NEW DELHI: Turner International is now eyeing the tween of India.
 

After the hugely successful Cartoon Network, Turner now plans to launch a new channel, POGO, from 1 January 2004. The 24-hour channel, hosted on the Zee Turner platform and to be beamed off the PAS 10 satellite, will feature live action, drama and series, it was announced at a media conference today.

The USP of the channel, however, will be feature films that will be regularly aired and will differentiate it from existing channels for kids, notably sister channel Cartoon Network and rival Nickelodeon.

There will be special documentaries, comedies and like shows, providing what the channel calls 'complete multi genre entertainment package for kids.' POGO, in all likelihood, will target the age group that Cartoon Network misses - the tween who has grown out of Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry.

Unlike Cartoon Network, however, Pogo will not be exclusively animation, and will cater to an audience that's ready for edutainment.

Ian Diamond, the Singapore-based senior vice president and general manager, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, Inc., said, "Pogo will change the dimensions of how kids watch television. There will be a sense of ownership for the kids."

Turner's efforts at wooing kids to the telly have thus far met with more than a modicum of success. Meticulous research that pointed to an unmet demand from toddlers and their mothers led Cartoon Network to launch a special three hour daily band Tiny TV in January 2003, a move that paid instant dividends.

It's now upto Pogo to prove its potential.