One
major change on Nick will be that the flavour will
get more and more local to become a voice of the kids
in India.
Nick
India vice president and general manager Hema Govindan
is upbeat. "We have a very strong line up and
I would love to see competition touch us on that one.
There are brand new Nick shows in relatively new genres
like action, adventure, quasi-horror categories like
Danny Phantom and Avatar. The second
season of our local production Dum Duma Dum
comprising 22 new episodes will be aired in January.
Apart from these, there are a couple of new pre-school
shows that we will launch but I can't talk about it
as yet. These are some of the new acquisitions we
have made at Mipcom and other market places. We will
also continue to explore local acquisitions."
The
new seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy
Neutron, Rocket Power and ChalkZone
will also be aired next year. "Also new seasons
of our preschool shows like Dora The Explorer and
Blue's Clues are in store. This will amount
to 516 brand new half hours of programming in 2006,"
she added.
Govindan
explains, "There are so many new opportunities
to capitalise on in the future and I believe that
Nick is at the cusp of the next phase of growth. Yes,
I agree that today Nick has a low base, but one of
the advantages that I have is the learnings from the
mistakes made."
Reshuffling
the programming grid was on Govindan's priority list
when she took charge of the channel in September this
year. "The first thing that we wanted to do was
to dramatically increase channel viewership. For starters,
we have reorganised our FCP (fixed chart point) by
clubbing all the animation shows in the Nick Toons
block. Shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy
Neutron, Rocket Power and ChalkZone that
were earlier scattered on the channel now air everyday
from 4 pm - 6 pm on this block," she said.
Apart
from this J Bole To Jadoo, which was essentially
a weekend show, was made into a daily and now airs
at 6 pm.
The
weekend game show band was also expanded and made
into a daily offering from 6.30 - 8 pm. The block
called GAS (Games And Shows) has Nick's
games shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple,
Global Guts and Dum Duma Dum. Govindan
said, "We expanded our games and shows offering,
earlier aired on weekends to 90 minutes and made it
a seven day offering. From 8 - 9 pm, we have Nick
Ha! Ha! Ha! where we air slapstick shows like
Laurel and Hardy."
Such initiatives, says Govindan, had a direct impact
on ratings. "This
is what has seen our monthly average ratings double.
A few weeks ago it had tripled for key day parts and
key demographics. This coupled with our marketing
and promotional efforts in terms of a school contact
programme for Nick Toons and a contest called
Ada Pada Kaun Pada helped in increasing the
channel's viewership. The Nick Toons block
(4 - 6 pm) has seen a growth of 160 per cent,"
she explained.
Nick
is also looking at exploiting new revenue opportunities.
Merchandising will see a push in the coming year.
"SpongeBob, Dora The Explorer and Blue's
Clues are the shows that have a good scope for
merchandising. Also our new shows and their characters
will lend themselves very well to consumer products
and retail. We are in talks with several potential
licensees across categories like apparel, publishing,
home video, toys etc. But nothing has been finalised
at this point in time so it doesn't make sense to
talk about it," she informed.
Talks are also on with online and mobile service providers
for developing Nick wallpapers, ringtones and other
downloads. "You will see our presence in the
interactive online and mobile space too," Govindan
said.
So
expect the Nick decibel levels to increase substantially
with the advent of the New Year. Will that keep the
channel in race with the rival networks is anybody's
guess.
