Viewpoints: acquisitions strategies

Nina Elavia Jaipuria
Vice President & General Manager
Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd
India

What are your acquisition strategies?

Our programming strategy is to bring shows that are 'entertaining' and also 'safe-for-kids-viewing'. Nick is the preferred destination for kids looking for 'masti' (fun) and 'comedy'. We maintain a perfect balance between the Nick library shows and acquired shows to further strengthen this association. We capitalize on our exhaustive library of Nick shows and acquire new shows that offer variety to our viewers. While we follow our brand philosophy and offer our audiences programs that are humor based, on the other hand we also attempt at introducing some very innovative concepts never seen on TV before. Thus on one hand, fun filled comedy shows like Ninja Hattori, Perman and Spongebob Squarepants are few of the top rated shows that runs on Nick, while on the other hand new shows like Tricky TV (a show that de-mystifies magic tricks) and Finzioni Circus (which is an international TV circus format) have seen a lot of interest from our viewers. In the past we have also acquired some 30-40 movie titles from different studios for our Nick Home Cinema slot, which showcases the best of kids' movies on the Sundays.

What genres are you looking for?

Comedy and movies certainly show big numbers for us. We believe that with Nick, kid's see a reflection of themselves. our philosophy is simply - "Kids First" - we always think from a kid's point of view. Our core values at Nick are fun, humour, playfulness, cheekiness, surprise & uniqueness. So irrespective of the genre, we will invest in shows / content that is non-violent, safe and age/gender appropriate content / universal appeal. As far as animation Vs live action goes, we acquire more of animation shows, though we do have interesting exceptions like Tricky TV, Circus etc.

Can you give us several titles of domestic and international products that you acquired this year?

"Tricky TV" from UK, "Finzioni Circus" from Italy and "Mighty Cat Masked Niyandar" from Japan were the titles we picked up this year

How many hours of programming will you acquire this year?

As mentioned earlier we have just acquired some new shows which will last us till March of next year. This acquired show line up is also supported by a strong line up of Nick library shows. The advantage with the kids' genre is that it has a very good repeat value. Kids love to watch the repeats over and over again.

Products from what countries are important for you?

We have primarily picked up our content from Asia. Kids can relate to the premise, the value system- where the family takes centre stage.