Viacom18's kids entertainment channel Nickelodeon is launching its mobile app, Nickworld on Android and iOS for its viewers this month. The app will include 2-3 seasons of 9 of their shows including SpongeBob SquarePants, Bubble Guppies, Kung Fu Panda, among others, with each season consisting of 20 episodes each. The app would also include over 80 games. In the light of this launch, Rajneel Kumar, VP & Business Head - Digital at Viacom18 spoke to MediaNama about the change in the monetization strategy of Nickelodeon's franchisee properties as well as the general direction of Viacom18's digital strategy for all its channels. Medianama: Why an app for kids? How do you expect kids to watch consume the content? Kumar: There are two parts to this – video content and gaming. More and more time is being spent on web properties by viewers for consuming videos. There is a huge amount of proprietary content that kids consume. Parents are the major connect for us with the kids. Parents log into our websites for the kids and the kids play on the web. With respect to mobile, it is the parents who want the kids to watch the content. Once the app is downloaded, it has been designed in a very kid friendly manner, be it UI, safety and other features. We have no social media integration for content addressing age group below 13 years of age keeping safety of kids in mind. In the gaming category, we have some popular characters and these…
