Mohit Anand, Managing Director of Da Vinci Learning, India’s first premiere HD Educational channel from German media company Da Vinci Media GmbH, elaborates the channel’s positioning, Content Strategy, Digital and future plans on an exclusively chat with tvnews4u.com:
1) How was your journey from Interactive Entertainment to Consumer Business to Kids Learning Space..?
I have been very fortunate to have had an immensely exciting journey through my professional career and it continues to be a learning every single day. My entire experience set has been focused around the intersection of cutting edge technology, entertainment and consumers and if you look at the Interactive entertainment or consumers and now kinds learning in a fun interactive way. The theme has remained more or less focused on this intersection. The Indian market place is highly dynamic and one has to rapidly adapt to fast paced changes. It has been an exhilarating journey thus far and I am thankful for the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth story.
2) Could you throw some light on Da Vinci Media’s international foot prints and its story of entering Indian Market…?
Da Vinci Media GmbH is an independent media group dedicated to providing high-quality on-air and on-demand educational programming to curious minds around the world was founded in 2007. Since then Da Vinci Learning has expanded its reach to over 100 territories around the globe. We provide 16 localized language versions of the channel across 3 continents.
With our ambitious growth strategy our goal is to bring Da Vinci Learning to even more families across the world.
We believe there is a demand for educational TV content in India, which is currently being marginally met. With digitization, operators are also looking to increase their ARPUs through new products. The channel is entering the country at just the right time. We have a product that will help commercialize of digital networks.
3) While we understand the Kids Channel space…! Kids learning space is something new to this market….! Could you define it..?
We believe there is a demand for educational TV content in India, which is currently being marginally met. Most of the content that exists is all about entertainment which is mostly synonymous to animated series of various kinds and this is what limits the space, the platform and its potential.
Da Vinci Learning is in the education and entertainment space hence, we are all about smarter outlook at things; about aspirations and ambition. Our proposition is to ignite intellect and creativity amongst children so that they grow up to be all-rounded individuals.
We bring Einstein or a Leonardo da Vinci to TV so that children not only get inspired but also see these personalities as role models and challenge their own skills.
We are extremely cautious in ensuring that we offer non-violent and soft skills based education and entertainment to children and to their families.
4) As pioneer in Kids Learning segment. Do you think there is a space for more players to come in…?
Yes, there is a lot of scope in kids learning segment. We truly believe that it is an unexplored territory and we are the first ones to enter in so many ways.
Having said that, our content is extremely different hence, we communicate to the entire family as opposed to only children.
5) Can you describe the size of the market for this unique Genre..?
The kid’s genre is the third largest genre in terms of viewership in India. From the Ad sales perspective it generates close to 300 crores annually.
6) Could you give us a brief on content strategy of Da Vinci for different age segments of Kids..?
While, it is a reality in TV space that the audience share is divided owing to different tastes and preferences and of course age group is another critical component. Our primary target audience is the curious minds in the 6-12 years bracket. There are channels that are offering fun entertainment content to this age group but with adult undertones. There is hardly any educational fun content out there for kids.
We are more in the education and entertainment space hence; we see the sensitization of parents as the first goal and a simultaneous build-up of children sampling our product.
We are all about smarter outlook at things; we are about aspirations and ambition. Our proposition is to ignite intellect and creativity amongst children so that they grow up to be all-rounded individuals.
7) Do you have original Indian content in your programming mix…?
Indian content will definitely be a part of our programming portfolio but for the moment, we are focusing on our internationally proven content to drive audience stickiness.
That being said, we believe that stories need to connect and the origin or surroundings of the characters don’t take precedence during the narration. Our content is aspirational, it is focussing on making children to be more, to do more, being smart and learn while being entertained. We have lot of international characters and figures that will use to appeal to our set of audience in India.
8) Do you have any plans of launching Hindi and other Regional language feeds?
Specifically in India, we are initially looking at targeting the top 12 Metros and mini-metros. The channel would be in English but we are also evaluating other languages in India so that we have some shows in local languages for better reach in future.
We are an international channel with presence in 3 continents and are a part of daily viewing routine for over 14 million homes all over the globe. We have been broadcasting in many international languages and hence, language is not a challenge when it comes to programming.
9) Now that you are available in Tata Sky. What is your current Distribution strength and Reach? What are your future plans to expand in other distribution platforms?
We are presently on Tata Sky and Hathway, our reach is around 7.5 mn subscribers. Yes, we are very soon launching on other platforms.
10) Do you foresee any Merchandising and Syndication opportunities for Da Vinci in lines of additional revenues seen by Kids Channels?
Yes we absolutely see this as an important initiative, but will be focusing on this post stabilization of our TV and digital offerings.
11) Every Broadcast Network across genre is perusing Digital option! Do DaVinci has any plans for exploring Digital or OTT route in near future?
Indeed it is a given fact that no broadcaster can ignore the digital world. We have a very exciting line up in the digital space, which we will be rolling out shortly. Please stay tuned for some interesting and consumer centric offerings from Da Vinci’s stable to be announced very soon.
12) How is Da Vinci faring in viewership?
We have just launched so it would be too early to comment on viewership at this stage.
During his two decades of Media Mohit Anand was associated as Managing Director of Belkin India, senior vice-president for STAR India’s Channel V, country manager for Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division in India. Anand has 20 years of experience and is credited with many key achievements including leading Belkin to market leadership position and the launch of Xbox360 in the Indian sub-continent.
