Adgully Exclusive | We are trying to deepen the viewing experience: Discovery's Rahul Johri

Back in 1985, when John Hendricks decided to launch a channel, he wanted to come out with something unique ' something that's not conventional in those days, and something which was then considered a dangerous and a challenging job.

Hendricks had a vision ' a vision to launch a channel, which will provide documentaries focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history.

That led to the emergence of Discovery Channel.

The channel was launched with $5 million start-up capital from the BBC and several other investors and it would broadcast for 12 hours between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. with about 75 per cent of the content new to American viewers.

Today Discovery has got wings and has many channels under its umbrella. It's perhaps one of the most watched channels and has won many awards for prime-time programmes.

Beginning in 2005, Discovery revamped its line up to focus more closely on its traditional themes of popular science, history, and geography.

The network garnered a total of seven prime-time Emmy award nominations in 2006 for shows including The Flight that Fought Back (about United Airlines Flight 93) and Deadliest Catch.

In 2007, Discovery Channel's top series include Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, the Emmy-award winning Planet Earth, MythBusters, and Deadliest Catch. Discovery's announced plans for 2008 include a new series with Josh Bernstein, who left History Channel to join Discovery. Other announced series include Fight Quest, Smash Lab, and the fourth season of Deadliest Catch.

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific's current portfolio of six networks in India includes Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, Discovery HD World, Discovery Turbo and Travel and Living (which was recently re-named as TLC).

Travel and Living or TLC, is one of the more successful channels under Discovery's umbrella. As the name suggests, TLC features travel shows rather than the documentaries on Discovery Science.

Earlier this year, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific announced the launch of TLC, a premiere lifestyle channel, which will replace Discovery Travel & Living from September 01.

TLC will adorn a much hipper, trendier and cooler look and the viewers will enjoy a bigger, better, bolder channel with new faces, new genres and new places.

TLC promises to offer a diverse range of high quality programmes from Discovery's vast repertoire of content. Featuring inspiring lifestyle and factual entertainment focused on travel, cuisine, adventure, environment, home improvement and gripping human interest stories, TLC aims to bring world-class programmes to television sets.

The new robust programming line-up on TLC, with over 150 hours of captivating content includes 15 premiere shows, 6 new hosts, 11 new seasons and innovative genres such as extreme adventure, family and makeovers.

Upsizing the overall entertainment quotient, TLC will not only be offering premiere series like Sea Nation, Everyday Exotic, Get Out, Glutton for Punishment, London Ink, Ultimate Cake Off, but also bring new seasons of popular shows like WORLD café: middle east, Globe Trekker, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmeren, hell'S kitchen, Vir Sanghvi's asian diary and Living with a Superstar ' Shahrukh Khan. Viewers can also look forward to new lifestyle content including Shimmy and Extreme Sommer.

Not surprisingly Discovery Channel surpassed viewership numbers of diverse Hindi as well as English news channels, and English movie channels to become the fourteenth largest in the country this year.

However a successful brand knows that it constantly needs to reinvent itself to stay ahead of the pack. And that's exactly what Rahul Johri and his team are doing.

Johri is the senior vice president & general manager, India, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific.

So the one would wonder with Travel and Living already a brand to reckon with, what was the need for a change.

"We do continuous research of the markets. We found that we hadn't really refreshed the on air look and the on air content for Travel and Living for some time, actually since it has been launched. We do it from time to time for all our channels. Because it is a lifestyle channel and it very well with its audience, so we thought we should introduce the TLC brand in the international market," explains Johri.

"TLC brand already exists in the United States of America. It's the second largest of our channels in the USA and almost as big as Discovery channel in the USA. So the basic idea behind this (name change) is to provide brand congruency across the globe and having the channel running under the same name in the international markets as well as the American market that is why we are changing it to TLC," he adds.

TLC, like other Discovery channels have been very popular in India. And Johri feels with this they will try and provide a much deeper viewing experience without experimenting with the genres.

"The channel connects very well with the Indian audience. You can say that it's a very successful channel in India. What we are trying to do is really deepen the viewing experience, have a much wider range of shows even though the main genres that we cater to specially food, travel and lifestyle will always be the main theme. But we will try to provide a much deeper viewing experience," he says.

"We wouldn't experiment with genres but we will have more genres. We are introducing adventure now into the channel; you will continue to see more music on the channel. We will continue to do our Big ticket India productions so you will see them gradually in time," he adds.

Planning to adopt a 360 degree approach to promote the channel, Johri reveals that there will be 15 new shows on the channel.

"We will get to see 15 new shows, six new anchors and 11 new seasons of existing shows. So people will see more shows on travel, food, lifestyle, adventure, music and makeover," he reveals.

"Currently we have shortlisted Morgan, one of the high-profile anchors in the world. People will see a new season of Vir Sanghvi's Asian Diary, new episodes of Shahrukh Khan's programme, a whole new season of Globe Trekker with Ian Wright and a whole new season of World Café.

"We also have a very popular series of Ian Wright's ' Invite Mr. Wright, where people from all over the world invite him over; we have shot an episode in Mumbai with Mr. Wright and Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi," he adds.

When quizzed about showcasing the Living with a Superstar' Shahrukh Khan series again, Johri says that the channel is contemplating to bring out similar series for other actors. "A celebrity gives you a good opening. A GEC channel is trying to deliver to the widest possible audience and to achieve that stars are required," he says.

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