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Discovery Channel speaks in Bangla to woo advertisers
With this addition, the channel is now available in five languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English.
In a bid to deliver increased value to advertisers through expanded viewership, Discovery Channel has now decided to speak in Bengali.
With this addition, the channel is now available in five languages. These include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English, apart from its latest edition of Bangla.
"Viewers can choose their preferred language through the remote control," Rahul Johri, senior vice-president and general manager -- South Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, tells afaqs!
Discovery has initiated the Bangla feed with 16 hours of dubbed content, but from June 1 onwards, the parallel feed will be available in Bengali 24X7.
Johri notes that while Discovery Channel's distribution remains strong nationwide, the availability of regional language feeds predominantly increases the product's connectivity with the viewers.
For the record, in 1998, Discovery Channel launched its 24-hour parallel Hindi feed, which boosted the channel's nationwide viewership. The channel later launched a 24-hour Tamil feed on January 1, 2010. This helped the channel gain a strong foothold in Tamil Nadu. It further penetrated into the southern market with the launch of the Telugu feed on January 1, 2011.
In conjunction with the launch of the Bangla feed, Discovery Channel will be featuring a fresh line-up of programmes with 13 premiere series, six returning series, and various topical specials across all its key genres. These are adventure, survival, science, engineering, natural history, wildlife, topical events, investigation, technology, astronomy, and exploration.
The 13 new series are Air Crash Confidential, Monster Bug Wars, We Built This City, Medical Anomalies, Wildlife, Beyond Survival With Les Stroud, Factory Made, Dual Survival, Planet Earth -- The Future, Mega Moves, Bad Universe, Swamp Brothers and Freedom Rising.
Meanwhile, the six series which will come back with new stories are I Shouldn't Be Alive, Whale Wars, Build It Bigger, How Do They Do It, Destroyed In Seconds and Monsters Inside Me.
Discovery Channel currently reaches out to approximately 55 million subscribers in India and is available on analog, digital, IPTV and mobile platforms.