Rupert Murdoch's Star TV Network in India is all set to add one more channel to its bouquet -- UTV's kids' channel Hungama TV.
For Star, this could well be a strategic move to home in on the niche but crucial genre of kids entertainment while for Hungama TV, the alliance spells, among other advantages, attractive advertising revenues.
Though Star India and UTV officials have confirmed the distribution alliance, they were not available for comments. UTV had been negotiating a distribution deal with key industry players such as Star and Sony.
Ronnie Screwvala's UTV Software Communications is launching the kids' channel through its newly floated subsidiary United Home Entertainment. While 51 per cent of UHE's equity is with Screwvala, the remaining 49 per cent rests with UTV.
Hungama TV is being funded partly through private placements and partly by UTV and Screwvala. UHE plans to raise Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) via the private placement route for which Lazard India has been named as fund manager. A further Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) would be pumped in by UTV and Screwvala each contributing equally.
The company has secured the necessary permissions to uplink the kids' channel via Panamsat-10 satellite earlier this year. While Hungama TV's estimated Rs 8-10 crore (Rs 80-Rs 100 million) media account has gone to Starcom, the creative account has been bagged by JWT.
While the majority of Hungama TV's programming will come from UTV's in-house production company, programmes have also been commissioned from production houses such as Contiloe, Inhouse, Garima, Sphere, Eagle Films, Picasso, Edit 2, Rose and Media Track.
The programming focus, however, is not animation-based, which is likely to be only 10 per cent of the total programming.
This is, perhaps, to offer a differentiated product vis-a-vis channels such as Cartoon Network and Pogo. Children's programming slots on mass entertainment channels such as Star Plus, Sony and Zee too currently focus on animation-based programming.
While the channel's broader target audience is pegged to be in the 4-15 age group, the programming will be spaced so as to offer separate time bands for children of different age groups.
The morning slot between 0900 to 1100 targets the 2-5 age group, the afternoon band between 13:30 to 15:30 targets the 4-8 age group and the evening slot starting at 16:00 aims at drawing young audiences in the 8-16 age bracket.
Star India's current bouquet of channels includes Star Plus, Star Movies, Star Gold, Channel [V], Star World, National Geographic, History channel, Vijay TV and the recently proposed Star Utsav and Star One.
