MAM
ChuChu TV’s new consumer products biz expects 8 to 10 per cent as royalty
MUMBAI: ChuChu TV, Asia-Pacific’s most watched YouTube channel for toddlers from India, with over six billion views and six million subscribers, has partnered with Dream Theatre to launch the global consumer products business for the brand. Given its global appeal and audience, ChuChu TV has now partnered with Dream Theatre to launch the ChuChu TV Consumer Products business globally. Toys, gaming, publishing, apparel will form the core categories, which will hit the market by April 2017.
“Currently we are in the process of upgrading our existing characters to 3D so that they are more appealing as toys. We are also adding new IPs to our characters profile. Something aimed at young adults as well. On the other end, with these new updated characters we are creating a 13 episode series. It will take another six months for us to be ready so the products can hit the market by April 2017,” shared ChuChu TV CEO and creative director Vinoth Chandar.
“It is a long term process. Once the characters are in place, getting deals ready takes some time. Fortunately for us. Dream Theatre is our licensing agent and we are positive that once our products hit the market, more deals will line up easily,” he added.
Although Chu Chu TV’s US partners will be involved in product creative given its global branding, the first launch will be in India, which will be replicated in the US and other markets.
Entertainment and licensing firm Dream Theatre is creating the brand architecture and making ChuChu TV “license ready.”
Having worked with iconic international brands like Angry Birds, DreamWorks Animation, Pokemon, Femina and numerous others on the licensing front, Dream Theatre is creating the brand architecture and Go-To-Market plan for ChuChu TV by upgrading the creative assets, creating style guides, business templates and also charting the launch strategy and rollout plan across territories for ChuChu TV.
“Chu Chu TVs phenomenal success is a testimony to its popularity and it is very exciting for us to work with a brand originated in India and adored across the world by the young and old alike. We are thrilled to create a world class licensing program that enables fans to engage with the brand in a products and services form and will be engaging with top international licensing agents, toy companies and retailers to launch and grow the business across the globe,” said Dream Theatre CEO Jiggy George.
Chander further explained that Consumer Products Business to ChuChu Tv is an alternative but lucrative source of revenue for the company. “The going rate in the market is 5 to 15 per cent when it comes to royalty payments, but mostly depends on the products that is sold. We are expecting to draw 8 to 10 per cent of royalty on the sale of our products in the kids category,” Chander added in parting.
According to industry guesstimates, currently the licensed merchandised market for character IPs or franchises for kids stands at around Rs 5000 crore, growing from Rs 3500 crore last year.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
