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Purvita Chatterjee

Exploring options to bring in more formats under the brand

Mumbai , March 31

After being present in the Indian market for the past five years, National Geographic Channel (NGC) is looking at expanding its brand in the country.

"We are looking at bringing in more brands and strengthening the business in India,'' says Mr Rajesh Sheshadri, Vice-President, Marketing, NGC India.

The Nat Geo brand already exists in different formats, which includes merchandise, books, maps, expeditions and DVDs. "As long as the market is ready for it, we don't mind exploring more options to bring in more formats under the Nat Geo brand,'' adds Mr Sheshadri.

Targeting women

At the same time, the Star Group-promoted channel is looking at segmenting its channel further by creating afternoon slots targeting women. In the past it had created a kids band under the Nat Geo Junior brand. "We are exploring a woman's band in the afternoon and would create content for this target group. The purpose is to have tactical insertions for strategic groups on the various time bands,'' says Mr Sheshadri.

Content

Meanwhile, the channel is also open to trying out different avenues in India for promoting its brand. In the past, it associated itself with the film Kaal, where one of the protagonists was shown as a reporter from the National Geographic Magazine. "As long as the values and theme of the channel are in sync, we are open to associating the brand in any format,'' says Mr Sheshadri.

Besides, the channel has been trying to localise content with programmes such as Mission Udaan and It Happens Only in India. "Our viewers expect international content since that is the core of the brand, but at the same time we have some amount of local content,'' Mr Sheshadri said.

More channels

In India, NGC is sold independently as a channel brand for ad sales. Besides, Nat Geo is not looking at introducing more channels in the country unlike its direct competitor, Discovery Channel, which has introduced its second Travel and Living channel.

Nat Geo existed as brand under the Fox Cable Networks Group, which subsequently got acquired by NewsCorp, the parent company of the Star Group. Apart from Nat Geo, the History Channel, which also belonged to Fox, got included in Star's bouquet and has a presence in India.

Globally, NGC (including NGC US which is a joint venture of NGT&F and Fox Cable Networks Group) is available in over 318 million homes (including day-part households) in 164 countries and 27 languages.

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National Geographic to expand presence in India

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