Discovery India to rejig entertainment channel

Discovery Communications’ foray into the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) genre, with Jeet, has not resonated with viewers, forcing it to rejig the strategy.

However, its channel for children, a laggard in the genre for years, hit second rank in viewership last week, just behind Nickelodeon. With low ratings for the GEC channel, launched February 12, the broadcaster has decided to offer its viewers Hindi-dubbed versions of entertainment programmes and serials, which the company has acquired from Scripps, known for its lifestyle, food and entertainment content.

Various episodes of current programming, which includes one on the life of Baba Ramdev, will run their course till June, after which the new programmes will be launched. Programmes such as Sunny Leone’s Man vs Wild, to be launched in the second phase, will not be aired. Sources say the broadcaster had invested over ~2.5 billion, one of the highest ever for the company in the country, for the channel to take off.

Karan Bajaj, senior vice-president and general manager for South Asia of Discovery Communications India, says of the need for a rejig: “The pilot response was good but I think we did not get a perfect combination between marketing, distribution and content.” He said they were scanning through over 10,000 hours of content with Scripps to identify the relevant one for India, which could be aired with Hindi dubbing, and then, in other languages. But, the focus will remain on general entertainment.

Bajaj said they want to create a differentiated GEC channel, based on real-life stories. They were never looking at hitting 150 gross rating points (GRPs). “We were not competing with the big channels. We would have been happy if we would have got 40 GRPs but that did not happen,” he said.

Yet, Discovery has some good news. Its children’s channel, Discovery Kids, has become the second-most watched channel, after struggling at ninth or 10th spot for many months.

Bajaj said Discovery changed its strategy for the genre by betting on one big programme, instead of offering many choices. As a result, Little Singham, a daily show, was launched in April. The show is repeated through the day. “We realised kids like repetition. So, we tied up with Reliance Animation to create 156 episodes of this serial and five tele features (movies) in one go. It is a contrarian strategy but has worked,” said Bajaj. The episode is shown for 40 per cent of the total time in the channel and constitutes 60 per cent of the viewership.

Discovery India continues to be a leader in the infotainment genre, controlling a little over 49 per cent market share. Its channels Discovery, Animal Planet and TLC ranked among the first two in their genres.