Indian YouTube channel
| ChuChu TV |
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| Origin | Chennai, India |
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| Website | chuchutv.com |
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| Channel | |
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| Years active | 2013–present |
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| Genre | Edutainment |
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| Subscribers | 69.8 million[1] |
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| Total views | 49.3 billion[1] |
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 | 100,000 subscribers | 2014 |  | 1,000,000 subscribers | 2014 |  | 10,000,000 subscribers | 2017 |  | 50,000,000 subscribers | 2023 |
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Last updated: 28th January 2024 |
ChuChu TV is a network of Indian YouTube channels that creates edutainment content for children from ages 1 to 6. The network offers animated 2D and 3D videos featuring traditional nursery rhymes, in English, Hindi, Tamil and other languages, as well as original children's songs.
The network operates 12 channels, including ChuChu TV Tamil, where a significant amount of content is based on Tamil nursery rhymes.
History
ChuChu TV's founder, CEO, and director—Vinoth Chandar—posted the channel's first video on YouTube, basing the main character ChuChu on his then-two-year-old daughter.[2] The video, based on "Chubby Cheeks", received over three hundred thousand views in two weeks.[3] After that success, Chandar decided to invest in his channel and convinced his partners Krishnan, Ajith Togo, Subbiramanian, and Suresh to join his team.[4]
Content style
The videos feature a bright art style, with cute characters dancing, singing, and playing out what the lyrics describe, under music with Bollywood[5] song structure, including multiple riffs between verses. The originals often use, partly or wholly, the melodies of existing nursery rhymes. They usually make poem songs in a very cartoonish way. Unlike other education channels, however, the songs often attempt to be "cool" musically, with synth strings, riffs, beats, and other elements.
Merchandising
In 2016, ChuChu TV announced a licensing and merchandising partnership with DreamTheatre.[6] In 2018, ChuChu TV inked a partnership with Australian media company Moose Toys to make a line of figurines, dolls and plushes, planning to reveal them in the fall of 2019, with apparel, publishing and back-to-school ranges also planned for 2019.[7]
Reception
The channel gained acceptance from parents and a large audience, especially in the United States.[8][9] However, a backlash developed, with an average of 30%+ dislikes. Vinoth Chandar has referred specifically to the "Johny Johny Yes Papa" compilation comments as "very hateful" and claims trolls "just don't understand that [their] content is for toddlers".[10] Parents reacted to a video with the lyric, "Shoot the numbers with the gun", leading the company to change the lyric; Asian parents did not react to the line, since there is less gun violence in Asia.[11]
