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.
MAM
IAS launches Total TV suite to boost transparency in CTV ads
New solution offers programme-level insights across platforms and publishers.
MUMBAI: In the world of streaming, what you see is not always what advertisers get and that’s exactly the problem IAS is looking to fix. Integral Ad Science (IAS) has unveiled ‘IAS Total TV’, a new suite of Connected TV (CTV) solutions aimed at bringing what it calls “linear-like” transparency to the fast-growing streaming ecosystem. In simple terms, it is an attempt to make digital TV advertising a lot less of a black box.
The offering aggregates programme-level data covering genre, ratings, language, shows and specific content from major platforms including Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Prime Video, along with opted-in publishers via Publica. All of this is housed within the IAS Signal interface, giving advertisers a unified view of where their ads actually appear.
The timing is hardly accidental. According to Nielsen, as of Q4 2025, 74.2 per cent of all TV viewing in the United States is ad-supported. Of that, streaming alone accounts for 45.6 per cent outpacing traditional television and cementing its position as the largest ad-supported medium. Advertisers have followed suit, funnelling premium budgets into CTV, but often without a clear, standardised view of performance or placement.
That gap is precisely what IAS is targeting. By combining content insights with media quality, supply path data and campaign outcomes, the platform aims to give marketers more control over when, where and alongside what content their ads run. The goal is not just visibility, but accountability ensuring ads land in brand-suitable environments rather than disappearing into opaque inventory pools.
The suite also promises practical gains. Marketers can access real-time, aggregated transparency across shows and platforms, streamline campaign controls across digital video channels, and leverage third-party verification to improve efficiency and pre-bid decision-making. Measurement tools extend to quality reach and incremental conversions, offering a clearer link between spend and outcomes.
At a time when high CPMs and fragmented data make CTV both attractive and complex, the push for transparency is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. IAS’s move reflects a broader industry shift, where the race is no longer just for eyeballs, but for clarity on what those eyeballs are actually watching.
Because in streaming’s premium playground, knowing the content may just matter as much as owning the audience.
