Hungama for kid's audience?
If you are referring to STAR Plus, I do not see any conflict of interest in any way. STAR Plus is a general entertainment channel, and Hungama TV is the dedicated channel for the kids – representing two completely two different genres. The TGs are different and across different prime time. Even the content throughout the day are completely different. So, where is the question of competition?
On the contrary, we compliment each other. STAR Plus is a general entertainment channel for the family and Hungama TV adds value by way of special offering only for the kids in the family. It’s an inevitable and favourable evolution of the entertainment sector.
With only 24X7 Hindi programming, don't you think you are leaving out a vast market in the non-Hindi states especially the southern Indian states? What are your plans to capture these non-Hindi markets? Will we see a portion of non-Hindi or English programming on Hungama, or will it be a complete English kids channel in the near future?
Primary research has indicated that south India in general and Tamil programming in specific reigns as the second largest market, close on the heels of Hindi programming. In the pipeline is a Tamil version of the channel, to be launched within 90 days from now.
Why did you choose to be a part of the STAR's distribution bouquet? What are the advantages and disadvantages to be a part of the STAR bouquet?
In order to ensure maximum reach across all kids-market sub-segments, it was imperative to tie-up with a distribution forerunner like STAR TV, which has to its credit a staggering target penetration of over 30 million homes. What also prompted us was despite the presence of a market leader like STAR Plus in its bouquet, STAR TV didn’t have a kids channel in their bouquet. So, joining STAR's distribution bouquet is a win-win situation for both Hungama and STAR TV. Plus, we have been enjoying an ongoing relationship for over 8 years now.
Till today, kid's television viewing is under parental guidance. What are you doing to woo the parents?
We have very strict programming guidelines – forget adult content, we don’t even approve any form of kids harassment airing on our channel. In today’s scenario, where the size of traditional playgrounds are shrinking day by day, and when home work and competitive pressures are ever rising, television most often is the only source of entertainment to the kids. TV entertainment recharges, refreshes and in a way prepare the kids to go back and concentrate on their studies. I’m sure even parents do acknowledge this phenomenon.
Going by the reign of Cartoon Network, children's programming in India is more or less synonymous with cartoon and animation shows. How do you plan to sell the mix of your programming, which is a blend of live action, animations, soaps and movies?
Today’s child is no longer a passive viewer but has highly differentiated and fastidious viewing preferences. Research reflected that a significant percentage of kids indicate no loyalty to any channel and even substantial percentage of the cartoon loyalists move out regularly in search of variety kids entertainment. The challenge is to understand children's logic and try and meet their rising quest for variety programming on this dedicated 24x7 kids channel.
Research indicates that the existing players do not provide the complete basket of programmes to cater to the highly differentiated viewing needs of the kids. These extend beyond mere cartoons and animations into real life drama, adventure series, sci-fi, game shows and movies.
Hungama TV’s programming content is a balanced mix catering to all age groups from 4-14 years in specific prime times. Among its programme slots, Hungama TV includes the 'Chattar Pattar' Hour, which is targeted at pre-school viewers, the 'Hulla Gulla' Hour (from 5 pm to 6 pm), which is a virtual playground experience for the older group, 8 to 14 years. This is followed by 'Non-Stop Dhamaka' and the 'Ulta Pulta' Club featuring live action game shows, comedy, science fiction, adventures etc. Abracadabra Spell and movies are targeted at family viewing along with the kids for late evening hours, as India is mostly a single TV Home. The programming is designed to give the Indian kids what they want in depth and width of localized multi-genre content.
Hungama TV’s four key drivers have been met with an overwhelming response from children. These include 'Full Toss', the gully-cricket game show where children play cricket with the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and Parthiv Patel. Other series like 'Noddy aur Daddy' and 'Tiger' have been well received well too. This exemplifies that today’s children do appreciate content that transcend cartoons and animations.
With more kid's channel coming up, do you think that the market for kids channels is getting overcrowded? Or, are you of the opinion that a lot more brands will open to the possibility of advertising on kids' channel – especially with the growing influence of kid's on purchasing decisions?
Pester power research indicated that 30 per cent of fast moving consumer goods purchase decisions are influenced by kids; they also influence selection of brands for non-kids category like refrigerator, music system and even cars. Today 7 out of 10 commercials have kids in them and everyone accepts kids as strong influencers in the decision-making process. These influential kids, under 15 years of age, represent one-third of our country’s population. But is one-third of television advertising revenues coming to kids programmes? Unfortunately not.
As far as upcoming kids channels are concerned, compare the scenario with news channels, which grew from one to 14. Consequently, the ad revenue market also grew from Rs 40 crore to the current Rs 400 crore. I foresee a similar future for kids channels.