Discovery Kids rides high on the viewership as the channel records 18-20% rise in Q1 2021

It has been almost a year with children attending online classes and being at home. Being homebound children have spent more than watching television. As a result, kids channels witnessed a 27% rise in viewership — which secured a seven percent share in the TV viewing genre, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India data. Discovery India’s kids television channel Discovery Kids also claims to have benefited from the same. “We saw a high viewership last year primarily due to covid but also because of the robust pipeline of content we had. Viewership has been constantly increasing with the channel recording a 18-20% rise in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to 2020 and we are hoping to see a substantial growth in Q2 of 2021,” Uttam Pal Singh, head, Discovery Kids, told BrandWagon Online.  Singh claims that the channel witnessed a 35-40% growth in viewership in 2020.

Traditionally, the content strategy of kids genre’s revolved around children’s vacation period, but in this case, the broadcaster claims to have created a pipeline of content including new shows and movies, which will be rolled out throughout the year. “Due to covid and lockdown, the whole concept of weekends and weekdays have merged. For the past six-eight months, we’ve been building on stories by creating new IPs to entertain children. We haven’t held back anything for the holiday period and plan to launch the second season of Fukrey Boyzzz from next month followed by a movie centered around the character from the show Bhago Chucha Aaya,” Singh added. The channel claims to have 15 new movies in the pipeline which it plans to launch every week along with new episodes of their current shows. 

As for advertisement revenue, the channel was hit by low ad volumes last year despite high viewership but claims to have witnessed a rise in ad sales this year. “From the fourth quarter of last year we saw fast recovery in terms of ad sales revenue. This year, we are on strong footing as ad sales revenue is better than last year,” Singh said, adding that the platform has brought more advertisers onboard such as Byju’s and its subsidiary WhiteHat Junior. Going forward, Singh believes that the platform will continue to see a rise in ad sales revenue on the back of rise in viewership. 

According to industry estimates, the cost of a ten-second ad spot on kids channel ranges between Rs 1,000 – 3,000 during prime time that is between 8 pm – 10 pm. However, while volume of ad for the genre declined in the first half of the fiscal, the category saw a revival of advertisements from September. 

While Discovery Kids is primarily a linear television channel, the content is now also available on Discovery+, Discovery India’s streaming platform. As per Singh, the marketing of a new content primarily takes place on the TV or digital but they are open to more mediums such as print in order engage their audience and increase the brand awareness. 

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