NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GETS
HOT ON INDIA

With its penetration rising to a heartening 7.8 million Indian cable TV homes, National Geographic is looking for ways to further enhance its position in the Indian market. The channel, which had earlier given a majority 50% stake to Fox (the other partners are NBC and the National Geographic Society), is scouting around for an Asian head as well as a manager for its India office. National Geographic is currently distributed in India by Star TV India as a basic pay TV subscription service.

On a whistle stop tour of India, vice-president, programming Marcia Goh and senior manager marketing Pauline Goh revealed that a clutch of new programmes would make their debut on the channel. Among these: Savage Skies, Tomorrow's World and Intimate Strangers.

They added that National Geographic was working on bringing down international documentary film makers and personalities to India, promoting the new programming on the channel, and working with local educational and like-minded institutions to develop region specific programming. A six-part series on India covering its sub-cultures has been planned to be shown on the channel as part of the initiative. A one-hour programming band for the Indian market is also being developed.

The National Geographic management is also believed to be in conversation with channels such as Tamil language service Vijay TV to carry dubbed programming blocks for which advertising revenue will be shared. Discovery India has joined the bandwagon, announcing its intentions of launching regional language programming blocks on other regional channels.

Goh admits that not much advertising revenue is coming out of India though advertisers such as Videocon, and Merrill Lynch, had come on board. A strong push on this front will be made in the near future, she said.