MUMBAI: With the first phase of digitisation through excluding Chennai, the process of launching targeted channels has begun in the right earnest with The Walt Disney Company India making its preschool channel, Disney Junior, available in the Indian market.

Targeted at 2-7 age group, the pre-dominantly English channel will also have content in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Launched on 15 October, the subscription-led channel has been priced at Rs 13.3 on analogue cable and Rs 5.62 on digital networks. The ad-free channel will complete Disney?s kids network comprising Disney Channel, Disney XD and Hungama.

Disney Junior, previously Playhouse Disney, began as a one and a half hour preschool programming block on Disney Channel in 2006. The channel is available across 144 countries in 21 languages.

Disney UTV executive director and Disney kids network business head Vijay Subramaniam feels that the launch of Disney Junior will fill in the need gap.

"Disney Junior will have content that will be fun and imagination but at the same time will add value by helping in developing life skills amongst the kids because 2-7 is a very tender age. It complements the current offering that Disney has in India," said Subramaniam, who will steer the four-channel kids network.

"After extensive research we found that the 2-7 age-group has its own set of programming needs which is different from 7-14 age-group. The research also showed that kids would love to watch theme-based fun stories," he added.

Subramaniam says that the channel has been kept ad-free because the target audience is very young and requires a lot more responsibility in terms of the kind of ads that can be aired.

The channel is currently present on major multi-system operators like Hathway, InCable, Den, GTPL in Gujarat and Fastway Cable Network in Punjab. As of now it doesn?t have a presence on any of the DTH platforms.

Disney will be focussed on top eight cities in the initial phase with a special thrust on the Hindi Speaking Markets. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh Bengaluru, Chennai and Bengaluru will be the core markets for Disney Junior.

"The reason why we are focusing on the Hindi Speaking Markets in the initial phase is because we have a strong presence in that market. However, we also have three Southern cities as our core market outside of HSM in phase 1," Subramaniam explained.

Broadcasters are placing bets on the fast growing kid?s genre which is expected to yield good results in an addressable system. Recently, Zeel had entered the kid?s genre with the launch of its edutainment channel ZeeQ targeted at 4-14 kids.

ZeeQ will be a subscription-driven channel particularly since it has a strict ad policy wherein it won?t carry cola ads or the ones promoting junk food.

MUMBAI: Disney?s youth entertainment channel bindass will premiere Video Wars on 19 November. The show will be aired at 7 pm from Monday to Thursday.

Video Wars, powered by Airtel, will introduce a new format that calls for the contestants to maintain a video dairy of their best candid moments. The new show will have five contestants a week putting up videos of their daily life. Every day, the programme will show slices of life from the five contestants as documented by them on camera. At the end of the week, viewers get to choose the top four videos, eliminating one participant.

The popularity of the contestant on the social media space and through the missed calls mechanism will determine the fate of each contestant on a weekly basis. The more number of ?likes?, chances are that the contestant gets to stay longer. Whoever manages to stay the longest will win the ultimate battle of fame. A new contestant will be added every Monday to join the four remaining from the previous week.

Disney UTV executive director youth channels media networks Nikhil Gandhi said, "We thought we should come out with a show that provides a daily connect to the consumer apart from the weekend dose of shows. We wanted the engagement to happen on a daily basis through which this whole concept of Video Wars was born. It would have been easier to do a fiction show perhaps, but we have to do something which engages with the TG on a daily basis literally. So Video Wars is one such concept. The youth are given a camera to shoot a slice of their daily life. It is an empowerment for the youth to get famous basis the content you shoot about self."

bindass earlier took the tagline ?What I am? and got in shows that the channel says took it to the number one slot. In the second round of positioning, the channel adopted the motto ?Rest less Do More?. Video Wars is a way of furthering this motto. The channel realised that to engage the TG and empower it with the attitude of being bindass and to live up to the positioning of ?Rest less?, it was eminent to provide shows, content and properties which the youth relate to in their current space.

"Having been at the top, we realised that we need to innovate and take the product and the brand to the next level," said Gandhi. The channel will also have some additional small shows like Beg Borrow Steal and the recently introduced daily half an hour Bollywood based show called Filmy Leaks. The idea is to build more content and engage at a different level.

Video Wars will be heavy on online collaborations. Viewers will be able to see not only the show but also engage with it online, follow the contestant and see their popularity through the virtual space.

"We are looking at using Facebook, YouTube and Google for engaging the viewers online. For us in this case, YouTube makes a lot of sense as it is ultimately user generated content that we are dealing with and we are already strong on the social viewing portal. Every show we do will be present online as well and it won?t be a replication of the on air content, but a value addition particularly for the online audience. For Superdude we have the Dudeschool which is an online property," said Gandhi.

The marketing of the campaign too will focus heavily on internet along with the usual ATL mediums like TV, outdoor and radio. The channel has been making on ground engagements by collaborating with music concerts and events like the Enrique Iglesias concert and the NH7 Weekeneder.

bindass will also be making changes in the format of its successful reality show Emotional Atyachar. "The show has reached iconic status and we still get mails from people to be featured on the show. Having said that, yes after three seasons, we did find a need to innovate and that is what we will be doing in the forthcoming season. We are looking to introduce some twists in the show in the coming season," informed Gandhi.