Spacetoon India, part of Spacetoon Media Group, is investing Rs 100 crore into operations in India till 2011. The company, which started operations almost a year ago, is banking on its merchandising, licensing and publishing business to earn 90 per cent of its revenues in India, while the remaining would be made up by advertisements and sponsorships.
According to Rajiv Sangari, MD & CEO, Spacetoon, “The Spacetoon television channel was launched in early 2009. Currently, we are looking at 90 per cent of our revenues from merchandising and publishing. Soon we expect bulk of our revenues to come from advertising.” Spacetoon Kids TV claims to reach 17 million homes currently and is targeting 25 million homes by the year-end. “We will launch new merchandise like apparels, electronics games, and home furnishings range by September, targeting the festive season. Merchandise like the back-to-school range and other products are already available in 10,000 retail outlets in India, and the target is to reach 35,000 retail outlets soon,” Sangari said.
The company has engaged over 250 distributors in India for its merchandising and publishing products. Simultaneously, Kids Animation India (KAI), the publishing and merchandising division of Spacetoon India, engaged in the business of children’s television programming and licensing of cartoon characters, will soon introduce complete health-based series books of its character ‘Fafa’ and ‘Juno’. One of these books will be based on Yoga for little children ‘Yoga with Juno’. The company has already introduced 31 book titles of its premier intellectual property - ‘Fafa and Juno’, and intends to launch 150 titles by April.
The combination of two cartoon characters representing a girl and a panda has been created in the form of Fafa and Juno to educate the target audience through entertainment. The books are available in different categories such as knowledge series, activity books, board books, story books and many more categories, cost between Rs 45 and Rs 65, and caters to the age group of 3- 10 years.
“Publishing business in India is one area we are very serious about. We are in the process of launching magazines for children. We are also redoing our website to add more content, games and interactive sections like blogs for children,” Sangari added. The company will also introduce 104 episodes of Fafa and Juno soon on television. “For our publishing business, our intention is to introduce books and magazines in regional language as well and we are exploring the opprtunity with Hindi, Tamil and Bengali languages,” informed Sangari.
Moreover, www.iceplex.tv, in association with Spacetoon Kids TV, has announced Iceplex Ad Film Awards (IAFA), an online ad film making award for the 11 – 19 years. “The kids would be able to make advertisements and post them online. These can be social ads, political or commercial ads, and each category will have different concepts. The best three in each category will be awarded. We will also have shows on television that will provide tutorials to students on how to create ads, story board, execution, etc. This will not only help us connect with children but also bring out their creative genius,” informed Sangari.
