Follow Us
For a majority of Indians brought up on a voracious literary diet of dog-eared Amar Chitra Katha (ACK), the fact that publishing firm, India Book House (IBH), the owners of the ACK brand, is bringing the popular Indian brand of comics to the mobile space, spells good news. The firm is in talks with operators and content developers to introduce momics (mobile comics, to the uninitiated!) based on its popular ACK series.
IBH’s plans of foraying into this space stems from their belief in the equity built up by ACK over the years. “Our first generation of readers are in their 20-30s today and are also the most active consumers of mobile content. Through them, we want to reach out to the generation next,” reveals Saumitra Srivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IBH, adding, “Today, India is the world’s second largest as well as one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. As we are already on advanced technological platforms such as GSM and GPRS, the growth in value added services and content downloads is going to be very rapid. Since comic content is easily adaptable and looks great even on a basic colour screen handset, it is the right time to leverage our catalogue and IPR onto this platform.”
Elaborating on their wireless plans, Srivastava explains, “Ideally we plan to set up a subscription based service where daily content is available for download based on preferences. This also builds the brand and content loyalty.”
Without revealing many details on the negotiations, Srivastava reveals that the content developers and cellular operators set the market-driven prices. “Prices range from Rs. 10 to Rs. 500 depending on the content and services,” he adds.
Referring to the popularity of international comic characters vis-à-vis Indian ones, Srivastava reacts, “The international comics market is very cut throat and regulated by rigid copyright laws and policies. Unless you own the IPR of a character or a comic series the royalties make the game unaffordable for anyone but the owner. Big comic companies like DC and Marvel are far ahead of any Indian content owner or developer, primarily because they have a solid background in gaming on PCs and consoles. But we do plan to distribute our content in global markets such as the US, UK and Singapore; etc., due to the latent demand of the NRI and PIO communities. Even today, they are the largest buyers of our comics on our website.”
To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated May 23-29, 2005