Sapna Nair
Media

Discover reality weddings on ‘Destination India’

Discovery Networks India begins a journey of more India-specific shows on Discovery Travel & Living. Through one of these, ‘The Great Indian Wedding’, the channel hopes to unravel the wedding extravaganzas for which India is so well known

Discovery Networks India announced its foray into producing India-centric shows on the Discovery Travel & Living channel amidst select media at the Hotel Oberoi Udaivilas on Thursday (August 10, 2006) night.

Under this initiative, the channel will feature ‘The Great Indian Wedding’, its first magnum opus show produced in India, to be aired on Sundays. The show, as its name suggests, will focus on Indian weddings that have the required grandeur, glamour and ethnicity quotient. The debut episode of ‘The Great Indian Wedding’ will feature the much talked about wedding of hotelier Vikram Chatwal with model Priya Sachdev.

There will be a series of such weddings and, during the show, the channel will call for entries from viewers who wish to have weddings documented or televised. The desired parameters have not been specified, but channel executives emphasise that the wedding should be worth featuring on television.

In an era when most channels are roping in celebrities to breathe life into their shows’ TVRs, Discovery Networks says it won’t take that route, but, instead, will feature a mix of both celebrity and non-celebrity weddings.

Another show on the anvil is ‘Indian Rendezvous’, which will have six well-known hosts on a journey to their native cities. Among these celebrities are Sushma Reddy, Konkona Sen Sharma and Nagesh Kukonoor, who will tour Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, respectively.

Third is a show to be hosted by Vir Sanghvi, called ‘A Matter of Taste’. Sanghvi will tour around India, discovering the Indian palate. Other programmes being planned include features on hotels, fashion and interiors, all of which are still to be finalised.

With so many India-centric shows lined up, it may appear that the channel is completely shifting its focus to India. But Deepak Shourie, EV-P and managing director, Discovery Networks India, clarifies, “Indian programming will not dominate the channel, though we will continue to commission programmes that capture contemporary India. This is to satisfy the demand for more India-oriented content from both international and Indian audiences.”

The channel defines its target group as upscale SEC AB English speaking audiences, males, females and children, between 18 and 45 years old. But again, it likes to identify its target with the psychographic parameter than the demographic. With these new shows, the channel hopes to garner a broader and larger audience share, some from viewers within the target and some from outside the primary target.

As the other niche channels, Discovery Networks is also eagerly waiting for the DTH service to go full fledged in the metros. Shourie is certain that it will help the channel focus more on its audience and generate considerable revenue. “But it is too premature and difficult to say how much it will contribute to our overall revenue,” adds Aditya Tripathi, vice-president, Lifestyle Networks.

The channel is also certain that the ‘The Great Indian Wedding’, produced by Delhi based Blue Mango Films, will invite product integration from various brands and is exploring the possibilities. In terms of promotion of the show, the channel will advertise mainly in print and on television.

Started in November 2004, the channel today claims to have surpassed a few channels of the English entertainment genre in terms of viewership and channel share and boasts of adding some prestigious names to its list of advertisers in a short while.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

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