Discovery India powers its digital drive with 2 channels – Veer & Rise

Discovery Communications India (DCIN) is planning to disrupt the digital space with the launch of direct-to-consumer, social and mobile-first channels in early 2018. The new mobile-first channels will focus on four core-interest areas – ‘Military’, ‘Girlist’, ‘Automotive’ and ‘Food’. The first two channels to launch will be Veer by Discovery and Rise by TLC in Q1 2018. These will be followed by specialist automotive and food focused mobile-first channels later in the year. 

With an unrivalled content library across these areas, DCIN is uniquely positioned to launch and further develop these special-interest verticals across various social and mobile platforms while also nurturing and nourishing these audience communities with meaningful content. The initiative leverages on the unprecedented growth of passionate online communities that is driving a sizeable 15 per cent of digital video consumption in India in the lifestyle/ factual genre. (YouTube 2016 India viewership) 

DCIN has identified a big market opportunity in this space in India which has no major at scale digital/ mobile-first channels and all OTT services mostly offer long-form linear content on digital even though the consumption trends indicate that 76 per cent (Global Video Insights; Google Consumer Barometer; Media Partners Asia) of all online videos watched are short-form (<less 10 minutes long). The mobile first channels from DCIN will have bespoke digital-first, mid-form and short-form content. In the first year itself, Veer by Discovery and Rise by TLC will offer consumers 100+ hours of original content in India. 

DCIN has partnered with YouTube, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Play to optimise the launch of these channels and maximise its reach across social and mobile platforms. 

Talking about the initiative, Karan Bajaj, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Discovery Communications India, said, “We are thrilled to take Discovery digital in India and 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. Our digital channels will help us ramp up reach across linear and digital platforms by almost 3 times making it an irresistible proposition for the advertisers who will now have the option to reach out to premium consumers across our linear network and presence across the most popular social and mobile platforms.” 

Zulfia Waris, Vice-President, Premium & Digital Networks, Discovery Communications India, said, “The clutter breaking digital-first content proposition of Veer by Discovery and Rise by TLC is designed to help us achieve our ambition of being the #1 mobile content brand in the country. These will be independent digital channelsand not catch-up TV - from the best in military to girl power to automobiles and world food, our aim is to create and nurture passionate interest-based communities with edgy world-class content that resonates.” 

Details of the digital channels 

‘Military’ an important programming focus area of Veer channel. DCIN and Twitter India’s deep dive into Indian’s millennials through social media clearly elucidated that India’s are proud nationalists paving way for the channel that will offer genre-defining content on Indian armed forces. From military strategy, grueling special-forces training regimes to a deep dive into a soldier’s life and more, Veer by Discovery is set to become the go-to destination for military enthusiasts. In the first year itself, Veer by Discovery will offer more than 550 videos across short-form, mid-form and long-form content (not more than 15 minutes) for the military enthusiasts. True to its content, Veer by Discovery will be launched on Republic Day, January 26, 2018. 

A digital first channel for women, by women, Rise by TLC will give wings to young Indian women with its progressive, clutter-breaking content. It will serve as a platform that provides women a strong voice on a variety of issues in a fun, entertaining manner urging women to move forward, to move society, to challenge norms and ideologies, to move beyond preconceived limitations. Rise by TLC will seek to bring alive edgy, ‘girl power’ storytelling. TLC recently debuted ‘Queens of Comedy’, India’s first-ever female comedy show on social media and received extremely enthusiastic response with more than 16 million+ views across platforms. The show delivered 95 per cent organic views with an impressive time spent of 14 minutes per episode.