Cartoon channels shift focus as children move online

Ten-year old Aaryan Sen texts faster than he talks, types faster than he writes and checks his homework online while listening to music from his portable music player.

"I no longer coax my mom to watch television, but instead plead with her for some extra time to play online games with my buddies," says Sen, a seventh grader in Mumbai's Lilavatibai Podar School.

Kids like Aaryan are forcing channels to go beyond television programming and adopt digital strategies.

A Cartoon Network study New Generations 2011 (conducted across 19 Indian cities) confirms this trend.

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The report says: "Computer ownership among kids has grown to 22 per cent from 10 per cent, while mobile phone access is 95 per cent. Home Internet connectivity is also seeing an uptick."

The thrust across digital platforms intensifies during the summer break with traffic on kid channel portals going up by 30 per cent.

Leading channels like Viacom 18's Nickelodeon, Walt Disney's Disney Channel and Hungama TV and Turner's Cartoon Network have appointed dedicated teams to harness the benefits of content, community building and interactivity on Internet and mobile phone.

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"Four years ago, the only gateway kids used to interact with us was the landline platform. This has now been overtaken by digital," says Nina Jaipuria, vice-president and general manager, Nickelodeon India.

The easiest way to integrate a channel's on-air and online presence is by using popular TV characters like Dora, the Explorer, Mickey Mouse and Ben 10 online.

"As kids engage with characters beyond television, be it digital or mobile, the bond with the character grows."

Teenage users like Sparsh Saxena seem to agree.

"Logging on to the websites allows me to be closer to my favourite characters SpongeBob and Mickey Mouse."

He spends an hour surfing kids' channel websites.

For Nickelodeon, the focus this season will be on building the first locally developed 'non mythological' animated character Keymon Ache.

For the first time an exclusive website (www.keymonache.in) has been created for a character at Nickelodeon. Games, which are the largest draw for kids on the online platform, will be the focus at Keymonache.in.

Disney is following suit and claims it has the largest collection of games built around popular characters and movies.

"The online version of Art Attack is one of our most sought after television shows," says Nitin Chawla, vice president and general manager, Disney Interactive Media Group.

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With television channels hoping to position their digital platformance as a stand-alone entity for young users, it gains further importance as kids are inclined to use multiple media simultaneously, without any bias.

Cartoon Network is building digital-only avatars through Toonix. "Globally, eight million Toonix characters have been created online and we hope to replicate the success in India," adds Benjamin Grubbs, regional director, Turner Interactive.

It also plans to build games around Toonix. Nickelodeon has integrated its web portal with its Facebook page to increase user engagement and is looking to create a mini social network platform.

"We are treading carefully given the safety and control issues," says Jaipuria.

Disney too is promoting a digital-only property Club Penguin, a multiplayer virtual game which requires parental control to activate an account.

"Recently, Club Penguin launched a rupee payment gateway for the game which is gaining impressive momentum" says Chawla.