Kid’s entertainment has always been a very popular genre on Indian Television. Almost all the general entertainment channels air specific shows for the young population. The best thing is that a few of these shows are also enjoyed by adults. However, kids’ entertainment in the current television market of India is ruled by full-fledged kid’s channels. There is so much diversity that you would find programmes targeting children of various age groups. Besides, you would also find a few programmes which are a good mixture of information and entertainment and are believed to be good for the mental development of children.
When Viacom 18 started its journey in Indian television, it introduced the most popular international kid’s channel, Nickelodeon in India. Although it retained the popular international kids shows, a wide range of new shows were also introduced keeping the Indian sensibilities and preferences in mind. Since its introduction, it has gained popularity amongst the Indian kids. The best thing about the programmes aired on Nickelodeon is that most of them are well researched and cover various aspects which interest the children. Again, the programmes of Nickelodeon are fit for kids of all ages. A recent survey on the popular channels of India has revealed that Nickelodeon is also popular among young adults. This was a big feat for a channel which is totally devoted to children oriented programmes.
Since the last few years, Viacom 18 decided to capitalize on the success of Nickelodeon and started diversifying it. This was the reason why Nickelodeon Sonic was introduced. Sonic is a channel which has young teenagers as its target audience. However, the choice of programmes aired by Sonic are quite universal and would interest anyone very quickly. Given its popularity, the channel has also started to telecast in HD.
Viacom 18 further thought about making the brand of Nickelodeon more interactive and as a result, nickelodeon kids choice awards was introduced. It is an awards show which is run entirely by kids. The kids nominate the best kids based movies and programmes for the award and also vote to choose the winners. This is definitely a breakthrough in the genre of kids entertainment because of which the popularity of nickelodeon kids choice awards is increasing with every passing year.
All these things just indicate that kids entertainment has really come of age in India. Another point to be noted is that kids’ programmes which focus on Indian subjects are suddenly gaining ample amount of popularity. This is opening up new avenues for Indian content creators who are taking inspiration from the stories of Indian mythology and history to create new content.
