Discovery takes different route to digital: To launch 4 new channels

Unlike its peers, Discovery will launch these channels on Republic Day, to be distributed across video platforms

Discovery Communications India, the television network housing the Discovery, Animal Planet and TLC brands, announced its digital foray on Thursday.

Unlike its peers, however, the network is not going the video streaming platform route. Instead, it has announced the launch of digital/mobile-first channels starting January 2018.

The majority of broadcasters have launched own over-the-top services (the term for delivery of film or TV content via the internet, without requiring users to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite pay TV). Star India has Hotstar since 2015, Viacom18 launched VOOT in 2016 and Zee is expected to launch Zee5 in the coming weeks;