Discovery is in restructuring mode. Earlier this year, it announced a reshuffle at the top to handle India operations. And the India office, which was reporting directly in to the Discovery headquarters at Silver Spring, Washington DC, will now come under Singapore as part of the integration strategy.
On the content front, Animal Planet introduced a Hindi feed in April to increase penetration. Discovery Travel and Living is eyeing to put its personality-driven shows at the 10 pm slot.
The company is also adding new channels like Discovery HD to grow the market in India.
Indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Pinto caught up with Discovery India senior VP, GM Rahul Johri to find out more about the company's aggressive plans in India.
Excerpts:
What is the main reason behind the restructuring that took place in Discovery recently?
In India, people have moved up a level. I have management responsibility for India while Rajiv Bakshi looks after marketing. Then there is a regional managing director who sits in Singapore.
We now work and coordinate with Singapore. The response time is much quicker.
Earlier when we reported to Washington, the time zones were different. Also, what is a priority for us may not be as important for them. Now operations are easier in terms of taking decisions and getting clearances. |
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How does the new operational structure help Discovery India? |
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What are the key focus areas for India? |
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Are you looking at growth through launch of more channels?
We have 14 channels and we will bring what we feel will click the best. Discovery HD is definitely a channel we are keen on bringing to India. Discovery Science is another channel that we feel would work well here. Of course, it is also important for cable to go digital. Otherwise getting carried gets difficult. |
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Discovery has launched Planet Green, a new channel for environment, in the US. Do Are there plans to launch in India? |
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In terms of revenue, how important is India within Asia? |
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How is Animal Planet faring after going Hindi? |
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Will you be doing a Hindi feed for Discovery Travel and Living? |
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How has Discovery Travel and Living evolved as a brand since launching four years back? |
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What have been the programming highlights for the channel this year?
We will be launching a multimedia campaign to push our 10 pm slot. This is because our viewers tune in a little later. Personality-based shows will air at this time, seven days a week. The message of the campaign is that at this time you will see hosts like Nigella Lawson, Ian Wright and Anthony Bourdain; the campaign theme will focus on the most recognisable faces on the channel. This will be the largest campaign ever done for the channel. |
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Is the aim to bring in appointment viewing? |
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In what way is the programming strategy being fine tuned for local audiences? |
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Has the thematic weekend concept worked? It has done well and the thematic weekends are continuing. But over time our aim is to build a theme across a day - rather than having one theme continuing everyday. Our aim is to strengthen the genres. For instance if you take shows like Anthony Bourdain and Cheese Slices, it is not just about food. It is also about travel, visiting new places. Different genres get intertwined. |
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What do you look for in a local show?
Our shows have to have an individual and distinctive personality. They need to be of the same class and quality as the other shows that we air. There can't be any compromise as the same shows travel abroad and showcase India to the world. |
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What are the other time bands that DTL is developing outside the 10 pm slot? We are also looking at the midnight to 1 am time slot. People watch us at that hour. I think that some channels are missing out on viewership by not concentrating on this audience. They simply run repeats at this hour. Many people work till late and then watch television. |
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Is it difficult to get clients to commit serious monies for Discovery Travel and Living with the economy in a downturn? Our market is on an upswing. Our TG has not been impacted by the downturn. We have over 600 brands with us including L'Oreal and the car companies. Volkswagen is starting a marketing campaign and they are using our channel as a vehicle. Packaged good companies also advertise with us. Companies that want to target the premium audience cut out wastage completely when they come to us. |
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What are the tentpole properties coming up for Discovery?
We will also celebrate Nasa's 50th anniversary with a show When We Left Earth. Nasa has given us footage of the Apollo Missions. This is the first time that Nasa has done this. |
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What is Discovery's new media strategy? We already have our website. For the mobile, 3G has to happen; the phones have to support rich media content. Right now one is still with ring tones and music tones. |