MUMBAI: Ruling the genre from August 2014 to date with 31 per cent market share is not one man’s game. Growing from strength to strength are Viacom 18’s children’s networks -- Nickelodeon (19 per cent), Sonic (10 per cent) and Nick Jr (2 per). 

The other two networks Disney and Turner stand at a 33 per cent and 27 per cent market share, respectively. Reaching out to 32 million kids every week, Nickelodeon is the undisputed leader across various slices, TGs, Dayparts (weekdays and weekends), NCCS and Geographies. The channel sees a 28 per cent contribution from South as a region. When it comes to viewership, the channel gets 65 per cent traction from the Urban whereas 35 per cent come from Rural.

The franchise’ revenue has gone up 20 per cent y-o-y. Sonic’s yield has increased by 40 per cent y-o-y whereas, Nickelodeon’ yield has increased by 25 per cent y-o-y.

“Nickelodeon's team has steered the channel as the ruler from 2014 in the kids category. The channel has been leading with a five per cent gap from two of its competitors Hungama and Cartoon Network. The fantastic news is that Sonic is at 10 per cent market share with 252 TVTs. In fact one of the weeks Sonic took over Disney. We are all up there growing, crawling, reaching there,” said Viacom18’s kids cluster EVP and business head Nina Elavia Jaipuria.

According to the Ormax Small Wonder Study, six out of 10 characters that are widely loved by kids come from this channel.

“When new kids comes to a channel, we normally drop time spends or when you have lesser reach on your channel, the time spent goes up. Therefore, we feel happy that we have the highest reach and have maintained our time spent. The kids are loyal to us which means that we have a great channel affinity, content affinity,” added Jaipuria.

The network released its full length feature film titled Motu Patlu: King of Kings which has done wonders. The movie has made its way to small screen and will air on the channel soon. Viacom also plans to launch a new Motu Patlu in Dragon World by June 2017. Apart from this, the channel will add new episodes to Motu Patlu and Ninja Hattori, which is getting updated after a year.

Nickelodeon

With an average time spent of 90 minutes on Nickelodeon, it is all geared up to launch its fourth local franchise. After a successful year with home-grown toons like Motu Patlu, Pakdam Pakdai and Shiva, Nickelodeon intends to magnificently captivate kids with its new fully owned IP Gattu  Battu on 1 May. The show will air throughout the week.

“Nickelodeon has managed to sustain its leadership for the longest time is because of the width and depth of library. I think it is about creating enough content library and therefore the fourth local show so that we have width. But, that is not enough. We need depth due to which we have created libraries with 200 episodes for our local shows. It is a whole lot of investment but they have a huge shelf life which gives us ratings that can monetize the top-line,” added Jaipuria.

Gattu Battu is a story of two best friends who own an investigative and security agency in a small town called Vishrampur.  While Battu is the sixth sense behind every case to be solved, his friend Gattu is the courageous and righteous one. Their hilarious and brilliant cover-ups is what forms the heart and soul of this show. Gattu and Gattu are joined in their fun escapades by Ting Tong, their goofy and adorable sidekick with a flair for martial arts. They together along with Dr. Bhatawadekar and his gadgets come together to fight the notoriously funny villain Sher Singh.
The unique investigative home-grown animated show from the house of Nickelodeon is an ultimate blend of action and comedy and is sure to provide a fun filled entertainment experience for kids.

“After launching three blockbuster 'Made in India' shows and creating an eco-system around them, we are delighted to bring to them yet another winning series, Gattu Battu, that they will surely embrace and make a part of their daily lives. There were no characters that bring a blend of crime thriller combined with comedy for kids – Gattu Battu fills this whitespace,” added Jaipuria.

The show’s launch is followed by an expansive marketing campaign which will have promotions with an extensive cross channel plan, large scale on-ground, ambient engagement and interesting on-line interactivity. Adding to this will be the on-ground initiatives like retail and mall partnerships (Phoenix, Ambience, Viviana etc), multi city promotions etc. The channel has associated with Mc Donald’s to air the show promos across 300 screens. Gattu Battu themed games, van activations in Tier 2 cities and meet-and-greets at various gaming zones such as Funcity will introduce the duo as well as allow kids to engage with the characters.

Sonic

Viacom18 made a bold move last year by placing Nick’s iconic teen adventure program, Shiva as part of Sonic’s programming henceforth. The change is in line with Nickelodeon’s need for a strong second channel. This led to a huge spike in its viewership and therefore, the channel has grown from four per cent market share to 10 per cent.

“We have done everything possible when we launched a new show. We did games, malls, mass media, school content program, etc to make Shiva the next big thing after Motu Patlu and Pakdam Pakdai,” added the channel head.

The channel has been delivered mainly because of three shows -- Pakdam Pakdai which gives the channel 25-27 per cent share in local content, Oggy and the Cockroaches and Shiva.

On the digital front, the channel plans to engage more with kids by creating several digital assets. “The websites are rocking with it. We have 407 games on the websites out of which 200 are local content games with 15 new ones in the pipeline,” said Jaipuria.

Rocking the summer with exciting content line-up, the channel will add new episodes to its famous shows- Shiva, Pakdam Pakdai, Oggy and the cockroaches, etc. The marketing strategies for these shows will matchup with Gattu Battu’ plans. The channel will place blimps of the characters at several places in partnership with malls and will also do van activations in tier 2 cities.

Nick Jr

The 24 hour pre-school channel for toddlers has the best content with iconic, world renowned shows like Peppa Pig, Dora the Explorer, Paw Patrol, etc. Dora continues to be the face of the channel.

Nick HD+

The best of local and international shows like Motu Patlu, Pakdam Pakdai, The legend of Korra, Dora the Explorer, The Penguins of Madagascar, Rabbids Invasion, etc., are available on high definition on this channel. It does not simulcast the content from other channels in the bouquet. The channel also has a block on the channel called Teen Nick, where the channel plays sitcoms.

Some channels may not bring in advertising revenues. “A lot of these channels are here to stay because they create large-scale perspective, foundations, and gives us a base of consumer products and subscription revenue.

Ad sales and revenues

The franchise has been contributing the network’s bottom line year after year. The ad sales over the last year have grown by 20 per cent. The channels have also seen a rate increase. Three years in a row, the franchise has given 30 per cent and 20 per cent to the top line. The subscription revenues have also grown by 10-15 per cent y-o-y. The cluster has also delivered on the bottom line and has doubled from last year.

The franchise provides various non FCT solutions to advertisers like promotional licensing, product licensing, tentpole licensing, movie sponsorships, in-show placements, school contact program, tailor made brand solutions that paved way for increased. 

“If we are spending so much, the money has to come from somewhere. So, the rates have increased on Nick and Sonic. Sonic has made it to the consideration of many advertisers. We are very happy to note that monetizing is actually working for us, subscription revenues are also growing by 10-15 per cent y-o-y. Therefore, this business looks greener. The non-subscription revenue from ad sales, non-FCT revenue and it’s starting to get great ancillary revenue from consumer products, licensing or digital screens or syndication,” concluded Jaipuria.

Jaipuria also noted that the network’s 15-20 per cent revenues got hit due to demonetisation. It took away the surplus.

With a slew of characters, the franchise’ merchandising revenue has grown by 40 per cent from last year. The products are available across 46 categories.