MUMBAI: After entertaining the Indian audience for over 20 years with world-class documentaries on food, science, survival and more, Discovery Communications India (DCIN) is all set to entertain Indians with its general entertainment channel (GEC) Jeet. Slated to launch on 12 February 2018, Jeet's differentiated content philosophy has enabled the channel to get various brands on board as advertisers and achieve its pre-launch inventory sales targets. The channel has sold out its entire Q1 inventory for advertisers.

Brands such as Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Marico, Mondelez International, Johnson and Johnson, Yellow Diamond and Quickheal have come on board.

DCIN, which will launch the channel with distribution to more than 100 million households in the country, has already signed Netflix as the exclusive global OTT platform. The shows on Jeet will be available on Netflix one month after the first airing.

Jeet is aiming to break the clutter in the Hindi GEC arena riding on purpose-driven entertainment content. The channel will launch with five hours of programming band daily out of which three hours will be bespoke, ground-up original programming built on the thesis of underdog winning.  With an aim to be India’s first national GEC, Discovery Jeet will be available in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The channel does not intend to add more regional languages anytime soon.

Discovery Communications India senior VP and GM (South Asia) Karan Bajaj said that although the channel would initially have only two hours of original weekend programming, the network would look at increasing or decreasing the library depending on the audience reception.

At a press briefing in DCIN’s offices in Mumbai yesterday, Bajaj mentioned that the channel did not plan on premiering movies as they didn’t feel the need to bank on films to get viewership. The team is optimistic about its strong line-up of shows.

The network has been doing a test run for Jeet from 1 February on DTH platform Tata Sky. The channel is available for viewers on channel number 155.

The uplinking of the channel is done from Singapore. All the content feed is sent there before the show is finally telecasted across India.

Discovery Jeet will be made available for viewers in Standard and High Definition feed. During the launch, almost 120 million households will be able to see Discovery Jeet as a part of their Discovery Communication network pack on DTH platforms.

Bajaj emphasised that there would be more content and less ads in Q1 in order to build a following for the content before deciding to increase the ad inventory.

DCIN’s business model has changed from foreign content to now local mass targeted content. The network that aired international documentaries and shows on Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, TLC, etc will now focus majorly on Indian originated content for the masses.

The channel has taken a very unique marketing approach in order to promote the shows. The marketing for all show on the channel will be very regional and will vary geographically. For instance, a show that is based in Punjab will be majorly advertised in the region as opposed to another show on the channel where the story is based on Tamilians.

With Discovery Kids all set to air Little Singham starting March and Jeet in its last leg of launch, Bajaj is highly optimistic about both the channels. He believes that Discovery Kids and Discovery Jeet will become prime properties of the network that will drive maximum viewership and ratings for the network.

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