Localise content or perish. Nickelodeon Asia seems to be following on the dictum with yesterday‘s unveiling of the first show it has produced specifically for Asian audiences - Gruff‘s Groove Box.
Gruff‘s Groove Box debuts on Indian television on 5 November. Launched as a four-episode Nickelodeon Special, it will be aired for half an hour every Monday and Wednesday at 6.00 pm and on Saturday at 5.30 pm.

Gruff‘s Groove Box

The kid-centric style Gruff‘s Groove Box programme features an interactive claymation dog who will play his and children‘s favourite music video, read mails that the show receives from kids and will also interview celebrities. Nickelodeon Australia‘s brainchild Gruff was pick up by Nick Asia and adapted to suit the taste of Asians. Gruff, a Blue Heeler (a cattle dog native to Australia) also has back-up of his in-house band, Kitty Litter, and will be broadcasting from his own studio, the Kennel Club.

The new regional language addition to the Star bouquet - Vijay TV - which launched its new improved programme line-up from 1 October, has had an extensive advertising and promotions campaign built around it to push its programmes.

To draw a parallel, the Amitabh Bachchan hosted Kaun Banega Crorepati was the pivot around which Star Plus pushed itself as a channel after going 24-hour Hindi. For Vijay TV that role seems to have been taken by the blockbuster serial Marumugal, with filmstar Kushbhu in the lead.

Floats with cutouts of Kushboo were taken out in Chennai, Coimbatore and Salem on 1 October.

As an initiative to proactively involve the viewers, girls distributed leaflets with bindis attached outside select temples in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem Trichy, Erode and other cities across Tamil Nadu. This activity continued until 2 October.

At Foodworld (a popular eatery franchise in the south) goodies were distributed to patrons. Some people fanned out to the local kirana (provisions) stores while others went knocking on individual homes in different localities.

And an innovative kind of promotion is being done through 250,000 phone lines across Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. Vijay TV is calling up telephone subscribers and playing recorded voice messages of Khusbhoo using an interactive voice recorder. In the recorded message she informs them about her role in Marumagal where she emotes the role of a daughter-in-law, and also urges viewers to tune in to the channel during her serial‘s broadcast time.

Now its over to the viewer to make her call. Men don‘t really count in these matters anymore.

Asia‘s first "pitch session" - Super Pitch 2001 - takes place in Singapore on 7 December during this year‘s Asia Television Forum.

The session, which invites programmers in Asia to pitch new ideas to a panel of commissioning editors and broadcasters, is being organised by Television Asia and Canada‘s BANFF Television Festival 2002.

The winning pitch will receive a cash prize towards the programme‘s production. The competition is open to all documentary, children‘s and entertainment programming.

Important Dates:
Deadline for receipt of submission form by Television Asia is October 31, 2001. The list of finalists will be posted on Television Asia‘s website on November 6, 2001.