MUMBAI: Encouraged by the onset of digitisation, Turner International India, a Turner Broadcasting System affiliate, is weighing channel launches as part of its growth strategy for the Indian market.

Without divulging any details, Turner International India MD Siddharth Jain reveals that the company is looking at various genres including kids and English entertainment.

"We have plans to launch channels, but it‘s premature to talk about it. We are looking at many options - it could be kids, it could be in the English genre, but it‘s too early to say anything," says Jain.

Like other American media conglomerates namely News Corp, Walt Disney and Viacom, India is a key market for Turner. It has a strong presence in kids and English movie genre in India.

"India has been seen as a growth market not only in Asia but also globally as far as the Turner family goes," the Turner India boss adds.

Turner‘s India portfolio comprises of Cartoon Network and Pogo in the kids TV space while the English movie channel business comprises of Warner Bros (WB), HBO South Asia and Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

It also had a presence in the cash-guzzling Hindi general entertainment (GEC) genre through Imagine TV, which was shut down in April last year, due to financial unviability.

The company also runs a distribution joint-venture with Zeel called Zee Turner which in turn runs an equal JV with Star Den called Media Pro, India‘s biggest content aggregator.

"We are very strongly established in the kid‘s genre despite competition. Cartoon Network and Pogo continue to be the leader channels in the kid‘s genre. If you look at English entertainment, WB and HBO have a strong foothold in this genre as well," he adds.

Turner had recently expanded its bouquet by launching two ad-free hybrid movie channels in partnership with Eros International. The two channels, HBO Hits and HBO Defined, are available in SD as well as HD but it‘s the latter that Jain is betting on.

"That‘s the next step we have taken because HD is expanding and as every home moves from analogue to digital, consumers would want to experience HD next," he affirms.

The two channels are being offered at a special introductory price of Rs 49 and Rs 69 for SD and HD services respectively for three months till the end of May. Following that the sticker price will be Rs 99 for the SD channels and Rs 129 for the HD channel pack.

"HBO Hits and HBO Defined are ad-free channels and the differentiator here is that we have priced them high because we feel that there is a market here that wants to watch a movie in HD and without any advertisement breaks and they are willing to pay subscription for that," avers Jain.

HBO Hits and HBO Defined, which are available on the Airtel digital TV and Dish TV, will soon be available on all major DTH and cable platform in the next 3-4 months, asserts Jain.

"This is slightly long-term and we are patient. We believe in 14-16 months we will be where we want ourselves to be," declares Jain.

On digitisation, Jain believes that the move will bring in transparency which will translate into better subscription revenues. It will also bring down the cost of launching new channels which will be a boost for niche offerings.

He, however, confessed that the benefits of digitisation will percolate over a period of time as the process has just begun. The good thing is that the process has kick-started.

"We are still going through the process and it is not yet complete. If you look at mandated digitisation in markets like the US, it took seven years. So you cannot expect it to happen overnight considering the country‘s size and scale," argues Jain.

Jain, who is on the Board of Directors of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), says that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India‘s (Trai) ad regulation is ill-timed and rather than bringing it in the middle of digitisation process the regulator should have brought it after the process was completed.

"I am not against it but what I am saying is that instead of implementing it overnight it could have been implemented in a way once the digitisation process was settled," says Jain explaining his position on the regulation.

The ad regulation, he says, will spell doom for smaller broadcasters who are dependent on ad revenue for sustenance.