With two regional kids channels in the offing, UTV has already inked a joint venture with Astro to launch kids channel each in Indonesia and Malaysia in Bahasa Malay and Bahasa Indonesia languages.
One of the proposed regional channel is in Tamil. UTV will be the content provider for the channels. Most of the programmes will be those being run on Hungama TV. UTV will hold up to 20 per cent stake in the joint venture with Astro. UTV will also be entitled for a fixed management fee.
Sudden emergence of a slew of kids channels had heated up the sector last year. Currently, the market has a total of seven players.
UTV's kids venture that took off last September has been oscillating between the number two and three positions in the last few months. The number one slot is for Cartoon Network, which has completed 10 years of operation in the country.
Hungama currently clocks Rs 1.3 crore (Rs 13 million) monthly revenues (ad sales and distribution). By December, the channel expects the figures to touch Rs 1.8 crore (Rs 18 million). It target is to garner over Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) in revenues next year.
According to Ronny Screwvalla, CEO, UTV, by September 2006, the kids venture would break even.
He also said the market for kids channels was bigger than that of sports. Sports, as a genre is volatile and viewership is largely dependent on the performance of the teams.
He said, "The size of the news channels' market stood at Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) in 2000 and in 2005 it was Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion). According to TAM data, more people watch kids channels compared with news channels."
Kids channels currently account for Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) of the advertising pie and according to Screwvalla, the figure will reach Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in the next 3-4 years.
Hungama TV plans a foray into merchandising in a month or two. The move in aimed at ensuring an alternate source of revenue as well as popularising the channel's characters.
"Globally, trends show that revenue from merchandising and liscensing is far higher than that from the cable and ad sales stream," Screwvalla said.
"Our plan is to grow the market in a different manner. Apart from the new launches, we also plan to launch a Hungama mobile zone called Hungaming. This will be hosted by the Hungama website and mobile phones. Soon all our shows will also be aired online," says Zarina Mehta. head of programming, Hungama TV.