One of the main reasons why ‘Nick Fundoo Superstar' succeeded was because of the simplicity of its idea and the fact that it had an inherent connect with Nick's broad philosophy that all kids are superstars. The initiative gave Nick the opportunity to interact with lakhs of kids in over 35 cities across India. The result was that we received a stupendous response of four lakh entries over a period of four weeks that the contest was on.

The 'Nick Fundoo Superstar helped' us at two levels –it helped us connect with kids beyond television, and it definitely created sampling, leading to an increased reach and TVRs.

Nick has been on the top slots in most global markets that we operate in, and in India, as I said earlier, it's just a matter of time. So yes, it is certainly the right time now. The numbers are testimony to all the efforts we have put in the last 12 months. We have been the fastest growing channel in the kids' category and are confident that soon we would find our deserving place in the category.

Since last year, Nick has spruced up its programming with new shows such as 'Just Joking', 'Bacckom', 'Shaun the Sheep', 'Uncle Max', 'Bat Fink and Meteor', and 'Mighty Monster Trucks' on Nick Junior. We have also introduced movies on the channel for the first time with Nick Home Cinema.

We had recently conducted the 'Nick Bro Sis' contest on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, and we currently have on-air the 'Aflatoon Afternoon' contest whereby kids can tune in every afternoon and win portable DVD players, remote controlled cars and SpongeBob SquarePants T-shirts. As for new campaigns, we have something big coming up for the festive season.

Movies are an integral part of kids' entertainment. The launch of Nick Home Cinema was the logical step for Nick to further consolidate its position as the one stop destination for kids for their daily dose of fun, comedy, adventure and laughter, by providing kid-focused family movies. Nick Home Cinema is our way of not only rewarding our young viewers by giving them more of what they enjoy most, but also to entice new viewers to our channel. We have recently acquired more than 20 animated and live action movies, which I am sure they will keep our audiences engaged.

Kids are one of the fastest adaptors of new technologies and concepts, and the Internet is no different. The Internet has really changed the way kids communicate and consume the online space. The Nick website was launched in May 2007 and we have had 105,758 page views on the site so far. The site has been designed keeping in mind what kids enjoy online, and hence the site includes tons of games starring Nick Toons that allow kids to interact with all our characters, off-air. We also have wallpapers, screensavers, TV guides, programming specials and downloads of all the characters and videos on the site.

The site is also a gateway to all of Nick's on-air contests where we feature the winners of the contests. The winners of 'Nick Fundoo Superstar' and the 'Nick Bro Sis' contests were featured on the site. The site also has a Nick Birthday Corner for kids to register themselves and the birth dates five of their friends, and these birthdays are aired on Nick during that particular month of their birthday. Kids can also register on My Nick and join the Nicksters club and win cool prizes and updates on Nick.

With Nick now being a strong contender in the kids' category and kids identifying with the Nick Toons, this is the ideal time for Nick to enter the merchandising arena. We will now be focusing on merchandising aggressively over the next 12 months.

In the kids' space, merchandising is one of the key focus areas and it allows interaction with the kids beyond television. Globally, Nickelodeon is a frontrunner in kids merchandising around characters like SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. Today, we already have Nick products across seven categories – back-to-school, storybooks, games, apparel, inner wear, PC games and party products.

We firmly believe that the Nick Toons are our biggest brand ambassadors. With characters like SpongeBob SquarePants, Ninja Hattori, Perman and Dora the Explorer amongst others, we do not feel the need for a brand ambassador at a broad level. However, there would be instances when celebrities like Mona Singh, who are popular with kids and have a connect with the brand, are roped-in to create excitement around a specific campaign or promotion.

While animation rules, I believe that there should be a perfect mix of both live action and animation. We have so far been very successful in getting the right programming mix, which is the biggest contributing factor for us regularly, as the channel scores the highest in the time spent, in the category.

The biggest challenge in the kids' domain is the fact that kids have the shortest attention span and therefore one can never be complacent from a programming perspective. Hence we need to continuously serve exciting content that keeps them engaged and maintains Nick stance of being the comedy and entertainment destination for kids.