Nick India to go south with Tamil, Telugu versions in 2010

Children's entertainment channel Nick India plans to enter the southern market by the second half of this year by launching operations in Tamil and Telugu.

"We will start the Tamil and Telugu versions in the second half of 2010, thus, taking our channel to the southern markets, where we do not have strong presence now," Nick India General Manager and Senior Vice-President Nina Elavia Jaipuria told PTI here.

Nick, a part of US-based Viacom 18 Media, has a reach of over 2.96 crore households in the country. The company is eyeing a growth of 32 per cent in terms of viewership this fiscal, she said.

The 24-hour pay channel primarily targets Hindi-speaking segment with the option of an English audio feed on Direct-To- Home service. We aim at 70 per cent business growth in FY'10, Jaipuria said.

"We grew in a more than expected way in 2009 achieving 23 per cent business growth against 13 per cent in 2007, primarily due to our focus on the Hindi speaking segment," Jaipuria said.

The channel, which has been successfully implementing a business strategy -- kids first, launched several initiatives to attract more viewers.

As part of this, the channel is also readying to launch an initiative -- Big Green Help by end-January, which would help children understand importance of saving the planet.

The channel will also launch a new show called 'Chicken Stew', a slapstick animated comedy this month.

Nick is a preferred comedy channel for kids runs shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, Ninja Hattori, Perman, The Munnabhai show and Jimmy Neutron amongst many others.