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Big weddings, bigger coverage
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Discovery Travel and Living will showcase the great Indian weddings in a new series
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When the Discovery Networks team decided to launch a lifestyle channel, it had to convince the senior management team from the US that India was the place to start it from. All it took was a trip to Gurgaon's swank malls and call centres buzzing with an upwardly mobile young workforce, says Aditya Tripathi, Vice-President, Lifestyle Networks.
One year and eight months later, Discovery India has announced yet another milestone, its first ever Indian production. The great Indian Wedding will showcase the drama, the tradition, the unique styles of weddings in India. And all in the highly respected Discovery tradition, of intelligent and entertaining television. The first episode will feature the wedding of billionaire, actor and hotelier Vikram Chatwal's with model and socialite Priya Sachdev.
Discovery India is obviously confident of this series. It was announced in great style, with a wedding themed dinner party at the sprawling, palatial Oberoi Udaivilas, one of the many venues of the celebrity studded festivities of Chatwal-Sachdev wedding that was attended among others by Saira Mohan, Bill Clinton and Mittal. The show, produced by Blue Mango will be accompanied with a promo inviting people to share their unique weddings.
By the end of the year, Travel and Living will also run A Matter of Days, a travel and cuisine show hosted by Vir Sanghvi, and follow that with Indian Rendezvous. The latter has celebrities introducing you to India's big cities.
Discovery Travel and Living has done extremely well since its launch. According to Rahul Johri, Senior VP Advertising Sales, Discovery Networks India, who quoted TAM ratings, the channel is ahead of its competition Star World and Zee Café. But it's the quality of the niche audience that Discovery is more excited about (that maybe finally measured when TAM introduces its `elite' panel later this year.) says Aditya Tripathi. Its audience is the upscale English speaking SEC AB, in the 18-45 age group but the aspirational character of the channel, the management is confident will attract a significant secondary audience.
And then there is the DTH (direct to home) good news."With DTH cable operators will accept broadcasters as friends," said Deepak Shourie, EVP and MD, Discovery Networks India.
MEERA MOHANTY
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