Discovery To Proceed With India Plans'
Discovery Channel will operate in India even if the proposed broadcasting regulatory authority forced it to shed majority holding in Discovery India which is a 100 per cent subsidiary.
Speaking to Business Standard yesterday, Discovery Networks International senior vice-president (marketing & communications) James A Boyle said the Indian scenario is not really unique. "We have overcome similar problems in other countries," Boyle said. "In Canada, the channel operates with domestic holding of 80 per cent as per government regulations. In Germany, Discovery has a 50:50 joint venture with a domestic partner."
The regulations allow Indian channels with up to 20 per cent foreign equity to uplink from India. In the proposed broadcast Bill, the government is not expected to allow more than 26 per cent foreign equity in broadcasting activities.
According to Boyle, the Discovery brand name is strong and they will not have problems finding "suitors in India to suit the Indian regulatory mechanism." Earlier, there were apprehensions that foreign broadcasters like Discovery Channel, Sony and MTV may have to restructure drastically due to stringent stipulations regarding foreign equity in the proposed broadcasting law.
Boyle pointed out that regulatory mechanisms in some other countries are quite stringent not only on foreign equity cap, but also on programming. Canada stipulates that 60 per cent of the programming has to be sourced from that country.
Meanwhile, Discovery yesterday announced launching of a new Channel in association with BBC. Christened the Animal Planet, the family-oriented channel will start beaming into India from January 5, 1999.
The digital Animal Planet channel will be given free to cable operators for the first few months, after which it will be turned into pay channel. However, a separate decoder box will be needed to access the new channel being beamed from PAS-4 satellite.
Discovery Communications has started testing the waters for Animal Planet by airing an hour-long block on Doordarshan. This relationship is to continue till March. Animal Planet will explore inter-relationship among animals, humans and the environment. "Its our way of creating a taste for good programming," Discovery India's chief Kiran Karnik said.
Launching of Animal Planet on DD is an important step in the business plans of Discovery and BBC, both of which have formed a world-wide joint venture to market new channels.
This is part of the broadcasters' global strategy to take on competition from NBC-National Geographic tie-up which has launched the National Geographic Channel in Asia from July.