Homegrown characters, regional feeds - focus areas for Cartoon Network & POGO

The kids’ genre witnessed a surge in viewership despite the pandemic. Cartoon Network and POGO continued to entertain the family audience throughout the year with its relatable and appealing content tailor-made for co-viewing. The network saw advertisers from categories like snacks/ food & beverages, e-learning platforms, home care & consumer durables, etc., during the festive period.

Abhishek Dutta, South Asia Network Head, Cartoon Network and POGO, affirms that the network will continue to localise some of its popular international content, acquire and create its own unique, original IPs and relatable homegrown content that offers a local flavour. India-centric characters, regional-language feeds, new seasons and movies of current fan-favourites will be the focus areas, he says in an interview with Adgully. Excerpts:

How has 2021 been for the kids’ entertainment space, including the ways in which kids consumed content? What were the trends you witnessed in terms of content consumption patterns, etc.?

In 2020, the viewership for the kids’ genre grew at the onset of the pandemic and we witnessed this in 2021 as well. While viewership has grown, increasingly, we are witnessing demand for content that can be enjoyed as a family and is fresh, creative, unique, relevant, localised, and compelling. As per the BARC-Nielsen report on TV viewership, seven out of the top 10 shows in the kids’ entertainment genre are homegrown properties. We have already taken the lead in delivering homegrown content in line with this trend. We will continue to acquire and create our own unique and relatable homegrown content that offers a local flavour through authentic voices, India-centric characters, and regional language feeds.

How has the pandemic affected you? How have the advertising spends been, especially during the festive season, for Cartoon Network and POGO in the last two years?

As we know, the pandemic affected the entertainment industry like many others; however, we witnessed a considerable increase in kids’ viewership patterns. According to BARC data, the kids’ genre saw a viewership spike of 26% in 2020 as compared to 2019. With 66% TV penetration in India, we expect the overall viewership to only rise further. Since the majority of the kids’ population has been at home for the last year and a half, it has given us a window of opportunity to air a variety of content through new shows and specials, keeping everyone entertained and leveraging the viewership trends.

As expected, the arrival of the second wave did impact consumer and advertising sentiments; however, these improved as the worst of the pandemic passed and as we neared the festive season and with high-profile sporting events like IPL, and ICC World Cup.

Brands that have traditionally advertised on television are continuing to do so with new shows and IPs for their campaigns and new brand launches. Both traditional and non-traditional brands have been advertising with us, given the popularity of Cartoon Network and POGO characters extend beyond kids to parents, with co-viewing surging. In addition to snacks/ food & beverages, advertisers from e-learning platforms, e-commerce, personal care/ hygiene, home care & consumer durables have also contributed to the festive period on our channels. We see this encouraging trend going forward in 2022.

Cartoon Network and POGO has been focussing a lot on local animation shows. How has the audience response been and do you plan to have more local IPs for kids in 2022? Going forward, is localisation key for growth?

For both Cartoon Network and POGO, 2021 saw several successful home-grown offerings. We have been consistently fulfilling the demand for variety and localised content by introducing new episodes, series, movies, and fan-favourites. On POGO, we launched the local original series ‘Lambu-G Tingu-G’, a popular local acquisition ‘Bandbudh Aur Budbak’ and the latest episodes of one of the most-watched contemporary comedy series, ‘Titoo – Har Jawaab Ka Sawaal Hu’. It also marked the year when we launched our first homegrown superhero CGI series, ‘Ekans-Ek Se Badhkar Snake’. We also launched the Bollywood-inspired show, ‘Dabangg – The Animated Series’ on Cartoon Network.

‘Ekans-Ek Se Badhkar Snake’ was a top-performing show in the genre during its launch week. We also expanded our language feed for POGO to Telugu. It is now available in three languages along with Hindi and Tamil.

We will continue to localise some of our popular international content, acquire and create our own unique, original IPs and relatable homegrown content that offers a local flavour. India-centric characters, regional-language feeds, new seasons and movies of current fan-favourites will be the focus areas. TV has strengthened its position as a family-viewing platform in India with the pandemic, so our content will continue to cater to kids and families.

What will be your content strategy for 2022? Will you adopt a hybrid model by creating your own IPs and acquiring made-in-India content?

The industry is headed towards a greater focus on homegrown IPs as the demand for great-quality content arises. Since co-viewing remains an integral part of TV viewership, all eyes will be on the kids’ genre to offer entertaining content for the entire family and will continue to be an anchor genre.

Some genres that Indian kids love and enjoy the most include Bollywood, slices of life, slapstick comedy, and action-adventure, which make for the very quirky characters, familiar backdrops and compelling local stories that draw our young audiences in. We believe the affinity for such genres will continue and will reflect in our content inventory.

Over the next year, with our fan-first approach, we will continue to present locally made shows backed by world-class animation and stories that demonstrate the burgeoning talent of India’s animation industry. In doing so, we aim to bring relevant, engaging, and relatable content in multiple regional-language feeds that will resonate with fans across India. We will continue to develop large libraries targeting different age groups and genres with co-viewing opportunities, focusing on perpetual ownership of content.