DISCOVERY WILL LAUNCH AN INDIAN OTT IN 2020

Discovery Communications is launching an Indian streaming service next year, building on its success with DailyHunt, a local news aggregation giant, according to TBI. Apparently, the platform will be called D Plus and will be backed by telco Verse Innovation.

DailyHunt – which exists as a mobile app – aggregates news in 14 Indian languages from more than 1,000 content providers. Discovery launched a dedicated “Discovery Plus” page on DailyHunt in March, where it published short-form content that covered areas such as wildlife, science, food, nature, and the military to the service’s 153 million users.

“The success of the Discovery Plus page on DailyHunt, where we have already aggregated more than a billion views, points to strong traction for real-life entertainment content in the digital space. We are keen to exploit this opportunity and are working towards launching a platform especially for the Indian market next year,” a spokesperson for Discovery India told TBI.

POLISH STREAMING EXPANSION

On the other side, Discovery Communications has also unveiled plans to create a streaming platform with pay-TV operator Cyfrowy Polsat, which will operate domestically and in international markets.

The new and as-yet unnamed OTT service will be launched via a joint venture between Discovery and Cyfrowy Polsat, and will offer Polish content including movies, series, documentaries, sports and entertainment. Local productions will be supplied by broadcaster duo Polsat and Discovery-owned TVN, while acquired content and new series will be commissioned specifically for the new entity.

“This new venture fits squarely into our international strategy and belief that local broadcasters need to better satisfy consumer demand by aggregating their offerings and developing a strong local-content-led streaming service – just as we did in Germany with Joyn,” commented Kasia Kieli, President & CEO at Discovery EMEA.

Discovery said the platform will launch as an AVOD service with “the eventual roll-out of an SVOD component” in the works. The company added that the joint venturewill be “an independent business entity with its own resources and management board,” adding that it would “create new opportunities for Polish content partners as well as for advertisers”.