Reinventing Discovery

By N. N. Sachitanand

BANGALORE, AUG. 12. ``Discovery" is acknowledged to be a TV channel with excellent attributes - thought-provoking programmes, outstanding production quality, wide range of subjects and, most important of all, absorbing viewing. Yet, for the last six years it has been shown in India, it has not been able to garner mass viewership and has remained slotted as a niche channel. In the general viewer's mind, it is associated wrongly with being focussed only on science and travel.

All this is likely to change with a radical shift in programming strategised by the new man at the helm of Discovery Communications India, Mr. Deepak Shourie, who took over from Mr. Kiran Karnik three months ago.

Mr. Deepak (yes, he is the brother of Mr. Arun Shourie) , comes to Discovery after a string of marketing successes in India Today, Hindustan Times, Outlook and Zee TV.

In a chat with this correspondent in Bangalore recently, Mr. Deepak pointed out that extensive consumer research undertaken by Discovery indicated that although there was a general consensus that it was a great channel to watch , there was confusion about which programme to watch when.

``It's like this," explained Mr. Deepak, ``the average viewer knows what to tune in at which time of the day - whether it is a yoga/exercise show in the morning or sports in the evening or soaps at prime time or the news at 9 p.m. or a movie late in the night. Our new programming strategy, called My Time on Discovery, addresses this consumer need. The new programming recognises the viewing convenience of each family member and gives them what they want from Discovery at the time that they want it. For example, morning is a time when the members of the household are busy getting ready for work and school. So, the viewing is passive and the programme content should, accordingly, demand least focussed attention. We show nature and travel programmes like Lonely Planet and Wild Discovery at that time. Similarly, after school hours in the afternoon is when the kids monopolise the TV and that will be when we will be beaming our programmes for kids such as Mega Movie Magic and Popular Mechanics. The post lunch period is when the housewives tend to be free and we will be showing content such as Health Showcase and Travel Time for their watching pleasure and education. Thus, the day has been divided into blocks like Sunrise, Discovery Kids and Primetime and the appropriate programmes slotted accordingly."

By reconfiguring the channel to offer relevant content for the target audience at the right time, Mr. Shourie hopes to not only substantially improve Discovery's viewer rating in India but also provide advertisers a focussed platform to reach out to their key target groups.

Discovery was founded in 1985 by Mr. John Hendricks and now has annual revenues of $2 billion. It reaches over 200 million subscriber homes in 155 countries in 33 languages. Discovery Channel India, launched in 1995, is a 24-hour channel with parallel Hindi and English feeds and now reaches over 21 million homes throughout India. It became a pay channel in April 1999 and is now digital on a global beam. It is at present also aired as a block on Vijay TV and DD Metro. According to Mr. Shourie, negotiations are on with other TV channels in India and surrounding countries to carry Discovery. The channel's parent company, the U.S.- based Discovery Communications Inc., has also launched from March 1999 another 24-hour pay channel in India called Animal Planet.

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