Be ready for an immersive experience with Pinaki & Happy: Nina Elavia Jaipuria

Continuing to build its robust content pipeline – the largest in the kids’ entertainment genre – Nickelodeon announces it’s 10^th indigenous show, ‘Pinaki & Happy - The Bhoot Bandhus’, spooky-comic series, on Sonic. Nickelodeon has seen immense success with other home-grown IPs like ‘Motu Patlu’, ‘Pakdam Pakdai’, ‘Shiva’, and ‘Rudra’, among others. Produced by Tavrohi Animation, the show is directed by Ankur Chauhan. Legendary Gulzaar saab has once again scripted the lyrics for the title track of the show, while the music has been composed by Simaab Sen. The show will go on air from November 9 at 11:30 am.

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The unique spooky-comic, home-grown animated show from the house of Nickelodeon will further strengthen the franchise’s diverse content portfolio. With over 700 hours of content, the franchise today has the largest, immersive and the most versatile local content library in the category. The coming year will see further scaling of the content library with over 100+ hours of content, expected to be added through new episodes and made for television movies.

Viacom18’s kids’ channels that include Nickelodeon, Sonic and Nick Jr. have a viewership share of 32% in the kids’ genre and boast a vast library of 700 hours of content. The coming year they plan to scale the content library by adding another 100+ hours of content that include new episodes and made for TV movies.

At a press conference, Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head – Hindi Mass Entertainment and the Kids TV Network at Viacom18, said, “Kids are at the center of our universe and understanding their evolving preferences and catering to their diverse entertainment needs is at the core of all our initiatives. With each passing year, we have identified white spaces and brought alive clutter breaking and pioneering series that have gone on to be category game changers and favourites amongst all our stakeholders – kids, parents and advertisers ensuring that we are the most loved No. 1 kids’ entertainment brand in the country. With the launch of our new show, ‘Pinaki & Happy - The Bhoot Bandhus’ on Sonic, we are set to once again enthrall our young viewers with an immersive and unmatched entertainment experience.”

Speaking about the new IP, Anu Sikka, Head – Content, Kids TV Network, Viacom18, said “With the launch of our new show ‘Pinaki & Happy - The Bhoot Bandhus’, we are expanding our already popular programming catalogue to keep our young audience entertained. Each character and their traits are so carefully crafted that I’m confident that the Bhoot Bandhus will be thoroughly loved by the kids. The show promises to take kids into a new world of fun bringing to them first of its spooky-comedy series which takes them on a laughter ride when the bhoot world meets the real world. Over the years our adorable toons have formed an unbreakable bond with kids through the stories they tell and we are confident that that our young viewers will surely embrace the new characters and make them a part of their daily lives.”

Sharing an overview of the network’s performance for FY19-20, Jaipuria shared BARC data (2-14 All India U+R April-October Year-to-Date) for the kids’ genre.”

The kid’s channels were preparing in advance for the summer months just before the Lockdown came into effect. This meant that most channels in this genre were better prepared compared to others for the abrupt halt in production that took place. During this period, kids’ viewership (2-14) saw a huge surge in growth and the genre share of total TV viewership grew from 7% to 9%. While the viewership share has stabilized during the Unlock, the overall kids’ genre saw absolute category growth of 26% during April-October YoY.

As the leading channel in the kids’ genre, Nickelodeon saw a 40% growth over the previous year during the same period (April-October). Its sister channels did even better. Sonic which was at No. 7 among the most viewed channels in the kids’ category, last year, leapfrogged to No. 4 and became one of the top 5 channels. Nick Jr doubled its ratings from 108 to 223 and grew its viewership share in the kids’ category from 2% to 5% gaining a strong foothold among the pre-schooler audience. During the Lockdown, Nickelodeon network channels reached 48 million kids weekly. (BARC data for Week 14 | March 31-April 6, 2020 | 07-23 hrs)

How did Nickelodeon become such an entrenched leader in the kids’ category? It was by delving deeper into the category than any of its competitors claims Jaipuria. She said, “Nickelodeon has the only two channels that are available in more than 8 languages. We have expanded our content library in depth and width. We engage with kids on our digital destination VOOT Kids and 7/10 of the top 10 shows on VOOT Kids are from Nick. We have created more than co-branded 500 website and mobile games with Nick characters. The idea is to be where the kid’s audience is present.”

Nick characters are enormously popular. According to a study by Ormax Media, 5 out of 10 top characters belong to the Nickelodeon franchise. These characters are Shiva, Rudra, Motu, Patlu and Ninja Hattori.

Propelled by Nick’s strong brand, Jaipuria claimed, “September-October months have been good months with growth equal or slightly better than the same period in FY 19.” Nickelodeon had an ad revenue share 35% in the kids’ category split between FCT and non FCT revenues. Non FCT revenues include co-branded merchandising and licensing out its characters for promotions. The networks’ subscription revenues grew upwards of 30% during the Lockdown months further balancing the tilt between subscription and advertising revenues. Jaipuria reports that the channels overall topline grew by 12-15% YoY.