Bengali kids channel Rongeen TV is all set to launch on 12 June at 6 pm. The free to air (FTA) channel is doing a test run from Insat4a satellite at 83.0 degrees east and will be the first kids channel in Bengali.
Slated to launch on 12 June 2019, Rongeen is taking a bold step looking at the growing popularity of General entertainment channels (GECs). But with the home-grown content ruling the kids genre, the channel may receive the desired response.
According to a BARC India report, the kids’ TV viewership in India has grown 31 per cent in the last five years to touch 31.6 billion impressions in 2017 compared to 24 billion impressions in 2012. In 2017, audience measurement organisation BARC India found 13 per cent of children aged between two and 14 watched children’s TV channels, while the remaining 87 per cent viewed content on general entertainment or movie channels. By 2018, time spent by children in India watching kids’ channels had increased to 20 per cent.
Localising content in India across all genres has seen an increase in local language feeds for kids’ channels. Last year, Turner India’s introduced its channel Cartoon Network HD+ with Hindi, Tamil and Telugu feeds along with English. Before Rongeen TV, Sony Yay has been the only children’s channel in India to broadcast with a Bengali audio feed.