Discovery guns for India's twin passions; nationalism and feminism

Discovery communications India announced today that it is planning to disrupt the digital space with the launch of a bouquet of mobile-first channels in early 2018.

 

The first two channels will focus on core consumer interest areas, ‘military’, ‘Girlist’. Called VEER by Discovery and RISE by TLC the channels will go live next month. 

 

These will be followed by specialist automotive and food focused mobile-first channels later in April 2018, Karan Bajaj, senior VP and GM, Discovery Communications India, told reporters in Mumbai today.

 

He said, “We are thrilled to accelerate engagement with the growing base of young consumers who are increasingly snacking short form content. These passionate communities form an integral part of the consumption pattern across digital media and we see this trend accentuating further in future."

 

He added that these digital channels will help the company ramp up reach across linear and digital platforms by almost 3 times (from 21 million in the linear television medium, to more than 60 million viewers as a combined audience) making it an irresistible proposition for the advertisers who will have the option to reach out to consumers across both media.

 

With a large content library across these areas, DCIN claims it's uniquely positioned to launch and further develop these special-interest verticals across various social and mobile platforms. The initiative leverages on the unprecedented growth of passionate online communities that is driving a sizeable 15 per cent of the digital video consumption in India in the lifestyle and factual genre.

 

The company has identified a big market opportunity in this space. It claims that  almost all OTT services mostly offer long-form linear content on digital even though the consumption trends indicate that 76% of all online videos watched are short-form content.

 

It has partnered with YouTube, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Play to maximise its reach across social and mobile platforms.