World’s largest factual entertainment company Discovery Communications, has entered into India’s video streaming landscape with the launch of ‘Discovery Plus’. Aimed at filling the need gap of premium factual entertainment, the app is available in both – subscription and ad-supported models.
The app is first of its kind service from Discovery globally, where ‘Discovery Plus’ will have aggregated and curated content across 40+ genres including science, adventure, food and lifestyle from Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, BBC, TLC, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, ID, Food Network, HGTV, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Motortrend and VICE.
“Discovery has been leading the factual entertainment space on TV in India for over 25 years now and once of the key reasons was that we started localising by being available across eight languages. But while TV continues to be a strong play, there is a lot of consumption on the go via digital devices,” said Megha Tata, MD – South Asia, Discovery. “So we decided to follow our consumers and launch this service.”
Tata added that there are over 40 video streaming or over-the-top (OTT) services, but most have scripted content. “If you want unscripted, real-life content, there is a big lacuna, which we can fill.”
As per Tata, while other OTT services have to invest a lot of money on original programming, Discovery+ it is negligible. “We have over 300,000 hours of library and we add 8,000 hours of content every year. So our model is very sustainable,” she said.
Priced competitively with an introductory offer of Rs 299 per year, the app has been developed and curated specifically for India. In the initial phase, the company will reach out to company’s core TV audience base of 25 million consumers across Tier I and Tier II towns, who watch over 3 hours of infotainment content every month.
The service will offer content across multiple languages. While 20% of content is currently available across eight languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi, 70% is available in five languages. Around 10% of content is currently available only on English and Hindi.
While paid subscribers will get a large selection of never-seen-before premium Discovery titles, documentaries, India originals and exclusive acquisitions, free users of the app will have access to all-time favourites from the Discovery library.
The app also has a unique destination titled ‘Shorts’, which features free short-form videos, specially catering to the new and emerging Indian mobile user looking for infotainment on the go.
“Discovery Plus is in a way hybrid app for all types of consumers. It has short form snackable content as well as large form series and documentaries. It allows for easy discovery and sharing of content,” said Issac John, business head – Digital (South Asia), Discovery.
Currently available on Google Play and Apple App Store, the service will be available across Android TVs and Fire TV stick in a few weeks, John added.
Discovery India has conducted multiple consumer researches to find cues to develop a truly differentiated product. In a nationwide research conducted across 10 cities, 62% of consumers indicated that they are keen to subscribe to a product that will offer interesting knowledge about the world.
Rajinikanth’s TV debut show –‘Into The Wild With Bear Grylls’ will be launched first on Discovery Plus at 6 am on March 23, much before the television premiere which is at 8 pm.
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