Hungama TV acquires Telecast Rights of Numb Chucks

The 26-episodic Canadian animation series will premiere on the channel on December 14. It will air every Sunday at 11 am.

Hungama TV, the kids entertainment channel from the Disney India stable, has acquired the rights to air Canadian animation series, Numb Chucks in India. The Indian broadcaster has bought the rights of the show from 9 Story Media Group, a Canadian animation studio and distribution company,

The 26-episodic series will premiere on the channel on December 14. It will air every Sunday at 11 am.

Numb Chucks is an animated comedy about two half-witted woodchuck vigilantes, Dilweed and Fungus, who use their non-existent kung-fu skills to protect the lives of all the citizens in Ding-a-Ling Springs, whether they need it or not. Armed with boldness, these do-gooders are in a never-ending battle with do-wrongers while immersed in the day-to-day duties of attaining awesomeness. It focuses on the two well-intentioned but incompetent woodchucks who try to use kung fu to protect their hometown from criminals.

According to Vijay Subramaniam, VP and head - Content and Communication, Media Networks, Disney India, Hungama is led by three principles - celebrate unrelenting spirit of childhood, in a casual funny and quirky sound that kids laugh at and to be able to define and deliver quality content.

"Numb Chucks is an extention of these three principles. It's about characters who think they know Kung Fu, but actually they don't. They get into various situations that end up making the story comic and adventurous," he adds.

Interestingly, Subramaniam points out that when the channel selects shows, it's not just basis the content but also if it matches and resonates with Hungama's thoughts and philosophy. The channel, around the same time last year, had refreshed the packaging, look and feel. It also introduced a new tagline, 'Hungama Machaya Kya?'

Hungama, currently the No.1 channel in the space since last three weeks has seen a steady growth owing to its philosophy and selection of content. The channel has dethroned Viacom18's kids channel, Nick to claim the spot. It had grossed 42715 GVTs in week 47 (Nick at 2 notched 41096 GVTs), 44672 GVTs in week 48 (Nick clocked 41743 GVTs) and 45899 GVTs in week 49 (Nick recorded 44716 GVTs) (Source:TAM; Market C&S,4-14, ABC, HSM).

The channel, today boasts of diverse variety of shows in the bouquet. On one hand it has a locally produced shows like 'Vir: The Robot Boy' which is one of the popular shows of the channel and on the other it has shows which though were acquired from International markets have been given local touch. The examples include Pokémon, Shinchan, Doremon, Ninja Warriors (live action) and Japinizi Going Going Gong (Live action).

The channel will launch another show, 'Adventures of Jackie Chan' in January that aims at boosting the programming line-up.

For the record, Disney India has four kids channels under its roof: Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior and Hungama (which was bought over by the company in 2006).