Discovery Science to speak Hindi from 1 October

MUMBAI: Infotainment broadcaster Discovery will launch a Hindi feed for Discovery Science on 1 October.

Discovery Science will now be available round the clock in Hindi and English on both analogue and DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon D2H and Airtel Digital TV.

Discovery South Asia senior VP, GM Rahul Johri said, "Since its launch, Discovery Science has successfully driven the mission to bring science back into the spotlight and showcase how indispensable it is in our daily lives. Discovery Science has gone beyond the imagination to explore the unknown and present the greatest discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs in a relatable and refreshing format. We have received an encouraging response from our viewers, affiliates and advertisers across India and the launch of the Hindi feed will deliver an enriching viewing experience especially in the Hindi-speaking markets."

Speaking on this Discovery India VP marketing Rajiv Bakshi said that the decision was the result of viewer demand. "There comes a stage in a channel?s lifecycle when more needs to be done. Discovery Science is present in over 20 million homes. Hindi is the pre dominant language. Languaging helps boost the time spent, it gets in new audiences and also helps with viewers who find that English as a language is a barrier."

Discovery Kids launched earlier this year in English, Hindi and Tamil. TLC and Animal Planet are in English and Hindi. The flagship channel Discovery is in English, Hindi, Telugu and Bangla. In addition, Discovery has a separate channel for the Tamil market.

Bakshi adds that there no plans to have Discovery Science in more languages. Also there are no plans to dub Discovery Turbo and Discovery HD for now. "There is a cost in doing language feeds. There has to be viewer pull and an immediate benefit."

On the programming front coinciding with the Hindi-language feed launch, Discovery Science has announced five series which will be aired over the next three months. ?Prophets of Science Fiction? will present the stories of the strange lives of the visionaries and reveal the secrets of their uncanny ability to see the future; ?Dark Matters? will expose some of history?s most bizarre experiments; ?Alien Encounters? will explore how alien life might communicate with Earth; ?How Tech Works? features the latest and future technologies of the world.

Meanwhile, ?Combat Tech? takes a look at the greatest military engineering accomplishments. Additionally, Discovery Science will feature a line-up ?Space Week? with programmes that focus on space, the universe and astrophysics from October 1 -7, every day at 8 pm.