"We
are not counting anything out. We are evaluating our
language options. If the market demands it, we will
introduce regional language feeds for our channels,"
says Turner Entertainment Networks Asia senior vice
president and general manager Ian Diamond, when queried
by Indiantelevision.com on whether the network
was planning to launch South language feeds like Toon
Disney.
At
present, Toon Disney is available in Tamil and Telugu
languages besides telecasting in English and Hindi.
Disney Channel, on the other hand, is available in
English and Hindi.
"We
don't react to competition for the sake of reacting.
If we feel there is a need, we will fill those gaps
and strengthen our position. If a certain market is
under served, then we will move in quickly and look
at innovating," says Diamond.
But
does he feel there is scope in the market to further
fragment the audience according to age groups and
launch dedicated channels to address them as UTV is
planning? "It is not necessary for us at this
stage. The segment-wise day part strategy between
the two channels is working for us and we are able
to grab 75 per cent combined audience share. And don't
forget that we have 11-12 hours a day of pre-school
programming content. However, in future we will see
how things evolve," he says.
Is
the kids channel space getting too crowded? "We
are used to a multi-player environment in different
markets of the world. And what is unique in India
is that we are a dominant player in this market while
competition is lagging far behind us," says Diamond.
Besides, there is a migration of viewers in our target
group from general entertainment channels which would
expand the market further, he adds.
Why
is revenue not growing at a fast pace despite more
channels being launched in this segment? "Infrastructure
needs to be put in place for the market to explode.
For a more lucrative and dynamic business, there is
need to ramp up. This business is an integrated model
and we are gearing up to explore all areas of media
pipelines to distribute our content. We are, for instance,
waiting for retail infrastructure to develop which
would make a matured business case for merchandising
and licensing. There are lots of kids in there and
there is a huge future in kids business here as the
market matures," Diamond says.
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Decade
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