The Hindu Business Line : Travel & Living bets big on India-centred shows

NEW SERIES: Film and television actor Meera Vasudevan, flanked by Mr Rajiv Bakshi (left), Associate Director (Marketing and Communications), Discovery Networks India, and Mr Aditya Tripathi, Vice-President - Lifestyle, at the launch of the Chennai episode of Indian Rendezvous on Thursday. — S. Thanthoni

Chennai , Dec. 7

Discovery Travel & Living, after a few episodes of the series titled The Great Indian Wedding, which the channel claims was "extremely successful", launched its new six-episode series — Indian Rendezvous. The new show captures six major Indian cities and their lifestyle, places and travel opportunities etc.

There is another seven-episode series on Indian cuisine, A Matter of Taste (to be anchored by Vir Sanghvi), planned for middle of next year. With all these and a few more such India-centred shows in the pipeline, the channel hopes to break even next year.

"At present we are reaching 26 million homes in the country and our revenues are far ahead of our target," says Mr Aditya P. Tripathi, Vice-President - Lifestyle, Discovery Networks India.

Ad support

According to him, the two-year-old channel has been doubling its ad revenues every year. The channel claims to get good advertising support these days. It currently has around 120 advertisers across product categories.

"Since our target audience is the upper segment of society, our advertisers find our channel as an effective advertising platform to connect to their target audience for their top-end products," Mr Tripathi says. Apart from Nokia, Samsung, LG, American Express, tourism boards of various States form the channel's major clientele.

"The launching of our channel is well-timed," he says.

Change in lifestyle

Today, in India, one can see a sea change in lifestyle, aspiration levels of people and their food habits. People are travelling a lot. By 2010, it is estimated that more Indians will travel than any other nationalities in the world. "We would like to ride the very wave and swoop into more living rooms in the days to come."

Though the channel's contents are primarily international, following the success of its pilot, The Great Indian Wedding, Travel & Living is now keen on more such shows. According to Mr Tripathi, these shows are now very popular not just in India but also in other Asian countries and Europe. "Our new show, Indian Rendezvous, is likely to go on air in the US too," he declares.

The channel also plans to extend "a good" advertising support to its new programmes.

Elaborating on the new series, he said the show captures cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. To enhance its glamour quotient, each 30-minute episode would be anchored by well-known personalities in each city.

Chennai rendezvous

Speaking on the Chennai rendezvous, film actress and anchor of the show, Meera Vasudevan, said, "There is actually more to see and experience in Chennai than many Chennaiites know. It's such a great city where one can see a traditional nine-yard saree rubs shoulders with jean-clad youth in a magical harmony." The show captures many great things under themes such as cuisine, locations, art and culture — from Adventure Zone, run by Maj. Roy, where one can try one hands at parasailing, rock climbing, shooting and many more adventure sports, to Naadi astrology and from filter coffee to Kancheepuram sarees.

The Chennai episode is all set to hit the screen on Sunday (December 10). Mr Tripathi says though 30 minutes is hardly enough to capture the flavour of Chennai, after covering other major cities, the channel may consider more episodes on Chennai.