It is an uphill task to keep up with kids, as well as kids’ content. Children’s content has seen a surge in demand, especially during the pandemic. With the rise of OTT platforms, the content ecosystem has become more diversified and kids have access to a wide range of content choices.
At FICCI Frames 2023, a panel comprising Sony YAY! business head Leena Lele Dutta, Indian actor Madhoo Shah, Pun Toon Kids and VID Unit founder Sourabh Kumar, Powerkids Entertainment CEO Manoj Mishra and Sesame Workshop India MD Sonali Khan discussed the challenges and opportunities for content creators and distributors in catering to the diverse preferences of young audiences in India. The panel was moderated by Warner Bros. Discovery kids cluster – South Asia head Uttam Pal Singh.
“Kids audiences are just not confined to television, especially this generation. They’re all over and we don’t know what they are going to like at what point in time,” said Dutta. Referring to content that would click with kids, she said, “There are no ingredients of this magic potion. It is a challenge catering to the eyeballs and finding these eyeballs, but content creators will keep trying.”
Khan pointed out, “There is huge globalisation of content. Children are watching so many things. I think we really need to wrap our minds around how children are absorbing content, what it is doing to them and how it is transforming their worlds.”
How have organisations and content creators stayed relevant to and impactful on the various generations, Singh asked. “Storytelling is changing and the way children are listening to stories is changing,” said Khan. She explained how children are looking for troughs, peaks and much more adrenaline in stories. To keep up, her organisation started reworking its formats – they started doing simpler, single message stories with fewer characters. Khan shared that Sesame Workshop India is on TikTok. “We need to be where children are.” She feels creators need to create content for whichever platform children are on.
On points to keep in mind before investing in content, Mishra said that the most important is monetisation and that as well on as many platforms as possible.
Talking about what differentiates Pun Toon Kids from other content creators, Sourabh Kumar said that they looked for a place where they could create a brand and realised that there is an opportunity to create content around the real world. “We decided, why not make real heroes and instead of superpowers, give them values and culture which as a parent I want in my son,” he shared. So his team started weaving stories around compassion, love and affection. Their research showed that this is what kids want and this is what parents are comfortable letting their kids to watch. He realised that just creating content is not enough. The positioning of the channel is as important. So apart from their main YouTube channel Pun Toon Kids, they have different brands targeted at tier two, three and four. “Their [YouTube] titles and descriptions have been done according to the search pattern. And that has helped us build our content in that space.”
While digital media can cater to all kinds of kids’ audiences and offer a wide variety of content, are broadcasters worried about the loyalty of their kids’ segment? “TV is here to stay,” Dutta said. “Television is the most low-cost medium to reach almost the entire country. Even in its form of linear programming, I think there is room for everyone,” she stated. She said that right now all kids’ broadcasters are catering to the bullseye target group of six to eight-year-old boys. But at the same time, she feels there are demographics that need to be specifically defined within a broad target group of two to 14. “And based on that, we as content creators could take the pivot from there and create differentiated content,” she suggested.
FICCI Frames 2023 was held from 3 to 5 May in Powai, Mumbai.