Leading India and Singapore-based innovative animation studio Cosmos-Maya is launching its own sales arm, WowKidz Distribution, as it focuses on becoming the global content gateway.
WowKidz Distribution aims to be a one-stop shop for all distribution requirements of global animation content players starting with the widely growing key market of Asia Pacific and then expanding into the rest of the world. Content acquisition is one of the key focus areas for WowKidz in the first stage of its distribution initiative, with the division debuting its dedicated acquisitions team at MIPCOM.
Cosmos-Maya has been the forerunner and flagbearer for many firsts within the animation industry in its region. From commanding a staggering 65 per cent share of the Indian domestic animation production market, producing 50 half hours a month to add to its existing content bank of 2000 half hours, to a multitude of European co-productions, the studio has been focusing on bringing about change in the dynamically evolving market.
Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta said, “Our production is one of our biggest strengths as a studio and we have been distributing our own content successfully across APAC. Thereby venturing further into the distribution arena with successful international brands through WowKidz Distribution was the next logical and synergistic business decision.”
With its established network, Cosmos-Maya can leverage the extensive network of Emerald Media, the Pan-Asian media investment platform backed by US private equity giant KKR, which has a controlling stake in the company.
Mehta added, “The onus will be on acquiring best in class American, European and Chinese content, the seeds of which have already been sown. WowKidz Distribution will be a massive gateway to Asia for high quality animation content produced by North America and Europe. WowKidz Distribution, while making the best brands from these regions accessible to Asian audiences, aims to infuse the creative and cultural sensibilities of Asia to the content. We will follow a three-pronged ‘Glocalisation’ approach – marketing, dubbing and syndication of content. Our knowledge and distribution experience of local Asian markets coupled with our creative prowess enables us to add that extra zing by dubbing and localizing the content and making it ready for consumption. Asian audiences will now have the best of all worlds.”
Overseeing this initiative for the studio with a dedicated WowKidz Distribution cadre from his 10 member team, “With WowKidz Distribution, we will be the gateway for global content, into Asia to begin with and then scale up the geographies. The groundwork for the same has been on for a while and come MIPCOM and we will announce our first slate of acquisitions,” said Cosmos-Maya Revenue and Corporate Strategy SVP, Devdatta Potnis.
“WowKidz Distribution is an effort that will negate the geographical and language barrier for content and through our network across the world, will address the need gap in the market effectively” added Cosmos-Maya Head – Business Development Europe, Joris Eckelkamp.