Jumping joystick

Turner has repositioned Pogo in an effort to widen its audience in India.

Last year Cartoon Network repositioned itself as a specialised channel in the kids' entertainment genre.

Now, it's the turn of Pogo, feels Turner International, which distributes not just Cartoon Network and Pogo but CNN International and HBO as well in India. To accompany this transition of Pogo is a new advertising rate chart, beginning March 2005.

Says Monica Tata, vice-president ad sales, Turner International: "Pogo is no more a kids' frequency channel but a kids' entertainment channel which indicates that it's graduated to the next level of growth."

How does the new position play out on the TV screen? The content has been divided into three categories: Pogo Premium with high profile shows like MAD, Bum Bum Gir Pade Hum, Pogo Amazing Kids Awards; Tiny TV for preschool shows; and Pogo Classic for the rest.

The airtime rates, uniform throughout the day so far, now vary according to the category. "While this will create optimum utilisation of the content for us, clients too will get better value for money," maintains Tata.

Turner has also set up a dedicated retail sales team to rope in clients who've never thought of advertising on television till now. "We've added 50 new such clients to our list. These are mostly small local clients," says the vice-president.

"It's a big high for localised players to be advertised on TV along with national brands," she adds, "We obviously have special rates for them as they are not national players."

Overall, Turner is pleased with its progress. The news channel CNN continues to attract advertisers. "We've shown an advertising revenue growth of 70 per cent in 2004-05," she claims.

The film channel HBO has been doing fairly well too. What the market is waiting for, however, is Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of Sesame Street, due in August on Pogo and Cartoon Network.

"Our vision is to revolutionise not just television content for kids in India but education for kids as well," says Tata, adding that the show would be taken even to media-dark parts of India "" through its outreach wagon-show programme.