Animal Planet attracts top advertisers

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
Animal Planet has come out with a new programming strategy since this January for the Indian audience. The channel, which made its India debut in 1998, has also launched Indian Safari— India specific programme, which airs every Friday at 9 pm. Discovery Communications India's brand director Raja Balasubramanian spoke to Anusha Subramanian about the new programme strategy and the channel's plans for the Indian audience.

How does the report card for the channel look like since the launch?
Over the years, Animal Planet has consistently increased its viewership in India, across age groups. Animal Planet's viewership has been higher than various international channels on a month-on-month basis, across genres—news, music and lifestyle. In the six metros, it recorded higher viewership than its nearest competitor in 10 months in 2005. On count of its unique content, high viewership and wide national reach, it attracts leading advertisers of the country.

Why the need to come up with an India specific programming so late?
Animal Planet has always presented Indian wildlife. We have aired many intriguing and exciting programmes made by both Indian and foreign production houses on the channel. As a step forward, to address the demand for more Indian content, we have introduced a dedicated onehour weekly programme Indian Safari on the channel. We have also introduced a time-band strategy, segmenting the programmes under four well-defined and unique bands—Funzone, Safari, Masters of the Jungle and Unexplained, Unexplored.

Who are your target audience in India?
Animal Planet offers a unique variety of programming and hence attracts viewership from across age groups, genders and geographies.

What kind of TRPs are you expecting with Indian programming?
We are confident that by introducing four completely unique time-bands, the channel will also be able to better communicate the diversity on the channel to viewers, both existing and potential, and increase overall viewership. Realising the channel's untapped potential, considering its uniqueness and high brand recall in In dia, we will continue to cus tomise the channel's programming to suit better the Indian viewer.

What is the current viewership base that you have?
The channel is currently distributed to 24 million subscribers. The other big point is that it is the only television network on the planet dedicated to people's fascination with animals.