Discovery’s lifestyle channel adorns new avatar

By Utpal Borpujari

Discovery Travel & Living, the lifestyle channel from Discovery Networks, is changing its identity. Come September 1, it will adorn a “hipper” look and answer to the name TLC – short for Travel & Living Channel. And the fact that India is part of its initial launch – globally it will be known as TLC in about 75 countries by April-May next – shows how much importance the country has in Discovery’s scheme of things, much of that because of the growing popularity of its channels in the Indian market.

And it’s not going to be a nomenclatural makeover – the channel, which spends $800 million a year in production of fresh programmes, will come in with 15 new shows, six new hosts, 11 new seasons of existing series, and promise of much more. Among the new shows will be Everyday Exotic, Fun Asia, Sea Nation and Bob Marley – Freedom Radio. But why this change in name? Explains Rahul Johri, senior vice-president & general manager (India) of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, “It is the culmination of the first phase of the channel’s existence, and with the new name, the channel will come in with a new dimension to lifestyle programming in innovative formats, spunkier hosts and swankier locales.” Of course, the core focus of the channel, which is lifestyle-based factual entertainment on subjects like travel, cuisine, adventure, environment, home improvement and human interest stories, will remain to be the same, he says.

In the Indian context, the channel has quite a few plans, including in local programming. “We did the groundbreaking Living With a Superstar with Shah Rukh Khan last year, which became highly popular not only in India but the top-rated show in Malaysia and large parts of South-East Asia. We plan to take such concepts forward. India is one of the priority markets for Discovery, so having local content is very, very important for us,” says Johri. Included in these plans is the idea of taking the Living With a Superstar forward, with the possibility of featuring not only movie stars but also stars from other streams of society. “Discovery Travel & Living has recorded the highest growth among all Indian channels in the last six months compared to the previous six months. Among the English channels, we are positioned only after Star Movies and HBO in terms of popularity. We now plan it to the next level,” he says. In fact, among Indian programmes, Vir Sanghvi’s Asian Diary has been quite popular in other countries too, he points out.

The channel’s new look will be complimented by quite a few scintillating shows. For example, in “Shimmy”, belly-dance instructor Kim Pechet will unravel the secrets of the exotic dance form, including how it can be converted into an energetic, low-impact aerobic choreography to burn the extra calories. In Everyday Exotic, host Roger Mooking will talk about food through an interesting mix of music and gourmet, and in Fun Asia, bubbly Janet Hsieh will take the viewer on a tour of destinations beyond the regular tourist haunts. Some other new programming line-up with interesting concepts like living on the sea (Sea Nation), taking up the most extreme culinary challenges (Glutton for Punishment), visiting the world’s biggest festivals, parties and events (World Party) and trying out outrageous tasks like holding molten lava in the hands with just a pair of gloves on or driving an undersized car in the world’s deadliest demolition derby. TLC sure believes in taking its viewer to the world lived in the fast lane, and with its new look and feel, it sure wants to make it even better.

(Published in Deccan Herald, www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com, 08-08-2010)

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/86815/lifestyle-programming-gets-trendy.html

Epic story of ‘Life’

By Utpal Borpujari

A male humpback whale’s mating battle, called the “heat run”, from beginning to end; Komodo dragons bringing down an animal ten times their size in a real-life drama lasting over two weeks; a pebble toad rolling down a mountain, bouncing like a rubber ball, to escape a tarantula; the bizarre mating ritual of the elusive Vogelkop bowerbird found in the deep forests of New Guinea; an astonishing night scene showing massive numbers of Humboldt squids shunting cooperatively for sardines; and the entire growing season in a woodland filmed in one shot, utilizing time lapse. These are some of the never-before-seen images from the natural world, that will come alive on your TV screens, courtesy Discovery Channel.

The images are part of 130 incredible stories of nature, shot across seven continents in a period spanning over 3,000 days, for an epic series called “LIFE”, which will air at 8 p.m. from May 24 for two weeks, followed by a repeat airing from June 12. Introduced by the inimitable David Attenborough, the series captures what the channel describes as the most spectacular and fascinating behaviours that living creatures have devised in order to thrive. “Many of these have been captured for the first time using the latest in state-of-the-art high-definition filming techniques,” says Discovery Networks Asia Pacific’s India general manager Rahul Johri.

The filmmakers involved in the project, reflecting its epic proportions, even developed ingenious methods for capturing breathtaking images, such as the ‘Yogi Cam’ which allowed a camera to track smoothly alongside migrating reindeer and elephants. Intricate cable rigging was employed to enable the crew to ‘fly’ a camera through thousands of monarch butterflies in Mexico, providing a unique “butterfly-eye” perspective. “ ‘LIFE’ brings some of the most incredible stories ever caught on camera and highlights the efforts of men and women who spent days, weeks and months patiently waiting for a perfect shot,” says Johri.

“LIFE” will launch with a premiere episode, titled “Challenges of Life”, which will provide an overview of the series. The main episodes are “Reptiles and Amphibians”, “Mammals”, “Fish”, “Birds”, “Insects”, “Hunters and Hunted”, “Creatures of the Deep”, “Plants” and “Primates” – practically every living being.  

The series will have some breathtaking visuals, in trademark Discovery Channel style. For example, we will see three cheetah “brothers” hunting as a team, stalking and bringing down an ostrich twice their size, as also the spectacle in Brazil of brown-tufted capuchin monkeys demonstrating an extraordinary level of skill and perseverance to crack open the palm nuts they love to eat. The monkeys pick the nuts, strip them of their husks and leave them to dry. After a few weeks they transport them to a huge anvil-like rock and smash them with a harder hammer stone. Then there are dolphins filmed from the air as they go “mudringing”, or creating circles of mud to entrap fish, and killer whales working as a team to hunt seals in Antarctica, filmed from the air and sea.

In one of the heartwarming sequences in the series, viewers will witness how an elephant grandmother shoves her inexperienced daughter aside to pull her newborn granddaughter out of the mud and save her life. The episode on mammals, which has this sequence, also shows the migration of ten million fruit bats to one giant mega-roost in Zambia, a massive colony only recently discovered by scientists, and possibly the largest congregation of polar bears which are seen feeding on a huge whale carcass even while confronting one another.

The high-end technology used in filming of the series has enabled its makers to even film, in super high-speed, flying fish laying eggs on a bit of flotsam on the open sea and the flying out of the water. The episode on fish has other tantalising visuals like those of tiny gobies in Hawaii climbing 400-feet-high waterfalls to lay their eggs in safe pools, and sailfish, the fastest fish in the sea, attempting to pluck a single fish out of a baitball, again filmed at super high-speed as also were visuals of the spatule-tail hummingbird courtship display.

(Published in Deccan Herald, www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com, 30-05-2010)

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/72284/epic-story-life.html