Television channels aimed at children, like Nick India, Disney and Cartoon Network, are launching new online activities, original programming content and merchandise to cash in on Christmas and New Year celebrations this year.
On an average, the time spent by children on air during this period goes up by 100 minutes per week and online traffic by 20 per cent. This is the main reason television channels are cashing in on this season.
Kids’ entertainment channels are of the opinion that children spend more than 250 minutes watching television per week during vacations, compared with 150-170 minutes of television viewing per week when schools are open.
As a Christmas special, Nick India has announced ‘Nick Lift your gift’, to enable children to win gifts like cycles and computers everyday by answering questions asked on shows. Nick India VP and GM Nina Jaipuria says: “We are beefing up our online activities. For instance, children can log on to Nick’s website and upload videos online, which could be shared with their friends and family.”
“We expect an increase of around 20 per cent in online traffic during the Christmas and New Year period. Typically, we see 600,000-1 million page views each month,” Jaipuria added.
Disney Channel, on its part, will celebrate this year’s Christmas and New Year with the India television premiere of ‘Tinker Bell’. ‘Santa Buddies’ movie will also premier on Disney Channel.
On the internet, Disney recently launched the Disney XD website, www.disneyxd.in. It has already seen 3.8 million page views in November alone. “December will be all about getting our audience to experience this site and build engagement through gaming,” Walt Disney Television International India Associate Director (Marketing) Venugopal Iyengar said.
Hungama TV’s website is also gearing up for a new look that will be unveiled in the new year. “Online presence of our content and franchises not only helps build affinity, but also helps engage new viewers that eventually links back to the TV channels. The online traffic for October has been upwards of 7.5 million page views across all three sites and more than 300,000 unique visitors have come on our sites through the month,” Iyengar said.
Turner’s Cartoon Network and Pogo have put together a special programming line for Christmas and New Year. Channels will showcase shows and movies, such as Tom and Jerry, Ben 10, best of Indian animation movies and popular Bollywood movies.
Turner International India Director (Programming - South Asia) Krishna Desai says: “As a Christmas special, www.cartoonnetworkindia.com has developed themed Christmas e-cards that kids can use to greet and wish their friends and family. There are also new exclusive Christmas videos on the website, making sure that the spirit of Christmas is kept alive throughout the month.”
