MAM
Pogo goes for the pre-schoolers
MUMBAI: Cartoon Network seems to have decided to give baby sibling Pogo a programming and promotional push.
Turner International India recently commissioned a NFO study to gauge the impact of televison on pre-schoolers, the kind of programming watched by television and the suitability of specific shows telecast on Pogo. The results are flattering to Pogo. All the four shows, including Barney & Friends, Miffy & Friends, Teletubbies and Franny’s Feet shown on Pogo during the morning and afternoon hours were approved as suitable for young children by eight educators and seven psychologists from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore who were chosen for the study.
While the launch of the Tiny TV band targeting pre schoolers started in early 2003 was done following extensive research among mothers of young kids, the present study decided to get the programming ratified by ‘the experts’ in the field whose opinion would hold weight among decision makers.
The Tiny TV band, which was repeated on Pogo during the daytime, when pre-schoolers form a bulk of the viewerbase, struck home with a loyal following that has grown in the two months that Pogo has been on air, says Turner India research director Pradeep Hejmadi.
“Tiny TV grew bigger on Pogo by virtue of consumer demand (Mothers’& Children) with a fare different from that it presents on Cartoon Network yet sharing fundamental values,” says Hejmadi. Consequently, Pogo that built on the Nickelodeon model, including music videos, movies and non animation programmes to woo in children, is now serious about the pre-schooler’s eyeballs in the afternoon. This is the timeband which the channel discovered was being shared by the kid with the mothers watching afternoon soaps on mainstream channels. The NFO study found that the kid is often a secondary viewer, being bombarded with adult stereotypes, clutter, fast paced storylines and several negative emotions.
The network is now attempting to position Pogo as a channel that provides the necessary happy, simple to comprehend messages to young children, though Hejmadi insists that Pogo will now cannibalise into Cartoon Network but will only offer mothers and children more choice of kids’ shows.
Shows like Barney and Friends is close to the school curriculum, while Miffy & Friends focuses on inter-personal/social skill development, he points out.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
