‘We believe that we are our greatest competition’

Kids channel, Cartoon Network, which commenced operations in the Indian market in 1995 recorded a 40 per cent growth in ad sales revenue on year-on-year basis during the period 2003 and 2004. Ian Diamond, Sr. Vice President and General Manager, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, Inc. and Anshuman Misra, Managing Director, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd. and Sr. Vice President, Network Distribution, South East Asia, chat with Preeti Jadhav about Cartoon Network and Pogo’s brand positioning and the key issues of growth. Excerpts…

What impact does the diverse behaviour of children in different market have on kids television programming? Diamond: It becomes rather difficult when you start talking of diverse cultures and reactions in these cultures. Although, I can say that we have a number of Cartoon Network channels around the world. Each one of them is programmed in a very very different way than the network you see in India. Probably, this bears testimony to the fact that kids, just because they are kids, aren’t the same in every place in the world. The quicker you understand this basic ‘funda’, the better you are going to be while talking to them.

How do you deal with the complexity of language? Are you looking at multi-audio carriers for the same household?

Misra: We would love to have a multi audio carrier — it’s all available every where. But, the ground infrastructure in India doesn’t allow it — unless we have a digital infrastructure. Techni-cally speaking, it’s not ready for action as yet at the ground level. We have the wherewithal, but just can’t do it here in India. Well, frankly speaking, there are lots of things that are needed in this industry and access to multi audio tracks is one of them. But, I don’t know if it’s something that will be on top of the agenda at this point of time.

The channel wields power and influence on children. So, why don’t you use the medium to promote social causes such as anti-smoking and girl education?

Diamond: At the moment, we are working on a number of ideas that add an educational element to kids’ daily lives. There is a lot more to be done in terms of positive messages. As a responsible broadcaster, we shall strive to continue to develop those things. There is a lot of scope to do much more.

Misra: We always strive to offer as much support as possible through public service announcements. We give television airtime on our network to all organisations that support conservation issues, environmental issues, etc. As a matter of fact, our popular character, ‘Captain Planet’ is the world’s first ‘environmental sweeping’ hero. Going forward, we shall definitely keep an eye on all of these issues.

How do you intend to compete with Disney, which enjoys goodwill amongst global kids? Misra: As far as we are concerned, we are obviously very happy that there is competition. Competition increases the pie and it also gives choice to kids. This is something that we have been trying to do through Cartoon Network and Pogo — in terms of animation, live action, game shows, movies and the works. We have substantial experience of Indian market conditions and this is something that nobody can buy or acquire in a small period of time. And we feel that we have a strategy, which was in place long before any Disney or any other player came in. Also, we are constantly working on the same and improvising it.

Diamond: We believe that we are our greatest competition. The important thing is not to deviate from your business objective; and to create a sort of diverse multiple choice environment brands for your consumers. And the important thing for us is to continuously develop our brands. We compete in many markets with the same competitors and everything seems to be okay.

How has it been on the revenue front, both for Cartoon Network and Pogo?

Misra: It’s been very good and this is why, we keep talking of new things. We would not be doing new things if we weren’t doing well from a financial point of view. In fact, we are doing better and better every year, outpacing the growth of the industry.

Diamond: Our ad sales in 2004 over 2003 shot up about 35-40 per cent and that’s on a very large base. Remember, we came here 10 years ago.

To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated April 25-May 1, 2005