Committed to providing healthy comic entertainment to its viewers, Turner Broadcasting System's (TBS) Cartoon Network and TNT have lined up an exciting mix of new cartoon shows in 2000.
These include Mike, Lu & Og, Courage the Cowardly Dog and new seasons of The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd n Eddy and Johnny Bravo under the Cartoon Network banner, Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries, Garfield And Friends, Pinky And The Brain, The Little Lulu Show - II, Batman Of The Future and Batman The Animated Series among external acquisitions.
Cartoon Network and TNT are now available in 10 million cable and satellite homes in India too. Additionally, the network is distributed in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, with a combined reach of over one million cable and satellite households.
"We encrypted Cartoon Network and TNT in March 1999 and in less than a year, the reach of this channel has grown to 10 million cable households in India. We owe our success to a strong relationship with cable operators and support from our distributors and dealers. Aggressive distribution and sales efforts and creative marketing strategies have helped us increase our penetration," an official statement from Turner Inyernation India said, quoting the country head, Anshuman Misra.
Turner has employed a two-pronged strategy for its entertainment networks, including technology upgradation and enhanced programming to achieve this growth.
The Hindi content on Cartoon Network has grown from the initial two-hour TOON Tamasha block to nine hours, including Hindi dubbing of Cartoon Network's original cartoons.
Reinforcing its commitment to localisation, Cartoon Network will introduce two hours of Tamil dubbing on the daily Toon Tamasha programming block beginning February 28, 2000.
On TNT, Dinner and a Movie, featuring Indian talents Laila Rouass and Derek Affonso, introduced viewers to a whole new way of movie watching. In addition, Cartoon Network has focussed on bringing its viewers closer to Cartoon Network's cartoon stars, the statement said.
Several creative on-air and off-channel initiatives of Cartoon Network received an overwhelming response from the audience. These initiatives included Get Tooned (five Indian kids were converted into cartoon stars on Cartoon Network), 15 Seconds of Fame (which elicited more than two lakh calls from kids all over India), IR's Birthday Bakery (celebrating kids' birthdays on-air), Toon Cricket (24,000 kids and their families witnessed the first ever cartoonised cricket event), the statement said
Launched in the Asia Pacific in 1994, TBS's Cartoon Network offers animated entertainment. Drawing from the world's largest cartoon library of Warner Bros., MGM and Hanna-Barbera titles, the Network also showcases original series including The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory under the Cartoon Cartoons banner.
Cartoon Network is currently seen in over 17 million cable homes in the region.
TBS., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., is a leading provider of information and entertainment programming for viewers around the world.