It was Ferdinand Habsburg's frustration with the lack of interesting knowledge programming that led him to bring an edutainment channel, DaVinci learning, to India. He speaks to Devi Singh
Being a father to three children brings a gamut of surprises. For Ferdinand Habsburg, it was the curious minds and incessant queries and doubts of his children about myriad things around that prompted him to set up an educational channel. “I used to get a little frustrated with the lack of interesting knowledge programming. I couldn’t answer everything my kids asked me so I thought it would be practical to have a TV channel to solve that for me,” said Habsburg, founder and CEO, Da Vinci Media.
Da Vinci Media has associated with the digital content platform, The Quint, providing a combination of compelling content, technology and distribution targeting six to 12-year-old children and their families for its Indian debut. The partnership will allow Da Vinci Media to gain access to digital and media platforms and aid its distribution through its digital medium.
Founded in 2007, and headquartered in Berlin, Da Vinci Media provides on-air and on-demand educational programming. The TV channel will provide content on topics like physics, chemistry, history and nature and work on simplifying scientific concepts. It is presently accessible in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, CIS countries, Russia and Turkey.
Explaining the channel’s prominent presence in CIS and east European countries, Habsburg told us, “East Europe is a great heritage of learning. What they lack is interesting educational platforms so it’s obvious to offer something which people don’t have access to.”
Da Vinci learning is being promoted as a fun educational television channel for the whole family and will offer award-winning knowledge programming and documentaries to Indian audiences, with a special focus on curious young minds. Making its entry to the Indian market, Habsburg said, “The appetite for education in India is huge compared to the western countries. The Indian parents are more dedicated to their child’s education and are willing to spend more on the same. The percentage of salary that goes into a child’s education here is more. Indian parents are more ambitious for their children than their western counterparts.”
After increasing its footprint in Asia with Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia, Da Vinci finally comes to India. “There’s so much happening in the education space. Today, kids can learn in a much more entertaining way than our time and that’s an area I’m very happy to be in. With the lack of educational channels in India, we are hoping to change the scenario by our product,” he said.
Da Vinci currently operates two educational television channels. Da Vinci learning is the company’s general infotainment channel targeting children in the age group of 6-12-year- old and their parents while Da Vinci U is a channel that offers full length lectures across various topics from several universities
With aggressive and violent connotations to overtones of adult themes the content being produced for children programs including animation is not suitable for their age. Da Vinci learning claims to be a safe, non violent and informative channel made for children. “We are strictly an educational channel. As a responsible parent, you need to be a little careful with the kind of content around. On the other side, we have to make education entertaining as well so we will put in some fun elements but there’s always a red line where we know something’s not true to our brand and philosophy,” explained Habsburg.
The content of the channel seems a little more appropriate for the more discerning young minds. It might be hard to catapult the interest levels of varied preferences which might reduce the channel to a cult status. But Habsburg differs, “Davinci is a very clear destination. Watch us and learn about things in a fun way and get smarter. The channel might be suitable for more ambitious and intellectual kids but doing experiments and exploring the world is fascinating and I do believe each and every kid would want that irrespective of their preferences.”