Warner Bros’ bet on local IPs sparks growth of kids’ cluster

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Prime Video Channels in India. “The kids’ genre has always been a good contributor to the (broadcast) industry and business with significant potential that is only going to grow from hereon. The differentiator for us is what we have invested in local IPs to create characters that resonate and connect with the Indian culture," Uttam Pal Singh, head of kids cluster at Warner Bros.

Discovery, said in an interview. Introducing characters like Chhota Bheem and Little Singham offer a more relatable and slice-of-life perspective compared to traditional mythological and superhero narratives that the children in India were used to watch. Chhota Bheem, an animation show, has been on air since 2008, while Little Singham, an adaptation of the Bollywood action movie was created in collaboration with director Rohit Shetty.

While the pandemic led to increased viewership for kids’ content, as children were confined to their homes, it did not translate into advertising revenue for the overall industry as the market condition was very challenging, Singh said. Subsequently, as normalcy returned with the reopening of schools, viewership dipped, but still the genre’s reach grew 20% compared to the previous year as things stabilized. This prompted POGO to broaden its language offering with Malayalam, Kannada, and Marathi, in addition to Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

Now, the channel seeks to engage the children for longer periods by replacing 11-22 minute daily programming to new formats with 44- minute shows for the week. “We do sense an opportunity in adaptations but at the same time, a lot of work goes into these. We cannot just pick up any Bollywood IP, the character needs to get a life of its own without messing up its intrinsic brand