One of the biggest brands in global television and entertainment world, Disney, made a formal and direct entry into India late last year. The little Big Mouse finally set up office in India, promising to unveil, over a period of time, a lot of excitement.

In this interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Manisha Bhattacharjee, Walt Disney Television International (India) head of programming and production Nachiket Pantvaidya holds forth on the company’s philosophy on servicing the kids, an area, he feels, is still under-served. Considering certain questions related to marketing and non-programming areas, Disney India’s marketing and communication head Hema Govindan was on hand during the tête-à-tête.

Excerpts:

What are differentiating factors for Disney channels vis-à-vis others in the same space?
The language strategy is our key differentiator. We have several feeds of these channels like in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English. Toon Disney will start beaming in Hindi too by October-November. On this channel, for example, we have brands that are targeted towards boys who love action-based programmes. In addition to this, the brand will have the best of Disney animation and an environment, which is energetic, fun, and mischievous.

It is only with the launch of the Disney channels that we will see the coming of age for kids’ television in India. Audiences have been given the impression that cartoons are the be all and end all for kids’ entertainment. Slowly, you will see forays into pre-school entertainment and genres other than animation. Toon channel is a channel for ‘Toonagers’. Disney channel is for various TGs where programming have been woven around Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy and Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy, plus not so famous characters from Disney stable like Kim Impossible. Of course, a driver of the Disney channel is the movies and we do have age-appropriate movies.

Are you hinting that the competitors are not showing age appropriate movies?
I do not want to comment on what others are doing or not in great detail, but we definitely show movies that are meant for the kids. And, advertisers do see the movies as a key differentiator because that is one of our properties that have a lot of demand for sponsorships.

Whom do you consider your true competitors?
Well, look at it this way, there is enough space for everybody to compete comfortably for the eyeballs of viewers aged between 4 and 14 years. This market is under-served. What we need to do is to get programmes that will appeal to kids directly. This need not always be in a competitive mode, but in an effort to expand the category.

Do films actually drive viewership?
As a matter of fact, TG 4-14 years old on weekends has a tilt toward movies. In the age group 4+, considerable amounts of GRPs are attracted and we show two movies a day at mid-day and 7 pm.

What’s the programming objective of the two Disney channels?
One of the basic facts of life in Indian kids programming is only 8 to 10 per cent of kids are actually watching programming made for kids. 90 per cent of kids, according to TAM data, are watching programmes that are non-kids programmes. Only one amongst nine kids is watching dedicated kids’ channel. We see the need gap and realise there aren’t enough kids-friendly products in the market.

So, Disney will try not only addressing the 10 per cent, which are seeing the animation space today, so to say, but also the remaining 90 per cent.

Now that Disney has its own channels, is the company open to the idea of branded slots on other channels?
At the moment, we have a branded block, ‘Disney Time’, on Star Plus and Star One.

(HG: We won’t be opposed to having more branded blocks, but, probably, look at different languages. For example, have branded blocks in Tamil and Telugu.)

A lot of hype is being built around Playhouse Disney, a branded block at the moment. What is the excitement all about?
Most of the programming of Playhouse Disney is very basic and entertaining, aimed at pre-schoolers. For example, in Jo JO circus, a key programme, emphasis is on learning in terms of physical skills. The idea is to pass on the right sort of messages to the preschool children as they are open to these suggestions. Playhouse Disney is also unique as for the first time in India we are going to be doing original preschool programming from India. Some of it is already on air.

Basically, we have segments around which programmes have been built up. The important thing is that these programmes are shot in Indian studios with Indian hosts. Concepts range from pet puja (satisfying hunger), studio activities, crafts and music and playhouse songs. At the moment, Playhouse Disney is a block on Disney Channel where we have started with the localisation process. Of course, there is localisation in other parts of Disney Channel too.

Going by what you have said, India is seeing preschool programming for the first time and also that localisation is happening. Was it difficult finding the right sort of produces and programmers and also creating an awareness about such programming?
Yes, India has never had such kind of programming. So, producers did not have much experience. It was a sort of a problem. Rather, an education process for all of us.

We had experts from Disney’s Asia Pacific office down here for a couple of months helping us in making the right programming moves; telling us what has worked in other markets. The real challenge was adjusting to the Indian sensibilities because all Western style programming does not fit here.

Two local and international early childhood experts also took part in the selection of presenters (of programmes). So it is not just being
intelli-genic, vivacious, etc. The presenters were selected keeping in mind that kids could relate to them as elder sisters or brothers or friends.

Once these presenters where shortlisted, they were taken to classrooms. It became more difficult as one could not classify or pinpoint as to why a certain presenter was not liked by kids. Also, dubbing programmes in Hindi is a bit difficult with kids.

The good thing about Disney is that it has a separate company called Disney Character Voices International Services, which specializes in dubbing in all major global languages. However, a fair amount of effort goes into Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages. We work in tandem with language and early childhood advisors.

How is the company tackling the distribution aspect, considering Disney channels are still not visible in large parts of the country?
Our distribution team is closely working with that in Star. The idea is to optimise the distribution penetration. But my colleagues in the distribution team would be able to tell you more on this. But, we do agree that in some parts of the country, the channels are still not accessible.