NICKELODEON HAS SEEN A 14% GROWTH IN TOPLINE: JAIPURIA

Nickelodeon has achieved the number one position for the fifth year in a row, and has elaborate plans to make sure it continues to be in the leadership position. With a target of achieving over 200 hours of content for FY 2019-20, Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head – Hindi Mass Entertainment and Kids TV Network, Viacom18 tells us more about Nickelodeon’s growth so far, advertiser interest in the channel, TRAI’s New Tariff Order (NTO) and much more.

ON NICKELODEON’S LEADERSHIP IN THE KIDS’ ENTERTAINMENT CATEGORY
Nickelodeon led the pack with a fairly decent margin in 2018-19. We are leaders in terms of market share, viewership and revenue. That’s a good proposition for me this year because there were a lot of headwinds. The economy was a little slow to begin with and then of course we got hit by the NTO. Despite having a year like that, Nickelodeon has witnessed a 14% growth in the top line. We are one of the most profitable businesses for Viacom 18.

ON GROWING ADVERTISER INTEREST
Apart from the usual advertisers, we have seen over 50 other advertisers from banks, auto and FMCG joining in. One of the reasons for the growing advertiser interest today is that 35% of our viewership is in the age group of 2240 years. Last year, the average time spent by kids on this category was an hour and four minutes, while this year it has grown to an hour and 12 minutes.

ON BUILDING SONIC AS A SECOND CHANNEL FOR THE NETWORK
Nick has been number 1 for five years and recently, we were at 20% market share. After this, we will have to hit the moon. Rather than over-leveraging one platform, it is best to start creating a second strong channel which will help us not just from the viewership perspective but from the monetisation side too. Sonic has been ailing because of competition from channels like Sony YAY. And then there is the whole distribution problem that Sonic had to deal with. Nickelodeon got through as it was number 1 and there was lot of pull for the channel.

ON TRAI’S NEW TARIFF ORDER
It is still a black hole. We still don’t have any subscriber report to tell us how the channel has been accepted. From the ratings viewpoint, we are pretty sure we are in all the homes where kids have been already watching us. While the pecking order of the other competitors has changed, Nick and Sonic have actually improved. If I were to look at the last few weeks’ data, Sonic has already climbed to number 4!