The Hindu Business Line : Discovery's India

IT has truly been a journey of discovery: for the channel, an Indian market that is not only challenging but also has huge revenue earning potential; for the audiences, it has been an opening up of new vistas through programming never seen before.

Discovery Networks India started beaming its flagship Discovery Channel into Indian homes in August 1995, bringing exciting stories on adventure, history, wildlife and technology, building a loyal set of audiences along the way. Shows such as Cleopatra's Palace, The Patiala Palace, Blue Planet and The Future is Wild are just some of the offerings.

During the early years, under the stewardship of Kiran Karnik, the focus was on building the brand and increasing connectivity. Deepak Shourie, who took over the reins from Karnik as Managing Director, is credited with broadbasing viewership and bringing in advertisers.

Blue Planet

Shourie is pleased with the channel's evolution. "My association with Discovery started when I was working in Outlook about 10 years ago and went to sell advertising space to Discovery. Since then, the television landscape has changed. TV is your home entertainer and India is a home-driven country. The appetite for entertainment is so high here that we have not yet seen anything in terms of media consumption."

The broadcaster is credited with a number of firsts. In 1997, it was among the early birds to encrypt its signals and go pay. The next year, it started a Hindi feed to attract viewership encompassing the mini-metros and small towns. A distribution joint venture, The One Alliance, with Sony Entertainment Television was also forged in 2002, to beef up connectivity. These efforts seem to have paid off.

According to a media researcher, "Discovery has come a long way. It was the first unique content channel to go Hindi. Around 2000, it was clearly a male, metro, SEC A channel. In the last few years, it has managed to get into smaller markets and has done well even in the below one million towns. Hindi content helped it target middle and lower SECs."

A recent audience response study conducted by the broadcasting company has indicated that while metros such as Delhi and Mumbai remain large individual markets, the rest of India is tuning into the channel in a big way. Out of the 35,000 responses that the company received, more than 61 per cent were from the other parts of the country.

Kylie Kwong

It is not just the Tier I cities that have responded to the survey, but persons living in Tier IV and Tier V cities too. More than 76 per cent of the respondents are under the age of 30. While 50 per cent of the respondents preferred watching the channel in Hindi, 22 per cent preferred it in English.

Distribution game

Today, Shourie claims Discovery is the single largest distributed channel and between its channel brands in India, is available to over 77 million subscribers. Globally, the channel with its 13 brands is available in over 160 countries and has about 665 million subscribers. India has more subscribers than Latin America and is just a few notches below the Europe-West Asia-Africa region as well as the UK and Ireland markets. "Discovery has been around internationally for 20 years and has been in India for half that period. While the developed markets like the US and the UK are the largest in value terms, India is growing in numbers," he elaborates.

Deepak Shourie, MD

The subscription model initiated by Karnik has also paid off with revenues contributing significantly to the turnover. "Due to the world class content and credibility, people do not mind paying for the channel. The TV business is entertainment-driven and 80 per cent watch entertainment channels. The attempt has been to make them move to alternative TV," Shourie adds.

Even as the flagship channel has been growing, Discovery Networks added Animal Planet in 1999 and Discovery Travel & Living last year to its bouquet.

Advertisers' delight

Media planners say the decision to create various time bands such as Sunrise, Woman's Hour, Discovery Kids, Action Zone and Late Night Discovery targeting specific sets of viewers is a strategy that has paid off handsomely. Advertisers too find this convenient as they can reach out to focused target groups.

Currently, the channel has over 500 brands on board, including consumer durables, automobiles, hospitality and travel, besides having the maximum sale of inventory. The changing trend has been the year-round presence of advertisers. But advertising rates continue to hover at about Rs 2,000 for a 10-second spot.

Says Sundar Raman, General Manager, Mindshare, "Discovery has always been a fresh and refreshing channel. It has managed to broadbase its viewership, building loyalty among viewers. It has helped advertisers deliver to quality audiences."

Quality content has become almost synonymous with the channel. Adds Kartik Iyer, President, Initiative, part of Lintas Media Group, "Advertisers definitely get value for money by advertising on the channel, though it may be somewhat different from what mass channels offer. Discovery has done outstanding work in terms of content and I see a lot of hope for it in the future."

Though the "upscale" perception in case of content remains, as it is available in Hindi, there is a mass following. Even the year-old Discovery Travel & Living has managed to attract 140 brands and is growing.

Media planners say that from an advertiser's point of view, the channel is very high on stability, unlike news channels, where viewership is event-led and therefore inconsistent. The time spent on the channel is very high and viewers normally do not flit in and out. Quality of viewing is better due to higher involvement, they say.

Infotainment channels here to stay

Though the growth of the infotainment genre may not match that of the news category, it has been consistent, nevertheless.

Adds Iyer, "This is the toughest time for media planners. You have over 200 channels but on an average just 60-65 channels are available to households. While audiences may be flipping through several channels, there are about 10-12 channels that are on the top of their minds, which they go to regularly. These favourites depend on geographical region and profile. But in future, I see cluster of quality channels developing for which audiences will be willing to pay. I believe channels from the Discovery stable will get into these groups."

The future of specialist channels such as Discovery or National Geographic Channel is bright. Shourie maintains that his company is `platform-neutral' and is open to joining any of the direct-to-home (DTH) platforms. Atul Phadnis, Vice-President, TAM India, says, "The fact that we (the media sector) will have alternative distribution platforms (DTH, broadband) will help such channels drive higher market segmentation. Also, the increase in multi-television households would give a boost to consumption of these channels."

The recent months have seen National Geographic Channel competing aggressively with Discovery. Data from TAM India has indicated that for the January-September 2005 period, in the Hindi speaking markets, Discovery was clearly ahead with a channel share of 42 per cent compared to NGC's 28 per cent. However, for the July-September period, the gap had narrowed considerably. Discovery has a channel share of 36 per cent while NGC followed with 33 per cent. In the January-September period, the shares in the Hindi market for Animal Planet were 17 per cent, 7 per cent for The History Channel and 6 per cent for Discovery Travel & Living.

Shourie says that the battle is not between the two broadcasters, but that the fight is for eyeballs. However, media planners believe that it is not enough to just look at shares; growth rates too are important. Market shares may not expose the growth in the overall pie.

Next year will see some Indian content on the channel. "Discovery will start airing local production next year, basically productions that can travel around the world and not just be seen by people in India. Travel & Living will also have local programming. We have already commissioned two production houses," says Shourie. Animal Planet too will be marketed aggressively next year.

But for now, Discover the world on your TV set.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Discovery's India

The soft sales pillow

Unwept. Unhonoured. Unsung

Bath and beyond

INS President

Retail: The next big thing?

Digjam's comeback bid

A lingo lifeboat to get your message across