MUMBAI: After entertaining the Indian audience for more than 20 years with world-class documentaries on food, science and survival, Discovery Communications India (DCIN) has entered the Hindi general entertainment category (GEC) with a bang thanks to Discovery Jeet. The channel, which launched on 12 February 2018, has backed up the rave reviews for its differentiated content with phenomenal reach.

According to Chrome DM data on 13 February 2018, Jeet secured high launch numbers with a Day Two OTS of 87.1 per cent across urban Hindi-speaking markets. The channel’s OTS was around 20 percentage points higher than the recent debut of Arnab Goswami led-Republic, which stood at 66.9 per cent during its launch in Week 20 of 2017. Chrome Data analytics and media CEO and founder Pankaj Krishna said, “Discovery Jeet has made an unprecedented distribution debut in the history of Indian television. With the Naaptol tie-up and multiple landing pages, Jeet has had a phenomenal launch.”

Source Chrome Track 2.0, 9 am, 13-02.2018

*Excluding Rural data; Rural data to be released once the weekly rural data is compiled

The channel is also available in the base pack of all the direct-to-home (DTH) channels, which means that even if a consumer purchases a pack with the minimum number of GECs, Discovery Jeet will be a part of the pack. This only ensures that the channel reaches most households across India. The channel is available in standard as well as high-definition feed, reaching 120 million households during the launch.

Moreover, DCIN, which launched the channel with distribution to more than 100 million households in the country, has signed on Netflix as the exclusive global OTT platform. With Jeet, DCIN is aiming to break the clutter in the Hindi GEC arena riding on purpose-driven entertainment content that is available in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The network, however, does not intend to add more regional languages anytime soon. Jeet has launched with five hours of programming daily out of which three hours is bespoke, ground-up original programming built on the thesis of the underdog winning.

Broadcasters have been actively using landing pages to garner trials and, thereby, viewership for years with the idea being that higher the accessibility, greater the chances that the channel would attract trials and, therefore, repeat viewing. 

“We have tied up with home-shopping channel Naaptol, which is a popular landing page on most MSOs. Naaptol shows two hours of snippety Jeet content everyday between its own content,” said Discovery Networks Asia Pacific senior VP and head affiliate sales Vijay Rajput.

Earlier this week, C&S Medianet announced that it had supported Dish TV India Ltd, Videocon D2H Ltd and Siti Cable Network Ltd and successfully brought to conclusion the interconnection agreement with DCIN. With the conclusion of the arrangement, Jeet has been prominently placed on all the three platforms. 

On the comparison with Colors, Discovery Communications India senior VP and GM (South Asia) Karan Bajaj said that there were parallels to be drawn but the approaches were different. “While Colors was launched with a clear strategy to be number one in the space, Discovery Jeet made an entry into the market with a clear focus on the quality of the content. Our thesis has revolved around quality.” He added that were no concerns with how things turned out with Epic since the emphasis has been on content quality. Jeet’s shows follow the daily soap format so the focus is on engaging the viewer on a day-to-day basis.

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