Toon channels to toy with books

Kids love them on the idiot box; now they can enjoy them in storybooks as well. Leveraging the popularity of their cartoon characters, all the top Indian children's channels - Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney - are getting aggressive in the area of publishing for children as well.

The children's book market in India, which can broadly be classified into two categories, storybooks and activity books, is worth approximately Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion).

Organized players constitute around 10 percent of this, and of this, television shows-led publishing comprises 30 per cent.

Media experts say kids programmes lend themselves naturally to merchandising and publishing, which could be a strategic business for channels to leverage.

"Merchandising helps extend the magic of the characters beyond the confines of the television set. Books thus become an important vertical to get into," says Jiggy George, director, Cartoon Network Enterprises, India and south Asia.

Cartoon Network books are available across 4,000 stores in 75 cities in the country.

Adds Sandeep Dahiya, associate vice president, consumer products, MTV Networks India, "Kids love to interact with their favourite toon characters outside of television. As broadcasters, we need to reach out to our target audience. Books is a growth segment and one way which can ensure connect with children."

At present, Nickelodeon has introduced only storybooks but, going forward, has plans to launch activity books based on its shows and characters as well.

Cartoon Network too has based its books on popular shows like Galli Galli Sim Sim, The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory, while it has Do-It-Yourself kits based on the M. A. D show on POGO (a sister channel).

Disney too is trying its hand at innovation. Last year, the channel introduced "mini novels" for its show, That's So Raven, and films, Pirates of the Carribean and Cars, for Indian readers. In the activity-books category, it launched books with built-in audio.

Also, Disney was the first to launch an international kids monthly 100-page magazine, Disney Adventures, in the country. However, all three players have introduced books only in the English language.

Also, channels only lend their content to publishers who market and distribute the books. In the case of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, the publisher is Euro Kids, a well-known publisher in the kids genre.

Disney, on the other hand, has 10 licensees who localise and market over 325 Disney titles in India. In June this year, Disney collaborated with Parragon Publishing India to publish books in India.

Parragon has announced a new Disney catalogue, allowing consumers to buy books directly from the publisher.

Books by the three channels are available in both organised and unorganised outlets. The price points for activity books range between Rs 25 to Rs 100, while story books are priced between Rs 50 to Rs 200, and higher for certain classic books.

Experts believe there is ample scope and potential in the country. However, "there is a need to release more titles locally," says Uday Mathur, CEO, Euro Kids. He adds that almost 85 per cent of Euro's property is international content while the remaining is Indian.