History overtakes Discovery in metros

Discovery commanded a market share of 41.9% in all-India viewership, followed by National Geographic Channel with 27.5% and 17.9% by History TV18, data provided by Television Audience Measurement (TAM) show. Animal Planet, Discovery Science and Discovery Turbo ended with market shares of 11.9%, 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.

Consultants and media buyers say, History’s differentiated programming, dubbed content in six regional languages and an eyeball-grabbing brand campaign with Bollywood actor Salman Khan led to the rise in viewership. History said in a statement, it garnered 33% market share by December, ahead of Discovery’s 31% and National Geographic’s 13% in the six metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“Great content and language dubs is the way for global content channels to progress,” says Punitha Arumugam, CEO, Madison Media, a media buying agency. “This is what would have worked for History too.”

“Regional splits is the future for not only infotainment channels but for every channel in the market,” she adds. she says, as more and more advertisers are exploring better targeting of audiences and localisation of messaging, the need of the hour

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