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Don't
look, its changing.
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Discovery
Communications MD Deepak Shourie
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Discovery
Channel is turning from a staid edutainment channel to a
zippy clued in channel come 1 April. Not content with a
slew of new programming initiatives directed at specific
audiences and distinct advertisers, the channel aims to
go south with a vengeance within the next four months. The
success of the Hindi audio feed has inspired the channel
to launch either a Tamil or a Telugu audio feed soon, says
Discovery Communications India managing director Deepak
Shourie.
The
new look Discovery, touted as an Alternate Channel for viewers
tired of soap and film, will have nine special time bands
for women, kids, youth, family and even a special late night
band for adults. The bands, classified as Sunrise,
Woman's Hour, Amazing Animals, Discovery
Kids, Action Zone, Family Time, Friday
Showcase, Perfect Ten, Late Night Discovery
and Discovery Weekends are not a new concept though.
The channel had proposed to launch the bands in October
2001. Shourie says the channel delayed the relaunch to test
initial responses; the events of 11 September provided the
other lag. The new programmes will focus on adventure, arts,
aviation, crime, romance, sexual behaviour, sports, travel
and wars.
This
initiative puts Discovery's earlier plan of launching two
new channels, Discovery Health and Discovery Travel &
Adventure on the back burner, as Shourie says all the elements
have been incorporated in the new look Discovery itself.
The channel meanwhile has already withdrawn content being
aired on Vijay TV, and that on Doordarshan channels, Metro
and Bharati will be stopped by the end of this month. The
new look Discovery is already being promoted in a big way
with hoardings splashed across the metros, ads put out in
print and on the tube, all created by an in house team.
DCI's other baby, Animal Planet, which has been trudging
along at a negligible pace, is also due for a shot in the
arm in the next two months, says Shourie.
Discovery
currently has 70,000 hours of software in its library and
is adding 3000 hours every year. Explaining the logic behind
not stressing on Indian content, Shourie says it costs the
channel $ 1.5 million per hour to produce content, an investment
that should be worthy of being beamed worldwide. "I too
would look forward to programmes filmed in India that could
be telecast everywhere," he says.
The
channel maintains that Discovery is today the sixth most
widely distributed channel in the country and reaches over
21 million households. After programmes were realigned to
audience viewing habits in 2001, prime time viewership went
up by 21 per cent, kids' band viewership by 20 per cent
and women's band viewership by 43 per cent, claims the channel.
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