Cartoon Network has a tie up with Nazara Technologies, a Mumbai based mobile entertainment company to convert printed comic books into a digital format for mobile consumption. So be ready to welcome Ben 10, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo and Dexter, on your cell phones.
The comic strips are available to all GPRS enabled phones for the minimum charges like Re 1 a day, Rs 10 for a week and Rs 30 for a month. This facility will be available to only Airtel, Idea, Reliance Mobile and Tata Docomo subscribers. A downloadable application is in the pipeline which will help consumers to download a complete comic book.
According to Siddharth Jain, vice-president and deputy general manager, distribution and business operations, South Asia, Turner International India, “Mobiles and mobility are an integral part of a kid’s lifestyle these days. About 63 per cent of kids use a mobile phone at least once a week in India, as per Cartoon Network’s New Generations study,”
ACK Media, Raj Media and Diamond Comics have already touched the mobile platform. Airtel and Tata Docomo have launched their dedicated comic portals.
Airtel launched a dedicated mobile comic portal in October 2009 on Airtel Liveand offered comic strips of over 300 Indian as well as international comic characters including Akbar, Birbal, Popeye as well as strips by Amar Chitra Katha. Tata Docomo also has a mobile portal called Comix on-the-go, which provides over 2,000 comic like Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.