Edutainment — a blend of education and entertainment — has become the buzzword and startups are focusing on creating content accordingly. Ontamo Entertainment, an edutainment startup formed a year and half ago, is among them. It has created Ria Rabbit, an age-appropriate and culturally-relevant home-grown intellectual property for children, in the age group of infants to six years.
Founded by Prasant Pinge, Sandeep Pinge and Yuvraj Magar, Ria Rabbit has a monetised YouTube channel which has about 70 videos providing original content.
The team believes that there is a dearth of age-appropriate and culturally-relevant content for kids under six years in India. Prashant, CEO, Ontamo Entertainment, says that they have created an entire universe for children. “There is Ria Rabbit, Romi Rabbit, Baby Rabbit, mummy and daddy rabbit and there’s going to be an extended family. Apart from them, there are friends who play a part in this universe. We may evolve some characters who are part of the universe and create content around them. There is Harsh Horse, who is Ria’s friend and we can have stories around him in the future,” says Prashant.
Other content creators like Chu Chu TV are taking the same nursery rhymes or stories from Panchatantra, says Prashant and adds, “But we are focussed on creating original content, and brand.”
The team releases a video every alternative day. “There are around 19 books which are available for Kindle on Amazon and audio stories which we have recently released. The work will continue for the first phase,” Prashant informs.
He points out the two factors that helped them while they were working on the content of Ria Rabbit. “I have watched a lot of content, along with my six-year-old son, and I have also written a lot of children’s fiction. Both these played a key role in developing the content,” he says.
The aim
Pinge shares that they want to create an eco-system which will allow their target audience, including infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers to interact with their universe through various formats. “Once the child forms an emotional connect with a character, it becomes easier for the child to learn and an interest is generated in the entire process of learning,” he says, adding, “We do not want to create just audio-visual content because parents are concerned about their children spending too much time in front of the screen. That’s why we have the books.”
Ask him how did they bridge the gap between entertainment and education, and he replies, “Entertainment is through stories while infotainment happens when you allow children to interact. The interaction factor will happen in the future but to begin with, we have created content around ideas which are already existing in the market. The content is child safe but fun as well.”
By the end of 2020, they will add 200 more videos, says Pinge. Apart from English, they want to bring out content in regional languages including Hindi and Marathi. “That should happen by end of February. There are games, online stores and an app in the pipeline too,” he says.
The edutainment market is huge, says Pinge. “One interesting thing that we have noticed is that parents are no longer interested in just education. They seek all around development of their child. Because of this, the market size has grown. As far as rural areas are concerned, we want to tap there too and hence the regional content,” he says.
He adds that another factor that’s working in favour of this sector is that children are dictating the terms. “My son tells us what he wants and we as parents allow him to decide for himself,” he adds.
