Character-driven stories, 200 hours of content on Discovery: Karan Bajaj

Discovery Communications has announced the launch of DSport, an all-new premium sports channel in India. The launch marks the first time in over 10 years that a media company has introduced a new sports channel for the Indian market. DSport aims to redefine sports engagement by giving viewers access to unmatched ‘live’ sporting action from around the world with a rich catalogue that covers 4,000+ hours of ‘live’ content every year. 

RC Venkateish, former MD of ESPN Star and former CEO of Dish TV India, will be working closely with DSport, especially in areas related to content acquisition for the channel. 

Karan Bajaj, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, said, “Discovery has been entertaining Indian audiences for over two decades with a well-entrenched portfolio of unique content channels. We are excited to add yet another flagship brand to our growing offering with the launch of DSport, which is set to redefine sports entertainment. Combining India’s passion for sports with our global expertise in sports production DSport will offer a daily dose of 10+ hours of live content for viewers across the country.” 

Speaking to Adgully, Karan Bajaj sheds more light on the sports offering from the Discovery stable, strategy for the smaller markets, response from advertisers and more. Excerpts: 

What kind of response are you expecting for the new sports channel, given that there are several well-entrenched sports channels already existing in the Indian market?
There is a plurality of sports here. We are in negotiations with a cricket league right now. It’s not like we have an anti-cricket stance. If the business model turns out to be right, the property is available at the right valuation, and we feel we can add value to it, then we will buy it. We will have cricket on the channel in about 8-12 weeks. 

Could you tell us more about your talks with cricket boards?
We are in advanced discussions with one or two cricket boards currently. Right now what we have is a very successful launch model, where we have picked up a lot of properties that have a huge passionate base in India. Our aim is to launch a major sports network in India, and cricket is going to be a part of this major network. But we don’t want to join a mega flash acquisition for the sake of it. So, if the financials work out right, we will have a good run. Right now we are heavily relying on RC Venkateish in terms of content acquisition, channel management, etc. He has come on board as a Consultant for the channel. 

Internationally, a lot of horse-racing viewers are driven by betting. How do you plan to tackle this concept in India?
Betting exist in India as well, but we don’t want betting to be the driver of the channel. When we look at the data and re-analyse reasonably well, of the 8 million people who actually come to a horse-racing event live and the kind of traffic that you see, you are talking about a very small segment of people who actually bet. Similarly, there is betting happening in cricket too, but that’s not the bulk of the cricket viewership. So, obviously betting as an ecosystem exists, but it is not the whole picture of why horse racing is so attractive. 

Globally, you also have a Military channel. Are there plans to bring it to India or you are first looking at it more as a genre?
It will be as a genre on Discovery channel, because there is no scale that you get from bringing it from abroad and fitting it here as the stories in military are extremely local in nature. But such stories go very well with Discovery’s aim to bring an extraordinary world. So, stories concerning the military, police investigation, etc., will keep coming up as it is aspirational to become an officer in the Army, especially in the Tier 2 and 3 towns. But since it is a very local-led phenomenon, to have content on the US military, for instance, could be a good side project but not the core content. It has to be more about the Indian military. 

The crime stories that we air on Discovery channel, is very differentiated from that shown on ID channel, which is more around crimes of passion, household crime, etc. The crime stories on Discovery crime would be large canvas crime, extraordinary settings, crime of thought in mind and complexity of planning and the investigator who cracks that. ID is a very female-oriented household crime channel. It has a very different positioning. And for Discovery, it is one sub-genre among the four sub-genres (nonfiction, sports, kids) that we are investing in, in 2017. 

What has been the response from the advertisers?
We have received tremendous response from the advertisers, especially those having brands targeted at the males. We won’t be having any advertising on the channel till we get scale on distribution, so that it’s a worthy investment for the advertiser which should happen very quickly. We are already reaching 30 million households today and are in discussions with a couple of major players. So, we hope to scale up our distribution soon. We are in talks with DTH players as well. DSports is available in both SD and HD. 

What is your strategy for the smaller markets?
Our strategy in these markets is to keep the same brand purpose and understand what the consumer needs are and to figure out how to deliver that purpose to the consumers. Discovery’s purpose is to provide a window to the extraordinary world. In the past that purpose translated into outdoor, animals, the Earth kind of programming because it made a lot for sense for the metro consumers. But when you go to the smaller towns and ask them what extraordinary world they would want to access, the consumer will tell you that they want to know more about the military, crime investigations, inspirational stories of people who have made it big from small towns. The purpose is the same. You are just serving a consumer who is looking at the life differently and as a result it has a different vision of what an extraordinary world means. So, it is not just about the genres and the number of hours, but also about the nature of storytelling. If you look at what stories the consumers watching on Bollywood or general entertainment, it is more about larger-than-life character-driven narratives. We will also have the same, but the stories will be rooted in facts, and there are so many interesting stories that come up. Very powerful character-driven narratives make sense to consumers across the spectrum. There is need to have the right balance of purpose and entertainment. 

Our first focus is on Discovery Channel. Starting June this year, we will be doing 200 hours of content that we are commissioning right now. Discovery channel in HSM and in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil, we are creating a group up plan. Once this gets off the ground, we will move to the next local market. Because when I think of local content and localisation, it is very similar to what we see in HSM. It is not like taking up the content and dubbing it in local languages. If we do get into Bengali and Marathi, we need to get the team working on the ground up plan in those markets. 

But while we are very interested in the regional space, there are no plans to have any launches in 2017.