At
present, Toon Disney airs the Jetix Action Station
on weekdays and is available in Tamil, Telugu and
English. Now with the Star One deal, the block will
be made available in Hindi too. It will launch on
Star One on 2 July and will air on Saturdays and Sundays
from 7 to 8 pm.
Apart
from tapping the general entertainment channels, BVITV-AP
is also contemplating developing branded blocks on
regional channels down south. Apart from that, terrestrial
channels will also be looked at in the near future.
"The
Jetix brand is synonymous with high energy
entertainment that will inspire and challenge viewers.
We look forward to working with Star One in cultivating
appointment viewing for this exciting range of action
and adventure titles," said Macallister.
Nair
said, "Star One is an ideal platform for the
Jetix brand in India. Star One is one of the
fastest growing channels with an urban, upscale audience
that wants high quality programming in their own language.
Jetix programming will be in Hindi and we are
confident that it will soon be a favourite amongst
kids."
BVITV-AP
India head Amit Malhotra negotiated the deal for the
company. Speaking to Indiantelevision.com,
Malhotra says, "At present we have the Disney
Time block on Star Plus, which airs from 6 to
7 pm. This is the first block of Jetix that
we will be airing."
Jetix
is a new global action-adventure brand which launched
in February 2004 in the US and now successfully reaches
over 104 million households internationally through
its terrestrial branded blocks.
As
per the deal between BVITV-AP and Star, titles under
license will include recent titles from the Jetix
portfolio such as the new action-packed series Super
Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, alongside Marvel
classic Spider-Man and the futuristic, hi-tech
series A.T.O.M. Alpha Teens on Machines.
Also
under license is W.I.T.C.H. the international
multi-media phenomenon that originated from the W.I.T.C.H.
magazine established in Italy by Disney Publishing
in 2001.
