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NEW DELHI: In a refreshingly media interaction, flush with
business data, Discovery Travel & Living announced the
coming launch of the new Indian cuisine experience programme,
riding an all-time high of reach, advertising media response
and overall business success.
The upcoming seven episode programme "Matter of Taste"
with Vir Sanghvi taking the audience through the Indian eating
experience, richly spiced with humour, caustic critique and
depth of research, is premiering on May 6 and if the series
makes business sense, it will be carried forward, said Aditya
P Tripathi, vice president, Discovery Communications India.
In a selective media screening for the trade media scribes,
a 15-minute run-up to the show was presented, preceded by
a surprisingly confident business presentation, which showed
that at 22.5 Indian viewers for Travel & Living and 79.5
million viewers for the three channels DTL, Discovery and
Animal Planet put together, the only 24-hour lifestyle channel
in the country is claiming a rare success.
Within two years of starting off in the country, the Reach
has crossed 29 million, and so far as advertising "we
have sold more volumes than most of the other English channels
in the country," Tripathi claimed.
In terms of connectivity a comparison shows that in the six
metros, DTL has scored the highest with 73 per cent, followed
by HBO (70 per cent) and Star Movies standing at 68 of the
target audience. The figures in the non-metro, one-million
+ cities, the figures are 74, 75 and 75 respectively.
Tripathi explained that this is because of the depth of content,
the amount of money spent on research and production and the
high quality of streaming using the P, C and S band transponders.
Research shows that both brand and programme recall for programmes
shown on DTL are very high, Tripathi said.
Asked about the coming challenge from another English language
Indian channel that is also planning their new lifestyle channel,
Rahul Johri, senior vice president, advertising and sales,
said: "That is not an issue, because we have heard about
the kind of budget they are keeping, and there is no way they
could compete."
Answering a query Johri said that on an average, an international
class programme of an hour on DTL costs 80,000 to 1,00,000
dollars. "This is often the entire monthly budget of
an average Indian channel.
Overall, Cas has been a boom for the channel, Tripathi said,
because the kind of homes taking Cas are the very ones which
is DTL's target.
"Discovery Travel & Living is the most upscale amongst
English Entertainment genre," Tripathi claimed, with
32 per cent audience in the Sec A category on a Demographic
Profile factor.
It is among the top three of the English language channels
in the country, Tripathi said giving figures, with 10 per
cent relative channel share in the one million-plus cities,
and 12 per cent in the six metros.
At 31 per cent, Star Movies is the highest in the metros,
followed by HBO at 24 per cent.
The gap is big, admitted Tripathi, but asked on the impact
of Cas, he said that as Cas is extended across the country,
the shares of other channels would climb down because of the
rejection of some pay channels that is being seen under Cas.
"Cas blunts the peak of a mass channel, but we are not
a mass channel. This is extremely focused channel. And in
any case, we are seen 90 countries across the world. The monitisation
that we achieve is not possible for any Indian channel on
lifestyle," Tripathi explained.
"Our growth will not be as high as it has been when
Cas is extended, but those are audiences we are not targeting
anyway," Johri explained.
Interestingly, Tripathi said that though there are many lifestyle
magazines, but the total readership of all these magazines
put together (as per latest NRS figures) is just one third
of the viewership of DTL.
The presentation of the new series with Vir Sanghvi as the
guide (they do not want him to be seen as a mere presenter)
takes the audience through a real experience of Indian cuisine.
The seven episodes, quite a la Sanghvi, has been given conceptual
names, with the episode on Chinese cuisine called Sino-Ludhianvi
Cuisine, after the fact that Indian Chinese food is a complete
new genre, with the basics of China and the spices that are
typically from Ludhiana.
Likewise, the edition on Tandoori Chicken is called The Migratory
Bird, since it has jumped geographical barriers and become
firmly posted on menus across the West.
Te issues DTL, aided by Sanghvi's prolific knowledge and
research, are Chinese, Tea, Rajasthni, South Indian food,
Tandoori Chicken, milk-related items and Indian wine. The
show will be on seven Sundays at 8.30, starting May 6. The
encores will be on each following Thursday at 10 pm.
The programme is unique, without doubt. Sanghvi takes the
audience on a voyage where - as per general DTL programming
trends it is not a cookery programme but the whole thing about
food: its genesis, roots, cultural context, corruption of
recipes and mutations that are barely in common with the original.
"I do not think this is even a cuisine programme, but
more of an experience of Indian cuisine," said Ruchika
Tandon, assistant manager, corporate communications.
Tripathi said DTL has not done too many Indian programmes,
but there will be more now, possibly riding the success of
this one.
Sanghvi hs been signed on for more than the episodes that
would be showed in the coming series. It will be expanded
to possibly 13 shows if this one does well.
Johri said also that these series would be shown by their
sister concerns across the globe, depending on what they want,
and may be not the entire series, but at least a good chunk
of this would be telecast across other spaces.
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