Exclusive | Kids love television and cartoons: Turner's Krishna Desai

Cartoon Network, one of the growing channels in the kid’s entertainment genre launched the 11th edition of Cartoon Network New Generations™  study. The channel has been known for understanding the demand of kids and over the past decade this study has revealed their perspectives across segments such as media consumption habits, economic slowdown, social consciousness, usage of computers, internet, mobile devices and gaming, responsiveness to advertising, importance of academics versus extra-curricular activities, etc.

Adgully caught up with Krishna Desai, Director, Content, South Asia, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd to know more about the latest initiative undertaken to study kids demands and their perspectives to various activities.

The 11th edition of Cartoon Network New Generations study also interviews parents to add more perspective and value to truly understanding the lifestyle of Indian families. Today, Cartoon Network New Generations TM has come to be recognized as the primary resource of its kind.

When asked about the key findings and the key high points of the study, he said, “There have been a lot of key findings  but the key trend visible  was the fact that kids, especially teenagers, have had increased access to technological platforms hence their media consumption has also increased on multiple platforms.”

Giving an example he said, “Indian kids are more connected via mobile phones than ever before ! 73% kids are mobile phone users and a whopping 9% have their own cells. Making calls and gaming are their two most popular activities and similarly more that 50% kids use the internet.” “The interesting part is that television still remains  their first preference. The consumption of information on the other platforms is not at the stake of television viewing and around 63% of kids still love watching cartoons,” he adds.

According to  Desai, the 11th round of this study has  added a few challenges  but they have learnt a lot at every step. He says, “During this round we have got to know many things in terms of design of our survey, geographies, demography etc. Every step makes you learn new things and it can be  implemented thereafter. ”

The New Generations™ 2012 surveyed around 7000 kids and parents in SEC A, B and C across 26 centers including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Nasik, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Guwahati and Hyderabad. On asking about the challenges faced, he said, “The biggest challenge has always been to interview kids below seven years of age. That’s the reason why we interview their parents and so we see a lot of variations come in.” There is no other survey in the country which tells about the facts of children aged 4 to 6 years.

When asked how according to them, parents are involved these days in shaping the future of their kids, Desai explained that since there was no direct way of questioning the kids concerned  they did not use it in the survey. But their findings show  that both parents and kids spend time together on entertainment platforms more than on any other platforms including outdoor games, picnics, studies etc. “Also it was exciting to see that children today exert a higher amount of involvement with their parents and family,” he adds.

Cartoon network is known to understand the kids’ psyche much better, so when asked how matured kids are these days, Desai said, “Today the kids have really grown up and have started accepting the trends and circumstances at a faster rate. So in terms of maturity, yes the kids have become a lot more aware about each and everything that is happening around them and hence have matured.”

The study is  free and open to all and can also be  accessed on the internet. Cartoon Network raised the bar on this survey in India and remodeled the research to focus solely on India. First unveiled in 2001, this remodeled India-only version is the largest kids’ research study in India. This year the scope has been increased to include 26 centers across metros and non-metro cities.  | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com] 

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