Kids Media to bring in WWE merchandise

MUMBAI: Kids Media India (KMI), a subsidiary of Dubai-based media group Spacetoon, has entered into an exclusive licensing partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

The company has granted a licence to Texas-based Bioworld Merchandising for launching WWE apparels, footwear, bags, belts, head gear and imitation jewellery in India.

WWE has over 1,000 different products catered by 160-plus licensees globally. The company generated nearly $1 billion revenue from its retail sales in 2007. For KMI, the deal marks its foray into live character licensing. Till now, it was involved in cartoon character-based licensing — Spiderman, X-Men, The Hulk, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, Captain America, etc - in India.

The company has set up a division for sports-related licensing and Bollywood is its next target.

Rajiv Sangari, managing director and chief executive officer, KMI, said, the kids licensed merchandise market is estimated to be around Rs 500 crore. “We are working towards attaining a 20% share of this market. The recent entry of mainline television entertainment into licensing and merchandising has opened up the market and created more opportunities for organised retailing.”

KMI hopes to clock gross revenues of Rs 300 crore in the next three years, out of which WWE would account for about Rs 100 crore, Sangari said.

According to industry estimates, the size of India’s licensed merchandising market is about Rs 1,800 crore and it is slated to grow at 15-20% per annum for the next three years.

The WWE tie-up marks the entry of the Texas-headquartered Bioworld into this fast growing market.

Raj Mallick, president, Bioworld, said, “We will support the WWE merchandise programme with marketing and advertising specifically targeted to the Indian consumer. In addition, we will invest and partner with key retailers to boost awareness for authentic WWE products.”

Annual revenues generated from WWE-licensed consumer goods in India are also expected to go up from $1 million to $10 million in the next three years.

Ross Walker, director — international consumer products, WWE, said, “India has the second-largest viewership globally for our programmes and it is only second to cricket in India. With KMI, we have developed a unique three-tier strategy for the Indian apparel market and categorised our products as premium, mid-tier and mass market to curb counterfeits from proliferating in the market.”

A communique from the company said there are over one million unique Indian visitors per month on their website WWE.com and this following is rated as number one amongst all foreign countries in terms of traffic.

c_arcopol@dnaindia.net