Discovery Science to speak Hindi from 1 October

[Bapun]

MUMBAI: Infotainment broadcaster Discovery will launch a Hindi feed for Discovery Science on 1 October. Discovery Science will now be available round the clock in Hindi and English on both analogue and DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon D2H and Airtel Digital TV.

Discovery South Asia senior VP, GM Rahul Johri said, "Since its launch, Discovery Science has successfully driven the mission to bring science back into the spotlight and showcase how indispensable it is in our daily lives. Discovery Science has gone beyond the imagination to explore the unknown and present the greatest discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs in a relatable and refreshing format. We have received an encouraging response from our viewers, affiliates and advertisers across India and the launch of the Hindi feed will deliver an enriching viewing experience especially in the Hindi-speaking markets."


Speaking on this Discovery India VP marketing Rajiv Bakshi said that the decision was the result of viewer demand. "There comes a stage in a channel's lifecycle when more needs to be done. Discovery Science is present in over 20 million homes. Hindi is the pre dominant language. Languaging helps boost the time spent, it gets in new audiences and also helps with viewers who find that English as a language is a barrier."

Discovery Kids launched earlier this year is in English, Hindi and Tamil. TLC and Animal Planet are in English and Hindi. The flagship channel Discovery is in English, Hindi, Telugu and Bangla. In addition Discovery has a separate channel for the Tamil market.

Bakshi adds that there no plans to have Discovery Science in more languages. Also there are no plans to dub Discovery Turbo and Discovery HD for now. "There is a cost in doing language feeds. There has to be viewer pull and an immediate benefit."


On the programming front coinciding with the Hindi-language feed launch, Discovery Science has announced five series which will be aired over the next three months. 'Prophets of Science Fiction' will present the stories of the strange lives of the visionaries and reveal the secrets of their uncanny ability to see the future; 'Dark Matters' will expose some of history's most bizarre experiments; 'Alien Encounters' will explore how alien life might communicate with Earth; 'How Tech Works' features the latest and future technologies of the world.

Meanwhile 'Combat Tech' takes a look at the greatest military engineering accomplishments. Additionally, Discovery Science will feature a line-up 'Space Week' with programmes that focus on space, the universe and astrophysics from October 1 -7, every day at 8 pm.

Indiantelevision.com > News Headlines >Discovery Science to speak Hindi from 1 October

 

[Karthik]

Much awaited news.

 

[Bapun]

 

[Gssran]

All four DTH's added Hindi feed now.

 

[tech_genie]

Science outside the classroom
(Nice Article on Discovery Science)

Having launched its Hindi language feed recently, Rahul Johri, Vice President of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, outlines the roadmap for Discovery Science
“Knowledge is cool. It’s never gone out of fashion,” asserts Rahul Johri, senior vice president and general manager, South Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, explaining the network’s decision to launch the Hindi language feed of Discovery Science. The 24-hour channel will now be available on analogue and DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon D2H and Airtel Digital TV as a paid-for channel.

But if knowledge and science are indeed eternally fashionable, what took so long for the launch to come about? “India is primarily an analogue market. In such a scenario, channel capacity is very limited as the choice rests with the cable operator. But with the country heading towards digitalisation, capacity constraints are eliminated. The market is perfectly poised for a science channel. There is tremendous curiosity among people, and the success of Discovery channel proves this,” explains Johri.

It was in anticipation of digitalisation that the network launched its Turbo, Kids and Discovery Tamil channels in 2010.

Coinciding with the launch of the Hindi feed, Discovery Science has announced five series which will air over the next three months. “Prophets of Science Fiction” tells stories of the strange lives of visionaries; “Dark Matters” exposes some of history’s most bizarre experiments; “Alien Encounters” explores the possibility of alien life existing and communicating with Earth; “How Tech Works” features future technologies; and “Combat Tech” looks at military technologies and accomplishments therein.

The content of the channel is drawn from other regions owing to a number of reasons. Johri explains, “Science is not country-specific. It is also very expensive to generate this content. So it is only natural that different regions share content. The biggest localisation happens at the level of language; and it helps that we are predominantly a commentary-based channel. Commentary in local languages makes the content interesting.”

“There is a logical path to a channel. First, there is international content; then, as a channel matures, you will see some amount of local content,” he adds, pointing to the example of TLC. Discovery Science will have “matured” by 2014, which is the year by which the digitalisation process is expected to finish.

The channel’s mission is to popularise science, says Johri. But in the popularisation of what, in conventional wisdom at least, is a dry subject, does the channel have to dramatise it? “There are different treatments for different topics, and we try to make the content engaging and enriching.”

The popularisation of science is also the mandate of Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, which has developed programmes for Doordarshan and Lok Sabha TV. Doordarshan also telecasts series such as “Turning Point”, which sought to popularise science as well. But their approach is unlike that of Discovery Science, Johri says. “How we film is very different. We are not a classroom channel. If we just created a classroom, we would be chasing viewers away.”

Source: The Hindu : Arts / Radio & TV : Science outside the classroom