A window into France

ENTERTAINMENT: Discovery Travel airs country-specific programming, and India is on next month.

This is France's week on the Discovery Travel and Living channel. It is being featured in the weekly five-part programme (Monday to Friday) airing at 9 pm. Dubbed Vive La France, the series will conclude on Friday to coincide with Bastille Day.

"We've tried to showcase different aspects of France by culling out different series from our channel Discovery," says Aditya P Tripathi, VP (lifestyle), Discovery Travel and Living.

To be fair, the series does look promising. It showcases interesting facts about the country and captures in detail the country's vibrant culture and lifestyle.

"Everyone talks about French cheeses, but our programme will explore the story behind the cheeses. For instance, there are caves in France where humidity and temperatures remain constant throughout the year. We'll take you there through our programme," says Tripathi. Similarly, the story of Eiffel Tower will reveal extraordinary stories and uncover its interesting past.

While this is just one of the programmes being showcased on a particular country, Discovery Travel and Living, in the near future, will also focus on New Zealand, Britain and Australia.

And India? Considering the channel first started its operations one-and-a-half years ago in India, shouldn't there be a lot more Indian content?

Tripathi says the channel has commissioned Indian producers to generate content. Though he refuses to divulge details, he admits that the first programme will be aired early next month.

However, rumour has it that it will kick off its Indian content with a show on the grand Vikram Chatwal wedding.

As far as taking content from Discovery channel is concerned, Tripathi adds, it has significantly dropped from 40 per cent to a mere 10 per cent. The channel is not looking at any revamp"" "We don't do that, instead we modify and yes, we'll continue to experiment."

It entered India when there was no channel dedicated to lifestyle, and managed to get the programming mix right through a trial-and-error process. Its target audience is the 25-45 age group, just the sort curious about French art, French wine and everything else French.