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 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.

NEW DELHI: Staying ahead of competition, Dish TV has launched the first-ever standard definition box with recorder to cater to the majority of subscribers who are not hooked on to high definition.

Dish TV expects the pricing to be a killer as recording facilities offered by rival direct-to-home (DTH) service providers are only in high-definition boxes and are much costlier.

The STB with recorder to be known as Dish+ would cost a mere Rs 100 more than the present STB which is priced at Rs 1590. Dish TV is also giving a 4 GB pen drive free as promotional offer.

?Dish+ is a comeback of recorders in the living room and is a clear differentiator vis-?-vis other alternatives including digital cable. Its highly competitive launch price will position it as a preferred option amongst all DTH buyers?, Dish TV chief operating officer Salil Kapoor said

Dish TV?s high-definition box which has a recording facility is priced at Rs 2690. Dish would charge another Rs 200 for installation.

Any USB port can be connected to the standard box for recording, and there is facility for unlimited recording.

A budget of Rs 250 million has been set aside for a 360 degree marketing campaign, Kapoor told Indiantelevision.com.

"The high-definition market at present is just five per cent of the total households (around 50,000 subscribers). The majority are, thus, deprived of any recording facility. Since the video cassette recorder fades out for recording facility, most subscribers are going to welcome this new innovation."

The government has mandated digitisation in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by 1 November. "The second phase will cover a total of 40 cities. We want to be able to give the viewers an option," said Kapoor.

NEW DELHI: Factual entertainment network Discovery has launched in India its kids channel, Discovery Kids, to fight in a genre that is struggling to push up revenues amidst strong competition.

Discovery?s eighth channel in India will be in three languages ? English, Hindi, and Tamil. Discovery Kids is priced at Rs 13.75 in analogue and a little over Rs 6 in digital.

Discovery General Manager (South Asia) Rahul Johri said that the channel was aimed at children between 4 and 11 years from amongst the 370 million children under 14 years of age.

Most of the programmes on the channel are in animation but some are in live action. Some of the shows are aimed at children aged between four to six years. The mid-morning is reserved for these young ones, while the other programmes will be aired later in the evening.

Discovery Kids is already running in Latin America and in the Asia Pacific region from the Philippines, but the Indian channel will have several indigenously produced programmes.

Johri said research had shown parents wanted a kids channel that had programming they could trust. Hence, the tagline ?Ignite your imagination?.

Johri told that the channel is presently available only on Videocon D2H and Dish TV among the DTH platforms, but will shortly be available on other platforms too.

While pointing out that the channel will not take advertising immediately but will do so within a month or so, he did not agree that there was a slowdown in advertising. ?In any case, we are here for a long haul?, he added. He felt that experience from the other Discovery channels had shown that it was a healthy market.

Johri said that the channel would use all its usual methods for advertising the new channel, not only on its own channels but on others as well. However, he refused to divulge any figures about the advertising budget.

Positioned as a factual channel, Discovery Kids has no plans at present to take fictional stories. However, he did not rule out taking tales from the Panchtantra since they were moral in nature.

The research had covered focused groups in all the major cities. ?Discovery Kids will offer Indian children an entertaining way to satisfy their natural curiosity and promises to ignite their imagination through stimulating programming. It will form the bedrock for development of their social, cognitive, emotional and personal skills. The channel will usher in a new wave of kids? entertainment in India ? one which will have them engaged and their parents satisfied,? he said.

The channel will have some shared content from the Latin American or Asia Pacific channels but will also have some indigenous stories. Johri said some of the animation was also being done in India. The channel will be working on more Indian shows in the near future.

Discovery Kids website will launch next week. Discovery already runs the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Science, Discovery HD, and Discovery Tamil Nadu.

The channel will cover a variety of programming ranging from iconic global content to multiple India-themed series. Committed to offer a comprehensive viewing experience and cater to diverse demands of Indian kids, the programming formats will include highest-quality animation and engaging live action series under multiple genres such as adventure, mythology, nature, history and science.

The core values of Discovery Kids include playful (by stimulating learning and imagination in a fun and innovative way), smart (by giving creative surprises for enquiring minds), transformative (by providing an immersive world that sparks wonder and curiosity) and learning (by creating a trusting and engaging environment).

Discovery Kids? programming slate features fun, enriching and entertaining programmes such as Kim, Rudyard Kipling?s famous hero; Adiboo Adventure (unveils all the puzzling questions that can bother a kid?s mind); and The Legend of Enyo (takes kids on a spectacular journey of fantasy, fun and wild adventure); and Gali Cricket that takes on a whole new exciting and colourful avatar in the unique animation series Howzzatt.