Yabadabadoo: Cartoon Theme Parks Planned for Delhi

A little more than a decade after satellite television first beamed cartoons into India’s living rooms, the country is to get its first American-style amusement parks based on cartoon characters.

At a cost of 5.5bn rupees (£70m), the two parks in Delhi will be based around children’s channels Cartoon Network and Pogo, which are operated by Turner International. They will open next year.

The Cartoon Network Townsville, a seven-acre site with 13 rides, is destined for the city’s eastern suburbs, while Planet Pogo, which will have eight attractions and cover 3.5 acres, will be built in west Delhi.

Billionaire Ted Turner bought Hanna-Barbera’s entire back catalogue, creating the Cartoon Network in the late 1980s. This deal enabled him to reintroduce characters such as Tom & Jerry, the Flintstones and Scooby Doo to a new generation of children.

Turner International is now part of Time Warner, the biggest media company in the world. It plans to launch an Indian version of Sesame Street this year.

Turner’s operations in India contribute 10% of the company’s revenues, with 26m homes receiving its Cartoon Network channel. The country’s children appear to have an insatiable appetite for US characters, a sign, say some, of the Americanisation of the country. Sales from distributing cartoons alone are rising at more than 20% a year.

"Family entertainment centers", as they are dubbed by economists, are a fast-growing business in India, with sales doubling every year.

Analysts say that for companies such as Turner the centers are a way of selling cartoons beyond the screen: encouraging children to spend their parents’ money on branded clothes and games in the "sealed" environment of a theme park.

Disney, which has successfully repackaged Mickey Mouse to the world through its Disneyland and Disneyworld parks, is considered the pioneer in this area.

But Disney appears to have been beaten by its rival in India. Turner says India has a growing middle class with a rising disposable income and it wants to capitalize swiftly on the opportunity.

Ian Diamond, Turner’s senior vice-president, told reporters that "the time is just ripe for us to extend our relationship in India beyond promotional licensing and consumer products to theme parks. We have done it in other mature markets like Italy, France, Australia, [and US cities] Chicago and Atlanta."