Roaring On

It’s been 15 years now and Rahul Johri,senior V-P and general manager of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific,says that their biggest achievement remains that despite the entry of rival channels like National Geographic Channel and Fox History and Entertainment,when it comes to infotainment,Discovery still has the farthest reach. “We don’t just look at these specific channels as competition. All programming on television is in direct competition with us. That is because our offerings are so varied — from wildlife to space science to crime investigations,” he explains. And it’s certainly not a niche channel for urban audiences. “It’s precisely to avoid being niche that we decided to venture into Indian language broadcasting,” says Johri. In 1998,the channel introduced a Hindi feed,followed by a Tamil feed in 2009 and a Telugu feed this month.

With the introduction of Animal Planet — a channel which dedicated itself to wildlife and occasional pet videos — Discovery’s popularity soared to new heights. But the real game changer in recent years was the decision to introduce Discovery Travel and Living,now called TLC. “It brought the concept of lifestyle entertainment into India. Although it caters to only a niche audience at this point,it will definitely grow. The genre itself is becoming popular,as proved by the advent of Indian lifestyle channels like NDTV Good Times. But TLC still comes out top,because its production values are much higher.” Although the channel has broadcast India-specific shows like Hotel By The Bay and The Great Indian Wedding,the content is still largely from abroad. However,Tripathi doesn’t think that’s a disadvantage. “It’s a small world where everyone is travelling and is curious to know more about the world,” he says.

Over the years,the number of Discovery fans has only grown. Photographer and documentary filmmaker Ashima Narain is a fan of the nature-based shows and human dramas. “I think apart from the fact that photography is so brilliant,what I like is that you always learn something. For instance,from I Shouldn’t Be Alive,you learn what to do in a disaster situation,while on Man Vs Wild,Bear Grylls teaches you how to survive without proper food,water and shelter in case you ever get lost in the wild,” she says.

However,as its reach and popularity have grown,so have the number of naysayers. Documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan says he is disappointed with the channel because it rarely tackles issues. “When it was announced,I was happy,because I thought we would finally have a channel where documentaries from around the world are shown,tackling the many issues that plague us. But I was disappointed when I saw that all that they were doing was tackling safe subjects like wildlife.”

Another viewer unhappy with Discovery’s content is independent conservation journalist Jay Mazoomdar. According to him the problem is that the focus of the channel seems to have shifted from education to drama. “All you get to see are carnivores or dangerous animals which make for great television drama with blood and gore. Wild animals are a lot more complicated and if you actually go into the wild,you’ll see that things are not as exciting as these programmes tell you,” he says,“Also,due to its format of providing short bursts of excitement,it fails to engage deeply with any issue and ends up more like entertainment for a lazy person who doesn’t want to think too deeply.”

Milestones
1999:Launches another channel,Animal Planet
2004:Discovery Travel and Living (now TLC) goes on air
2005:Introduction of India-specific content on TLC
2010:Launches Discovery Turbo,Discovery Science and Discovery HD World