Discovery Lifestyle Networks VP Aditya Tripathi began his professional career with Living Media India Ltd., and has worked in senior positions with some of the biggest media houses in the country. He made the move to Discovery in 2000 and his expertise in creating brand empathy, marketing and promotion has gone a long way to reinvigorate the various Discovery brands in India, especially Travel & Living.
India is attaining prominence because of the socio-economic developments taking place in the country. Ahead of Discovery Travel & Living's (DT&L) first local production The Great Indian Wedding to be aired on 20 August, Tripathi spoke to Indiantelevision.com's Usha Thomas about how the lifestyle channel was gaining eyeballs with incessant demand from both Indian and foreign viewers for India-centric content.
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How did the concept of a lifestyle channel come about? The senior management from the parent group came to India and wanted to be convinced that India was the right place to launch a lifestyle channel. After a day of the usual presentations, we took them to Gurgaon and showed them the homes, buildings under construction, call centres and malls. They looked around and said if this is the future of India, then lifestyle is the future of India and right there in the middle of a shopping mall, we were given the go ahead to launch DT&L. And, hence India was the first country to launch lifestyle networks. |
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What is the positioning of the channel? |
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Who is your target audience? |
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Outline your performance in viewership, reach and among advertisers? Word of mouth and strong advertiser response is an indicator of our success. We are looking at the mindset which goes beyond demographics. Though TAM is a very democratic form of measurement designed to measure television groups across the country, groups, cities & towns, it is not designed to measure our target audience. For us, it is the people in malls, in fine dining restaurants, our ad agencies who are watching the channel. We believe that it is not in numbers but in the quality of programming and nature of programming that is getting us noticed. DT&L is about innovative, up market and interesting programming and we seek to experiment with properties that transverse different genres. We also pride ourselves on understanding our audience. Audience feedback has greatly attributed to our success and word of mouth is what makes us tick. In the first year, we had 236 brands on the channel and each time we go to an ad agency, the decision makers and their families are watching the channel so we have got very positive response from the advertisers to this channel. Also, despite the rapid growth of the television industry in India, advertising spends on lifestyle brands have traditionally been restricted to the print medium. The lifestyle channel provides advertisers with a dynamic media vehicle to reach a well targeted and defined viewership profile. It attracts 120 advertisers from across product categories, further cementing the channel's unique value proposition. |
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DT&L is providing a variety of shows, apart from just travel based shows. The programming strategy on DT&L since 2004? We have evolved keeping our original concept in mind and have grown far more than expected since our launch two years ago. Content is the key driver. We have made it our policy to incorporate as many different genres as possible and to acquire international programs or create localised programming in order to form a strong bond with our viewers. The Theme Week and Sunday Brunch strategy introduced in end December 2005 targeted at both viewers and advertisers. These programming blocks were created to appeal to the various target groups at times that they prefer while at the same time giving advertisers a focussed platform to reach key audiences. We have introduced a number of genre-defining programmes that have never been seen before in India, for example,American Chopper, Faking It, Million Dollar Agents, Miami Ink. We have all along explored different different genres of programming and experimented with reality factual programming with a difference. We don't do celeb focusssed programming and are not overawed by celebs. Shows that we have incorporated have ranked extremely high in terms of quality and appeal and capitalize on wit and local humor, apart from being real. |
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What are your views on DTH in India? Today, we have the choice to choose the bouquet you want and the channel you want, so we welcome it. Internationally, the Discovery family of channels has thrived in all DTH markets. All three of our channels - Discovery, Animal Planet and Travel & Living are available on Dish TV and Tata Sky. We get to see the channel we want rather than with cable ops where they run all the channels and one can't choose. For DTH, exclusivity is important and that suits us. |
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Can you tell us about Discovery producing programs in India? The way the Discovery format is used, we make a program on one part of the world and we show it in other parts of the world. That is the nature of our programming and all the shows on the three channels Discovery, DT&L and Animal Planet are of global interest. Similarly, we know our channel here is an international channel that provides high quality entertainment for a global audience. |
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Give us the complete lowdown on the first local production The Great Indian Wedding? At the time that we decided on the wedding series, the media was all agog about the Chatwal wedding. Many other channels were trying to get the coverage and when we spoke to the Chatwals, they readily agreed to give us exclusive access to all the happenings on the wedding which was to be held in three cities in India - Mumbai, Udaipur and Delhi. The Great Indian Wedding is a one of a kind series, allowing the viewer to experience the wedding as an insider. The focus is on weddings with a difference and have a twist to them: opulence, glam quotient, location and theme. The pilot episode premieres on 20 August at 8 pm. During the ad break of this pilot episode, a banner will be streamed asking viewers if they have a great Indian wedding coming up. Based on the responses and our research, the 13 part series will be made. The remaining episodes will go into production in the 2006-2007 wedding season. We are looking at ethnic, different weddings and need not be of the same scale as the Chatwal wedding. Apart from the many applications received for the upcoming wedding season, we expect many more once the pilot episode is aired. The programme captures the glamorous theme parties extending from exotic locations like Jag Mandir in Udaipur to premium hotels in Delhi, the striking performances by Indian and international artists and the romantic and religious wedding ceremony. The host, Natasha Mago presents an insiders view, chatting up the bride, groom, guests, the challenges and frustrations of the wedding planner and the actual wedding ceremony. All guests invited at the wedding who appear on the show have given their signed consent in this regard, mainly to avoid legal hassles later, what with the high celeb turnout for this wedding. Our aim is to showcase India and showing a wedding held at the opulent and historical venues at Udaipur & Delhi, we hope to do our bit in promoting tourism in India. Keeping in tune with the high standards that Discovery is associated with, budgets were high especially as it was all shot on digibeta cameras. It was not studio based and there will be no compromise on the quality of the film, light, sound and effects used. We are clear that each programme should include a unique and entertaining story, credible facts and high-quality production values. |
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What are the marketing initiatives being undertaken for the new local shows? |
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Have you set targets regarding the amount of India centric content? |
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What outdoor activities are being planned in India in order to extend the brand beyond television? |
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Name few acquisitions made recently? |
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Are Indian viewers different from their counterpart in other countries? |
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Any plans of incorporating broadband and mobile into your business? For the series aired last quarter Five Takes, we had selected young people in their early to mid-twenties, and have given them $50 a day, a camera to film and software to edit so they document their daily lives. We gave the audience the opportunity to vote on the net and via SMS to decide where these young people should go and what they should do. |
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In the niche channel environment where perception counts for a lot customization, do mention any customised solutions that have been done for clients? |