‘India is one of the most important markets for Spacetoon’

+Spacetoon India, in a short span of three years, has forayed into a host of media activities including TV, licensing, merchandising, publishing, and creating its own IP venture.

Rajiv Sangari, MD & CEO, Spacetoon, South Asia, looks back and ahead at Spacetoon’s journey in India in an interview with Anoop Chugh.

Spacetoon is a multitasker, an integrated media company. You are into TV, radio, licensing, merchandising, online and interactive products (mostly in Middle East). How has been the journey so far in India? Are you there in each vertical mentioned above in India too? If not, when do we see you?
Spacetoon India is a highly integrated company in India too and has ventured into TV, licensing, merchandising, publishing, and creating its own IP venture. It has also created a fantastic retail distribution channel in a very short time. It’s already emerging as one of the important kids’ brand in the country. Spacetoon has been able to create a good awareness for itself in India within a short span.

Talking about television, how big is your reach vis-a-vis other players? What’s your target?
We aim at catering to the 400 million children in India. We look forward to air our channel not only in TRP cities but also in Sec C towns, because it is not cities but villages that make India.

Through Kids Media India, Spacetoon has signed more than 70 licensing deals across various categories in last 24 months. What makes you so bullish about the licensing and merchandising business in India?
Licensing and merchandising have become the most powerful marketing and revenue tools used today. Known for granting rights to use the IPRs (intellectual property rights) to a third party, the licensing industry worldwide is estimated at $187 billion roughly. The licensing and merchandising industry is roughly $450 million in India. Character licensing has the largest share of this.

The merchandising business is expected to grow in leaps and bounds as many more malls come up and the overall retail sector gains momentum. A World Bank report says that the purchasing power is mainly in the hands of 20% of India’s population (mostly the middle class) who in turn have 46.1% of the total income generated in the country, leading to a huge potential in growth for the licensing business. Looking at the growth potential of the industry, Spacetoon India has a long way to go.

The popular characters licensed and merchandised by Spacetoon includes Marvel Heroes, WWE, Doraemon, Shinchan, Incredible Hulk, Hello kitty, Spidey & Friends, Digimon, Dragon Ballz. Don’t you think we miss a few localised characters here — those with “Made in India” tags?
Yes we do, but the factors attached are not as simple as it seems. These characters have emerged out of 50+ years of consistent experienced handling, whereas animation industry in India has been hardly anything to talk about till recently. Hence, every market and industry takes its time and the day is not far off that we will find big names emerging out of India. Hence, our aim behind Fafa & Juno, which are 100% indigenously created characters from India, is to take it to the worldwide platform. After its successful launch in India, we will be launching Fafa & Juno in Indonesia and Middle East too countries and we are also in talks with some Europe-based companies.

Many kids channels & film distributors have explored Indian mythological characters and presented them as superheroes. Do you have any similar plan?
Please keep your fingers crossed, we are in the midst of creating a super hero character. Though it will not be a mythological figure because the market has been already flooded with such characters and we would like to do something different.

What’s the publishing business like in India? What titles do you already have or are mulling to get here?
Publishing is one of the most important tools to reach the minds of young audiences, even before TV. Hence, our endeavour is to concentrate on this in a big way, especially on the kids’ genre. We have launched a bit over one year now and the response we have got till date is tremendous. The objective is to provide simple and straight stories woven around the moral and social ethos of humanity, which are also interesting and exciting to read. There are a lot of edutainment based write-ups, too.

On October 2, we launched Marvel Comics all across the country and there are plans to come up with two more interesting magazines this month. Apart from these, there are lot of activity books, colouring books, and sticker books available.

Digital is the most talked about medium the world over? What initiatives have you taken to keep up with the tech-savvy kids?
We are mulling about this medium as we have realised the huge impact of the digital medium on the minds of kids. We shall be disclosing our thoughts on this at a latter stage.

India is touted as the world’s youngest country (in terms of young population). Keeping this in mind, what kind of investment has Spacetoon lined up in India?
Is there any way one can go wrong with a country that has to offer 400 million kids. Without any doubt, India is one of the most important markets for Spacetoon. However, the country has its own set of challenges, too. In fact, I think India is the biggest challenge for any upcoming business. But yet at the same time, if these challenges are met, the country can become a huge business prospective. Keeping this in mind, Spacetoon intends to invest Rs 100 crore over a period of fours years for all its activities in India, especially in TV, merchandising and IP creation.