‘Animation could be the next general entertainment’

Based out of Hong Kong, Soumitra (Sunny) Saha, senior-VP and GM for Turner Entertainment Networks Asia Inc (TENA) directly oversees Turner’s entertainment brands such as Boomerang, Cartoon Network, Pogo and Turner Classic Movies in the Asia-Pacific.

Saha spoke to DNA Money’s Arcopol Chaudhuri about Turner’s growth plans, its new initiative called Snaptoons (Short New Asia Pacific Cartoons), an upcoming GEC with the Alva brothers and theatrical productions. Excerpts:

Which are the areas that you think will spur growth for Turner in the Asia-Pacific region?
Our regional strategy is to focus on original content development and pursuing it aggressively. Secondly, we are increasing our demographic presence, primarily through new brands. Thirdly, we are there on as many platforms as we can. The idea is to garner as much share of the consumer’s time. Kids are making the digital future because they are the ones who are exposed first to new media platforms.

How does the Turner-Alva GEC fit into the entire growth strategy?
About 30-40% of our viewership is from adults. And we’re increasing that through partnerships. One is with the Alva brothers for the Hindi general entertainment channel and another with Warner Bros for an English entertainment channel. There are enough reasons to be bullish about both, considering the appetite you see for entertainment.

Why focus on original content development?
Today, it’s not just about how we enhance our original content development, it’s also about ownership over a long term. It’s critical in the new media environment as the more ownership you have, the more you can do with it.

But even with increase in players, the content that you own and the way you differentiate your product is going to be crucial. Most of our original productions are on POGO. In 2004, we had 50 hours of original content, this year we have about 200 hours of it. The 29% stake in Miditech also helps our capabilities to develop content.

How is the Snaptoons initiative  shaping up?
The reason we started Snaptoons in 2006 was to foster animation development in Asia-Pacific and nurture it for our content needs in future. It was also about looking at content that could go on all platforms. We got about 300 entries out of which we’ve selected 10 projects. We would take these 10 projects to the second stage by green-lighting them to make minisodes (10-minute episodes). These are currently under production and we’ll start receiving them by August.

Interestingly, five of these projects are from Indian creators - Shoot at Sight, Splash! Communications, Famous House of Animation, Miditech Pvt Ltd and Graphiti Multimedia. Then, we will work out whether they can be made into episodes for new media, mobile or even long-format animation productions.

What is Turner’s role in all these productions?
Turner is more like a creative consultant for these creators who are bringing in their expertise of local animation. We are funding the pilots and this is just the first batch. But, in Asia-Pacific, I would say it is one of our larger investments. This could become the next Ben10 out of India. It could go up to toy licensing around the world.

You’re venturing into animated theatrical productions in
India. But long-format animation is believed to be over-hyped here…
Over-hyped? Considering only five out of 1,000 movies released are animated? I don’t think so. For us, theatrical is just one form of screen. In our experience, animation cuts across demographics. The examples available are pretty much similar genres. The genre expansion hasn’t happened, wherein animation expands to general entertainment. I think it could happen soon.

Analysts are saying GEC is the segment that is bleeding the most in the television space today…
Our investment in the JV with the Alva brothers is large, so I would agree. We’ll not make money out of it for 2-3 years at least. So, from an analyst point of view, you might call it bleeding, but they might be talking about quicker returns. India is a priority market and we’re committed to investing more and more here. Ad revenues here are growing at 22%, the economy is on a high, so the timing is right.