Looking for an ad-free kids app? Subscribe to Viacom 18's Voot Kids for Rs 99

Expanding its digital ecosystem, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures has launched Voot Kids, a platform to offer fun and learning experience for kids. A standalone application, Voot Kids is certified by Early Childhood Association (ECA) and has a collection of 20,000 videos, e-books, stories and quizzes. The company aims to usher in the next evolution in the kid's digital ecosystem. This is a subscription-based ad-free application available for iOS and Android platform to start with and will be available in monthly and annual subscription plans of Rs 99 and Rs 799, respectively.

With a mission to make screen-time meaningful, the app has been designed for the kids aged between two and eight. It will offer a holistic experience focussed on viewing, reading, listening and playing, all in one place. For content, Viacom 18 has partnered with Nickelodeon, Oxford University Press, Warner Media, Green Gold, Ceebeebies, TV Asahi, Sony Music, Hasbro, Mattel, Lego and many more. All the existing content available on the Voot app has been migrated to the Voot Kids to create a safe environment for kids.

"The app will target kids aged between two to eight years and has been built on the three pillars of Product Experience, Content and Safety making it India's first and only multi-format Kids app offering Fun & Learning. Our focus right now is to build a premium experience and superior content play on the app. This is a category-creating product in the space of digital fun learning that caters to needs of discerning Indian parents who seek meaningful screen-time that aids in the holistic development of the child's mental, emotional and social faculties," says Gourav Rakshit, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures.

The company explains that Voot Kids being a subscription product provides an ad-free, curated and kid-safe environment that is its key edge against other free services. It seamlessly integrates all that kids and parents seek - the world of toons, immersive e-books and audio books by renowned authors and publishers along with fun-learning games.

"Viacom18 has grown over the years by focussing on white spaces that are challenging and yet have tremendous potential. As a network, we have been the undisputed leader in kids' entertainment content for the last five years. The foray into the subscription space with Voot Kids is the first step in our journey towards building an entire digital ecosystem under brand Voot. Our digital play Voot is the second largest video-on-demand platform in the country today. Voot Kids is a synergy of these two growth stories from the house of Viacom18," adds Rakshit.

Although restricted to Android and iOS platform to start with, the company will continue to explore interesting distribution partnerships and will soon build a wide network of distribution partners across telecom, OEMs, handsets and TV space that will be continuously scaled up.

However, Voot Kids is not the only streaming platform for kids. Just recently, Hungama had announced the launch of its subscription-based Hungama Kids, a platform for kids, parents and teachers to access specially created and curated content at the subscription fee of Rs 30 per month or Rs 299 per year. Popular OTT player Netflix too has a kids profile that has a wide catalogue of movies and TV shows. These subscription-based streaming services will face a stiff competition from YouTube.