By Joe Leahy
© Financial Times
US media companies are stepping up their battle for the Indian children’s entertainment market with Time Warner yesterday tying up with three companies to develop localised animated features in the country.
Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, part of the Time Warner group, has signed development contracts with three Indian production houses – Miditech, Famous and Graphiti – to make the features, which will be released next year.
“The Indian animation industry is in a nascent phase and it’s now important we help it to take its rightful place on the international stage,” said Ian Diamond, general manager of Turner Entertainment Networks Asia. “I think it will be fitting that very, very soon one of the next animated superheroes comes from India.”
Turner’s push comes as Walt Disney this week announced it would collaborate with one of India’s largest movie-makers, Yash Raj Films Studios, to produce animated features.
US media companies are localising their content in an effort to capitalise on India’s entertainment industry, which is one of Asia’s most open markets for content.
The country has one of the world’s largest cable TV networks, connecting about 71m households, and a robust cinema culture, with movie-goers spending about Dollars 1.3bn a year at the box office.
Turner is already the market leader in children’s television in India with its Cartoon Network and Pogo channels, while Disney’s local channel, Hungama, is ranked third.
Mr Diamond said the company’s contracts with the three local producers represented the first time it had produced full-length animated features in India.
He said these would be screened on the country’s cinemas as well as on television.
“We would look to be securing all forms of distribution, not only to build up the channel,” said Mr Diamond.
As part of the same push, Turner was also working with some smaller studios to make independent productions.
The move represents a major change for the Indian market, in which viewers have typically watched live action song and dance extravaganzas rather than animated features.
“It’s a two-fold strategy,” said Vivek Couto, analyst with research firm Media Partners Asia. He said animation allowed studios to capitalise on the growth of multiplexes in India as well as to develop new characters and brands that could then be extended to their channels.
Disney, as part of its initial foray into animation in India, is planning to release its first animated movie there, “Roadside Romeo”, next year.