Warner Bros. Discovery India

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Warner Bros. Discovery India Ltd.
Formerly
Turner International India (1995–2020)
WarnerMedia India (2020–2022)
Discovery Communications India (1995–2022)
Industry
Genrediscovery+
Predecessor
Founded1 May 1995; 28 years ago (1995-05-01)
HeadquartersGurugram, Haryana, India
Area served
Indian subcontinent
Key people
  • Clement Schwebig
    (President)[1]
  • Arjun Nohwar
    (General manager)[2]
Products
OwnerWarner Bros. Discovery
ParentWarner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific

Warner Bros. Discovery India is an Indian entertainment company, subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific, that operates several television channels in India, along with the Discovery+ streaming service.

In April 2022, WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. merged to form Warner Bros. Discovery, which led to the fusion of both companies' operations in India.[3]

History[edit]

Turner International India (1995-2020)[edit]

The original Cartoon Network logo, used from 1 May 1995 to 30 September 2005. The logo is still in use as a trademark.

Cartoon Network was the first dedicated kids channel in India launched by Turner, which started broadcast on 1 May 1995, as a dual-channel with Cartoon Network operating from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (later 9:00 p.m.) and Turner Classic Movies (formerly TNT) taking up the remainder of the daily schedule. On 1 July 2001, Cartoon Network became a separate 24-hour channel.[4]

The original Turner logo used until 2020.

Turner launched Pogo on 1 January 2004, which started as a network focused on local children's programming in contrast of sister network Cartoon Network.[5]

WB Channel, an Indian pay television channel, launched on 15 March 2009.[6] The channel featured a mix of Hollywood films and television dramas from the Warner Bros. catalogue.

On 8 December 2009, it was announced that Turner Asia Pacific Ventures (a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System) had acquired a 92% stake in NDTV Imagine Ltd., which ran the NDTV Imagine, NDTV Lumiere and NDTV Imagine Showbiz television channels, and film production[7] Beforehand, Turner had acquired a 76% of the company for $67 million, with another deal of $50 million for the 92% of the company.[8] The 'NDTV' brand was dropped and the channels were rebranded as Imagine TV, Lumiere Movies and Imagine Showbiz. Imagine Showbiz was later sold in January 2011 to Reliance Broadcast Network.[9][10]

Real was a Hindi entertainment channel launched by Turner in a joint venture with Alva Brothers Entertainment on 2 March 2009, with its headquarters based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The channel closed the following year in March 2010, due to low viewership.[11]

On 26 February 2015, a Toonami branded channel was launched as and action channel. The channel in July 2017 rebranded it's programming as a classic animation channel, before ceasing operations completely by 15 May 2018.[12]

In 2015, HBO had decided to exit the Indian market and license it's basic channel to Turner.[13] The channel was revamped in February 2016 after a survey conducted by the channel team to better suit the masses.[14][15] HBO Defined and HBO Hits would be handled by Star India, however, both networks were shut down on 31 December 2015, while the HD feed of HBO Hits was replaced by an HD feed of HBO on 4 September 2016.[16] The channel only airs Hollywood movies, as Star India holds the rights to HBO original programming, which is available on Star World and Disney+ Hotstar.[17]

WarnerMedia India (2020-2022)[edit]

WarnerMedia logo used until 2022.

On 20 October 2016, it was reported that AT&T was in talks to acquire Time Warner. The proposed deal would give AT&T significant holdings in the media industry. AT&T's competitor Comcast had previously acquired NBCUniversal in a similar bid to increase its media holdings, in concert with its ownership of television and internet providers.[18][19][20] On 22 October 2016, AT&T reached a deal to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion. The merger would bring Time Warner's properties under the same umbrella as AT&T's telecommunication holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV.[21][22]

WarnerMedia announced on 15 October 2020 that HBO South Asia and WB Channel would close down on 15 December 2020.[23]

Discovery Communications India (1995 - 2022)[edit]

A variation of Discovery channel current logo

Discovery Communications entered the Indian operations with the launch of Discovery Channel in India on 15 August 1995.[24]

The company is known Discovery India.

The company also shifted their headquarters from Delhi to Mumbai which is more suited for building a national general entertainment channel.[25] It aims to create 1000 hours of original content a year.[26] The shows will also be available digitally via Netflix.[20] The channel had a reach of 140 million on the day of launch.[27]

Discovery announced plans to revamp the channel with dubbed content from Scripps after low ratings.[28]

However, things didn't work out as planned and on 13 January 2020, the channel was rebranded again to Investigation Discovery.

Tamil language has a separate dedicated channel Discovery Tamil.[29][30] The channel can be viewed on digital cable and satellite television in India. The Discovery Channel has also launched its OTT services Discovery Plus recently.[31]

Discovery Kids is the first channel in the kids' genre in India by Discovery India launched on 7 August 2012. Earlier it was the name of an Infotainment and edutainment kids programming block on Discovery Channel India which ran from 2001 to 2005.[32][33] It is the eighth channel launched by Discovery India. The initial programming lineup consisted of a mix of animation and live action series under multiple genres such as adventure, mythology, nature, history and science.[34][35]

Discovery India announced plans to revamp the channel in 2018 with new IPs.[36] The revamp began the same day Discovery Jeet launched by removing all existing shows, except for Mister Maker at night and airing ZeeQ's Bandbudh Aur Budbak the whole day.[37]

On 16 February 2018, the channel changed its logo to the current Latin American logo. To expand its reach in the South, Discovery Kids launched a Tamil-language audio track on 24 March 2018, and later a Telugu-language audio track on 1 April 2018.[38][39]

The revamp was ultimately completed on 21 April 2018, the same day as the premiere of Discovery's latest local animation property called Little Singham, based on the original Singham film from 2011. The show launched with 156 episodes and five TV feature films.[40] The English dubbed version started airing in July as a gradual rollout.[citation needed]

Discovery Kids saw an increase in ratings since the release of Bandbudh Aur Budbak on the channel.[41] The launch of Little Singham helped the channel to achieve second position in the kids genre, with a reach of 24 million and 111 minutes per viewer.[42][43]

In January 2020, Lex Sportel (the content provider for this channel) has parted ways with Discovery, taking their event rights from Eurosport India channel and created their own channel 1Sports.[citation needed] On 17 March 2020, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting permitted Discovery to finally rename the channel to Eurosport.[44]

Warner Bros. Discovery India (2022-present)[edit]

WarnerMedia India and Discovery Communications India merged into Warner Bros. Discovery India on 11 April 2022, following the merger of both parent companies.[3] Clement Schwebig was appointed as president and managing director for the territories of Southeast Asia, Korea, and India.[1]

Arjun Nohwar, which was appointed as the country's general manager for HBO Max launch in December 2021, was announced as the company's general manager.[2] Shaun Nanjappa Chendira and Megha Tata, senior director and managing director respectively, left their positions in June 2022 following reorganizations at the company.[45][46][47]

On 14 July 2022, a new leadership team for the South Asian market was announced, with Ruchir Jain as head of distribution and Eurosport, Tanaz Mehta as head of ad sales, Uttam Pal Singh as head of the kids assets (which includes Cartoon Network, Pogo and Discovery Kids), and Sai Abhishek as the head of factual and lifestyle.[48]

Operating channels[edit]

Channel Launched Language (s) Note (s)
Animal Planet 1991 English
Hindi 		[49]
Cartoon Network May 1, 1995 (1995-05-01) English
Hindi
Tamil
Telugu 		[4]
Cartoon Network HD+ May 18, 2018 (2018-05-18) [20]
CNN International January 1, 2000 (2000-01-01) English [50]
Pogo January 1, 2004 (2004-01-01) English
Hindi
Tamil
Telugu 		[5]
Discovery Channel 15 August 1995
5 March 2010 (HD feed) 		Hindi
English
Tamil (as Discovery Tamil)
Telugu
Malayalam
Kannada
Bengali
Marathi 		[49]
Discovery Kids August 7, 2012 (2012-08-07) English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu [49]
Discovery Science 2010 Hindi
English
Tamil (as Discovery Tamil)
Telugu
Malayalam
Kannada
Bengali
Marathi
Discovery Tamil 15 August 1995
5 March 2010 (HD feed) 		[49]
Discovery Turbo 2004 [49]
Eurosport India

6 February 2017

[49]
Food Network 5 July 2010 [49]
HGTV 30 December 1994 [49]
House Time 19 January 2021
Investigation Discovery 12 February 2018 [49]
Travel Channel February 1994 [49]
TLC October 2004 [49]

Defunct channels[edit]

Channel Discontinued Replaced by Language (s) Notes (s)
Discovery Jeet 12 February 2018 Investigation Discovery Hindi
English
Tamil
Telugu
Malayalam
Kannada
Bengali
Marathi 		[51]
HBO India 15 December 2020 - English
Hindi
HBO Defined December 31, 2015 HBO HD
HBO Hits
Imagine TV 12 April 2012 - Hindi [52][53]
Imagine Showbiz 15 August 2008 [52][53]
Lumiere Movies 2012
Trime Gold 2011
Real March 2010 (2010-03) [52][53]
Toonami India May 15, 2018 English
Hindi
WB Channel December 15, 2020

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Middleton, Richard (21 April 2022). "Warner Bros. Discovery names int'l team, as Priya Dogra, James Gibbons & Anil Jhingan take new roles". TBI Vision. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Meet Arjun Nohwar, the new GM, India, at Warner Bros. Discovery". exchange4media. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Discovery India assumes new corporate identity as Warner Bros Discovery - Exchange4media". exchange4media. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Cartoon Network to go 24 hours from 1 July". Retrieved 10 August 2017.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Turner International India to launch 24-hour kids' channel, POGO". afaqs!. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  6. ↑ "Turner And Warner Bros. Entertainment To Entertain India With The Launch Of A New Channel: WB". warnerbros.com. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "Turner buys 92% stake in NDTV Imagine". Biz Asia. Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Turner completes acquisition, NDTV Imagine becomes Imagine TV". Indian Television.
  9. ↑ "Reliance confirms buyout of Imagine Showbiz". Biz Asia. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  10. ↑ "Reliance to relaunch Imagine Showbiz channel". Biz Asia. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  11. ↑ Imagine TV to shut down as viewership declines. Livemint. Shuchi Bansal. April 2012.
  12. ↑ "Is it the end of the road for anime in India?". Indian Television Dot Com.
  13. ↑ Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita. "Is HBO giving up on its India market?". Business Standard India. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  14. ↑ "HBO India gets branding, packaging revamp". afaqs!. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  15. ↑ Malvania, Urvi. "HBO moves from niche to mass". Business Standard India. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  16. ↑ "#Experience The Magic with HBO HD!". Turner. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "Fox's Star India Strikes Exclusive Deal for HBO Originals". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  18. ↑ Hammond, Ed; Sherman, Alex; Moritz, Scott. "AT&T Discussed Idea of Takeover in Time Warner Meetings". Bloomberg. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  19. ↑ Yu, Roger. "Time Warner shares soar on AT&T's interest". USA Today. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "Cartoon Network HD+ adds Tamil, Telugu feeds". Indian Television Dot Com.
  21. ↑ Yu, Roger. "AT&T agrees to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion". USA Today. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  22. ↑ Gryta, Thomas; Hagey, Keach; Cimilluca, Dana; Sharma, Amol. "AT&T Reaches Deal to Buy Time Warner for $85.4 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  23. ↑ AnimationXpress Team. "WarnerMedia to cease HBO and WB TV channels in South Asia by 2020 end; to invest more on kids channels". AnimationXpress. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  24. ↑ "Discovery Channel India celebrates 25 years". www.google.co.in. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  25. ↑ Bansal, Shuchi. "Karan Bajaj: A winning discovery". Livemint. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  26. ↑ "Jeet had a reach of 140 million on launch day, claims Discovery". www.televisionpost.com. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  27. ↑ "Watch Discovery Jeet on Jio TV and Airtel TV". www.indianable.com. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  28. ↑ "Discovery to dub foreign content as Hindi GEC channel doesn't stir viewers". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  29. ↑ "Discovery Networks goes full throttle; launches Discovery Channel Tamil". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  30. ↑ "Discovery becomes first channel to support all South Indian languages". 12 August 2019.
  31. ↑ "Discovery launches streaming app Discovery Plus at subscription fee of Rs 299 per annum". The Financial Express. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  32. ↑ "Discovery Channel to launch new programming strategy". Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  33. ↑ "Discovery launches contest to lure in kids". Indian Television Dot Com.
  34. ↑ "Discovery Kids tempts children with three India-centric series". Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  35. ↑ "Discovery Kids expands distribution to Airtel Digital TV". Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  36. ↑ Ambwani, Meenakshi Verma. "Discovery India to revamp its kids' channel". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  37. ↑ "Discovery Kids acquires rights of ZeeQ's 'Bandbudh Aur Budbak'". www.televisionpost.com. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  38. ↑ "Discovery Kids to now speak Tamil and Telugu". BestMediaInfo. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  39. ↑ "Discovery Kids to launch Telugu language feeds - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  40. ↑ "Singham's animated miniature avatar to appear on Discovery Kids". www.bestmediaifo.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  41. ↑ "Bandbudh aur Budbak helps catapult Discovery Kids ratings by 112%". Indian Television Dot Com. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  42. ↑ "Discovery Kids soars to 2nd position in kids genre riding on Little Singham". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  43. ↑ "Discovery to dub foreign content as Hindi GEC channel doesn't stir viewers". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  44. ↑ Basil, Arasu Kannagi. "MIB permits Discovery Communications India to launch Eurosport in India; renames DSport & DSport HD to Eurosport & Eurosport HD". DreamDTH. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  45. ↑ "Shaun Nanjappa Chendira steps down as Senior Director, Warner Bros Discovery". exchange4media. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  46. ↑ "Megha Tata bids adieu to Discovery Inc". exchange4media. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  47. ↑ "Megha Tata leaves Warner Bros. Discovery, Arjun Nohwar is GM, India". ET Brand Equity. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  48. ↑ Jha, Lata. "Warner Bros, Discovery announce new leadership team in India". mint. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  49. ↑ 49.00 49.01 49.02 49.03 49.04 49.05 49.06 49.07 49.08 49.09 49.10 "Discovery Channel to complete 20 years in India on 15 August". IndianTelevision.com.
  50. ↑ Herbert, John. Practising Global Journalism: Exploring Reporting Issues Worldwide. Taylor & Francis. p. 27 – via Google Books. cnn international south asia.
  51. ↑ "Discovery Jeet to cease original programming by June-end, launch fresh intl content in H2 FY19". televisionpost.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 52.2 "Real reviews biz plan, downsizes ops". ITV Team. Indian Television.com. Archived from the original on 11 September 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 53.2 "Turner shuts down Imagine TV". Rediff team. Rediff. 13 April 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2015.

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