Cartoon Network - The Indian Experience

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Themes: Brand Management
Period : 1999-2002
Organization : Cartoon Network
Pub Date : 2002
Countries : India
Industry : Media and Entertainment

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Case Code : BSTR035
Case Length : 10 Pages
Price: Rs. 300;

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Cartoon Network in India Contd...

Interestingly, children were not the only ones who watched cartoons. According to Cartoon Network sources, 30 to 40% of the channel's viewership constituted teenagers and adults. Most of the people who logged in to www.cartoonnetworkindia.com were in the 14 to 18 age group. This was not surprising as even globally, a significant portion of Cartoon Network's audience consisted of adults. Thus, Cartoon Network launched 'Night Shift,' a time-slot to satisfy the tastes of these viewers.

Commenting on this launch, Keith Crofford, Program Development Vice-President, Cartoon Network, said, "A third of our audience has always been adults. This is a way to get more adult shows out there for this audience." According to analysts, the 'across age barriers' appeal of Cartoon Network was the reason why it attracted non-traditional advertisers such as BPL, Intel and the National Egg Coordination Committee.

Some of the other leading advertisers on the channel were Luxor, Archies Cards, Novartis, Nestle, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Parle, and Cadbury's. During May-July 2001, Cartoon Network became the second most watched channel in Kid's Prime Time (4.00-8.00 p.m.), among 4-14 year-olds in the Cable and satellite (C&S) households.

By 2002, Cartoon Network was offering eight hours of Hindi programming on weekdays and nine hours of the same on weekends. Apart from this, the channel was also offering a three-and-a-half hour programming schedule in Tamil on weekdays.

The channel was considering offering programs in various other languages also. As a result of the above initiatives, Cartoon Network emerged as the second most successful channel in terms of audience share by mid 2002. This was a commendable achievement in view of the fact that Cartoon Network was a pay channel, unlike Zee and Sony (Refer Table I). Also, though exact figures were not available, the channel's advertising revenues reportedly grew at 40% for the calendar year 2000-01 and 47% for 2001-02.

TABLE I
AUDIENCE SHARE OF MAJOR TV NETWORKS AMONG C&S HOUSEHOLDS(in %)

Television Network/Company	Audience Share
Star Plus	11.7
Cartoon Network	7.4
Sony	5.1
Zee	3.8
Zee Cinema	2.9

Source: Business Line, June 27, 2002.

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