Cartoon Network to set up interactive Internet sites

Cartoon Network to set up interactive Internet sites

Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network plans regional websites in different regions across the Asia Pacific. The network will launch a site for Australia by mid year. Other sites planned are for India in English, Taiwan in Mandarin and so on.

Turner International's Hema Govindan said that the key difference between the TV channel and the site will be new, interactive elements introduced via the World Premier Tool.

"For instance, hypothetically speaking, in a chat room, Johnny Bravo will have a dialogue with people visiting our website. It will also be specific to the country the website is being built for. The cultural cues will be very , very different. The characters we champion, the interactive elements will be different." Govindan said that the net could consider regional sites in Indian languages at a later stage, similar to it's channel strategy.

She added that the channel penetration's was 10 million at present, and plans were to extend penetration beyond urban India. "The tune in will only come with more localisation and customisation. We are also looking at initiatives like Get Tooned, when we actually animated five Indian kids and put them on air as interstentials."

The channel has featured five kids in Australia and New Zealand, five in South East Asia, 5 in Taiwan and five in India. Research has shown that Indian kids would like to see winners. Because of that, the channel plans to showcase more Indian kids as winners in cartoon form in the new future.