Indian kids channels have been bolstering their network with Indian content to attract more young audience and retain the IPs which will help them build the licensing and merchandising of not just the shows but also the characters. And kids have been happily lapping onto the Indian content. About one and a half years ago, Sony decided to come up with their own kids channel and after a lot of research, Sony launched its kid’s entertainment channel – Sony YAY! which is set to go live on 18 April, 2017 from 6am.
Promising to be the ‘Destination for Unlimited Happiness’ for kids, the channel has roped in the young cinestar, Tiger Shroff, who has become a phenomenon with kids across the country, as its brand ambassador.
With the target age group being two to 14 years, the channel has curated four original animated shows. These shows have been domestically produced by studios like Cosmos-Maya (Mumbai), Toonz Animation (Trivandrum), Phoebus Media (Pune) and Ssoftoons Entertainment (Kolkata). The creatives, scriptwriting, story development has been done in-house whereas the animatics and production of the shows have been done by these animation studios.
The four shows include: Guru Aur Bhole, Sab Jholmaal Hai, Prince Jai aur Dumdaar Viru and Paap-O-Meter. All the four shows will have a runtime of 22 minutes which are split in two (so two 11 minute episodes). By the end of the year, the channel will have 52 episodes consisting of 104 stories for each show. All these shows have one common element in them and that’s comedy.
Sony YAY!, business head, Leena Lele Dutta says, “When we carried our research in 10 to 15 metro and mini-metro cities, we observed that there was a lack of ‘desi’ content. We also realised that all our shows should have a ‘masti’ quotient in them, should spread happiness and must have a ‘comedy plus’ element. When I say comedy plus, I mean along with comedy, each show should explore a different genre in comedy. It should have elements like action comedy, ghost comedy or pet stories. We also didn’t want it to be just TV. So, we are creating a whole ecosystem where promotional campaigns will be taking place wherever kids are present.”
Not disclosing much about the presence of any international shows, Dutta mentions, “We aren’t focusing much on the international content. It will be there but our main strength are these original homegrown shows. By October, we intend to add two new original shows and have no international content on Sony YAY!”
Currently there are 15 kids channel which are run by four major broadcasters: Disney (Disney, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Hungama), Turner (Cartoon Network, POGO, Toonami), Viacom18 (Nickelodeon, Sonic, Nick Jr, Teen Nick) and Sun TV (Chutti TV, Chintu TV, Kushi TV, KochuTV). In this highly competitive market, there wouldn’t have been a better time than summer to launch a kids channel due to summer vacations.
Sony Pictures Networks, CEO, N P Singh says, “It goes without saying that the Indian Television industry is at an interesting crossroad, with the kids genre being a frontrunner in demanding innovation and freshness. In this highly competitive genre, to begin with, our target would be to be within the top five by end of this year. By next year, we would like to see ourselves in the top three. When we achieve both these targets, we will say YAY! ;)”
The objective of the channel is to impart values without being too preachy. Each episode will subtly impart one moral to the kids. “For edutainment, one can watch BBC Earth,” Singh jokingly mentions.
Sony YAY! will be available in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages across direct-to-home (DTH) and digital cable platforms starting 18 April, 2017 onwards. The channel will be promoted extensively across various channels of Sony Pictures Networks, DTH platforms, coupled with print, a robust digital and social media presence to engage with the young audience at different touch points.
Also read: Sony plans to shut Animax; LIV to be new anime destination
Here’s the complete show details:
Sab Jholmaal Hai
Show time: Monday to Friday at 9am
Sab Jholmaal Hai is a chase comedy with a twist in a world full of pets that’s nothing short of mischief, mayhem and madness. It is all about the hilarious adventures of an odd team of pets (two mischievous cats, a talkative parrot and a frantic watch dog) who have a whacky and funny life of their own when the mistress of the house is away.
Guru Aur Bhole
Show time – Monday to Friday at 10 am
Guru Aur Bhole is the first Indian animated musical comedy. It is a tale of classic friendship between its eponymous lead characters – Guru and Bhole, who cannot function without each other but together, using the former’s magic music and latter’s dance super-powers they get out of the stickiest of situations. Every episode of the show will have a new song, sung by veteran singer Amit Kumar and penned by Bollywood lyricist Sameer Anjaan.
Prince Jai Aur Dumdaar Viru
Show time: Monday to Friday at 11am
It is a classic tale of venturesome friendship. An action comedy set in a timeless era – blending the modern with the traditional, Prince Jai aur Dumdaar Viru details the hilarious adventures of two friends, (the former a Prince and the latter, a commoner) as they pit their strength and wit against the cunning schemes devised by Prince Jai’s evil minister – Jeevan.
Paap-o-meter
Show time: Saturday – Sunday at 12pm
A unique laugh-out-loud ghost comedy is something that will make kids laugh like never before. This show is about the Bhoot boss who sends his 2 assistants Thakela and Pakela to Planet Earth to control the elevating lawlessness with the help of the Paap-o-meter, which captures any illicit activity around