Discovery Channel - Discovering India

"Discovery India has to rework its brand positioning. We've to reorient our image. Science and history programs will be publicised more."

- Kiran Karnik, Former MD - Discovery Channel, India, in 1998.¹

"Discovery is in the infotainment genre while National Geographic is all about wildlife."

- Pio Linhares, Media Supervisor, HTA, in 2001.²

"The biggest challenge is to get Discovery out of the niche arena. We plan to position Discovery in the mainstream market. Because it is a mainstream channel"

- Deepak Shourie, MD, Discovery Channel India, in 2001.³

Discovery Channel - Discovering India: Reaching Out to Indian Viewers

In October 2002, readers of 'India Today4,' a popular weekly magazine in India were surprised to receive a program guide of Discovery Channel (Discovery) along with the magazine. The program guide provided information on Discovery's programs for the coming quarter. Along with programming information, it provided a program summary. The program guide was in the form of booklet that could be pulled out from the magazine and retained by the consumer. This move was aimed at familiarizing Indian viewers with Discovery. According to channel sources, a market research survey revealed that while viewers loved to watch Discovery; they were not aware of its programs and their broadcast timings. Sanjay Raina (Raina), Associate Director, Marketing, said, "The booklet is laid out in an easy-to-use manner, so that consumers can plan their viewing on Discovery by flipping through its pages and locating the different time bands."5 Discovery also changed its programming content and announced a new programming strategy for its Indian viewers.

In early 2003, it announced a distribution tie-up with Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India Limited. Under this arrangement, Discovery would be made available by SET along with its other channels. According to channel sources, this would help Discovery increase its viewer base from 21 million homes to 29 million homes.

Though Discovery's changed programming strategy was successful (it increased its viewership from 13 million in 1999 to 21 million in 2001), analysts expressed doubts about the channel's continued viewership growth in India, as National Geographic Channel (NGC); (Refer Exhibit I), its competitor, had also changed its programming strategy to increase viewership. However, Discovery was confident about its performance in India and said that it did not regard NGC as its competitor, as the programming content of NGC was different from that of Discovery.

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1] Interview with Kiran Karnik, www.rediff.com, August 14, 1998.
2] National Geographic Inches Ahead of Discovery, www.agencyfaqs.com, March 16, 2001
3] Interview with Deepak Shourie, www.agencyfaqs.com, September 3, 2001
4] India Today is one of the leading current affairs magazines in India.
5] Discovery Banks On Innovation to Announce Its Programming Line Up, www.agencyfaqs.com, October 4, 2002.

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