Discovery Channel surpassed viewership numbers of diverse Hindi as well as English news channels, music channels and English movie channels to become the fourteenth largest in the country this year. Going ahead, Rahul Johri, senior vice-president, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP), tells Sharmistha Mukherjee in a free-wheeling interview, the network plans to launch its offerings in multiple languages, add to its bouquet and produce localised content to strengthen its hold in the Indian market. Edited excerpts:
You are the largest non-fiction channel in the country. What factors contributed to this growth?
Entertainment channels, news channels, movie channels and music channels all have similar programming these days. It is in a clutter like this that brands like Discovery stand out for the exclusive content we offer. As much as 65 per cent of this country is under 30 years of age; habits are changing very fast. Whatever research we do, we hear there is a tremendous appetite for knowledge and that is what we are satisfying. As compared to the first quarter of last year, we have grown 29 per cent.
Your TRPs have increased but the story changes from the advertising sales perspective.
Not true. The proof of all this is in ad sales. Discovery Channel today and Travel and Living are sold out in all spots from seven in the morning till 12 in the night. In terms of absolute inventory, the news channels would show higher minutage than us and the reason for this is, we are only 12 minutes of ad every hour. Their breaks are flexible. Our load factor is 100 per cent.
On ad rates, how does Discovery compare with news channels?
It is comparable. News channels get sold at a higher price because of perception. The best thing that happened to us was the downturn last year. People got more cautious of where the money was going, ROIs (returns on investment) became that much more important. Every spot was being analysed. That saw a jump in the inventory that we are selling.
You broadcast Discovery in a single regional language in India. Globally, you are much more segmented. What is the plan of action for the market here?
We constantly evaluate languages. When Tamil arrived on Discovery the channel’s reach in the state went up by 16 per cent. There is tremendous attraction for a regional language on our network. For us, it’s commentary, and if you have it in the language, you understand it makes for compelling television. That is why we have Discovery runs in 35-odd languages around the world. We are evaluating the prospects of launching in four different languages in the country at present.
You have launched Discovery in HD (high-definition). What kind of subscriber base are you expecting?
Discovery has been the pioneer of HD globally. We believe with the CWG being telecast in HD, all DTH operators would launch the service. Over the next one year, I see around a million subscribers moving on to HD platform.
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The cost of producing HD content is 100-200 per cent higher. Is it sustainable to add on HD channels at this stage?
The cost of producing HD is significantly higher but the reason why we can do this is because our channels are global. We have global economy of scale. If you were to do a true HD channel for one market, it would be a problem. If you can amortise the content over a wider geographic spread, then you can afford to do HD channels.
Going ahead, where do you see yourself in two years?
We see ourselves growing in size, in services. You should see all our offerings in multiple languages. Right now, we broadcast six channels in India. We run 13 networks in the US: there is no reason why you shouldn’t see all those networks here.