The Hindu Business Line : Wildly popular

Can you imagine watching a film as grand as Dr Zhivago on your mobile screen? Or catching up on your favourite serial on Star World on the third screen... as the mobile screen is referred to? It sounds like a bizarre idea, but stakeholders of this business are very excited at the emerging prospects in this sector, which were at the centre of discussions at Frames 2006, the annual three-day convention on media and entertainment. Much time was spent on the possibilities for mobile TV broadcast in the country and a likely rollout in 12 months.

It is another matter that the country's broadcast industry is yet to put in place a viable system that could help it earn revenues from the subscription route as much as it earns from the advertisement route, even as the government continues to grapple with the issue of content regulation.

A study done by FICCI and PricewaterhouseCoopers said that the television industry is poised to grow at 24 per cent to Rs 42,700 crore from Rs 14,800 crore. Over the next five years, subscription revenues would be the key growth driver for the industry. Not only will the number of pay TV homes increase, subscription rates will also go up, the study pointed out.

At Frames 2006, the industry was seemingly pushing the case for more exports, but the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, S.K. Arora, pitched for a domestic growth, when he said, "We want the Indian broadcast industry to cover India fully, right up to the last man in the last village."

Sharing his experience

Wildlife biologist and conservationist, Jeff Corwin is clearly the winner when it comes to bringing in viewers episode after episode on Animal Planet. His style is amazingly easy for the viewer, yet interesting enough to entertain both the uninitiated as well as those passionate about nature. "It is one hour of total engrossing viewing. There is so much learning yet not a boring moment," says a viewer.

In this month's episodes, he travels through the rainforests of Guyana and finds giant-sized animals and the largest toad in South America, the largest freshwater turtle and a giant creature with a giant tongue. He explores through California to encounter the great white shark and joins a team to study the Peninsular Big Horn Sheep. Fans of Jeff Corwin Experience aver that this is one show that merits repeated watching. The hugely popular show is seen by 13 million viewers in the US alone. The show is aired across 70 countries worldwide.

Animal Planet has a range of interesting programmes — Great Ocean Adventures, Ten Deadliest Sharks, Elephant Stories and Blue Beyond.

`I want POGO'

Fighting for television time with parents and grandparents is this huge section of viewers - all below five years of age. If you want your share of dramas unfolding in a patriarchal Indian home or in a football stadium in one of the western European countries, the tiny toddler wants her or his time on television for Kipper or Thomas the Tank Machine or Barney and Friends on Pogo.

Sometime in early 2003, Cartoon Network introduced a block of programmes for pre-schoolers under a band, Tiny TV. This block has grown to such popularity that there is no way pre-schoolers are ever going to be ignored by broadcasters. The programme has migrated to Pogo, the second kid's channel from Turner. At a recent cable operators' meeting with residents at a Mumbai suburb, the maximum number of complaints were about not receiving Pogo.

Tiny TV commenced with Bob the Builder, Kipper, Make Way for Noddy, Oswald and Pingu. Today, many more shows have been added — Teletubbies, Gordon the Garden Gnome and Miffy & Friends. Any change in the show timings not only disappoints this huge audience of toddlers and pre-schoolers, but also the parents who probably want to steal some time to catch up on other work.

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