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Discovery India launches three new branded programme blocks

Close on the heels of the launch of the branded block Discovery Kids, Discovery India announced the launch of Discovery Health Channel as a two-hour block (19:00 to 21:00 hrs) on weekends and Discovery Travel & Adventure Channel as a two-hour block (22:00 to 24:00hrs) on Saturdays beginning July.

Says Kiran Karnik, managing director, Discovery Communications India: "Depending on their reception among the domestic viewers, these new branded blocks could be spun off as separate channels, as they operate in some countries in Latin America and Europe."
The Discovery Health Channel will provide lifestyle, medical, fitness and nutritional information and break health and medical news.

Discovery Travel and Adventure Channel is aimed at providing viewers a peep into adventures, dynamic hosts and the world’s exotic locales. "We are doing exceedingly well and we can break even fairly soon," says Karnik. "Our ad revenues have grown 70 per cent over the last year." Disco-very expects equal revenues from subscription and advertising in a couple of years from 30:70 at present.

At present, Discovery has a roster of 365 brands and 130 companies and around 60 per cent of its programming is sponsored. Says Manas Mohan, manager, marketing, Discovery Communications India: "In the quarter October-December, our entire inventory of programmes were sold out." Karnik says that though dot.com entities represent good business opportunity only those companies which export (like Micromedia) are permitted to seek sponsorships in foreign channels. "Let’s see how things evolve," he adds.

Discovery expects the channel reach to increase from over 16 million now to23 million by the year 2001. It has already expanded into 1,021 cities with 55 per cent share of the households. "As a pay channel we will be happy to secure viewership of around 60-65 per cent in the next two years," says Karnik.

Also, to endear the brand to the students, Discovery India has chalked out a draft of initiatives under the umbrella of the Discovery Channel Award-School for Fostering Excellence. Under the scheme, it will give a grant of Rs. 1 lakh each to three winning schools in Class 1 cities (direct contact cities) and Rs. 50,000 each to three schools in Class 2 cities (contact via mail).

In the third quarter, Discovery will run Word2Word contest (sponsored by Milo and prizes by TI Cycles) in 200 schools involving one lakh students in nine cities; Face 2 face Competition (sponsored by Maggi Noodles and prizes by Atlas Cycles) in 540 schools in nine cities involving 50,000 students; expansion of the Discovery Channel Quiz (sponsor Britannia) to 18 cities involving over 36,000 students; and the India Educator Guide for teachers in 1,700 schools across the country.

Simultaneous with the expansion of Discovery, it is also planning to boost Animal Planet’s presence-which is expected to "more than quadruple" from the existing base of 500 decoders in 65 cities. Also, buoyed by the success of its Watch the World offerings (Cleopatra’s palace in March 1999 and Raising the Mammoth in March), Discovery will launch Inside the SpaceStation worldwide on December 10, 2000. This global initiative will be fully integrated with Discovery.com.

Karnik points out that Discovery’s global brand awa reness has increased by 183 per cent as per a study conducted by ORC Brand Perceptions in 21 countries.

Kumarkaushalam