DISCOVERY TURNS PAY; ANIMAL PLANET LAUNCH ANNOUNCED

Discovery Communication India converted its dedicated Indian feed into a basic subscription service last week. Discovery India was encrypted a year-and-a-half ago but the management was not charging cable operators any carriage fee. Discovery has been available over India with a dual audio feed consisting of Hindi and English voice-overs for some time now. The company quietly changed its policy last week and has decided to charge cable operators a maximum retail price of Rs 5 per subscriber. No media fanfare; no press.

Discovery's distribution team has been meeting with cable operators informing them of this change and asking them to pay up. The channel had earlier created a promotional campaign for its channel in which it featured prominent cable operators talking about their feelings for Discovery. The interstitial has been given a lot of air-play on the channel, getting it a lot of goodwill from cable TV operators.

Meanwhile, the management has announced that its joint venture with the BBC, the long-delayed Animal Planet, will roll out into Indian homes from 29 March. The digital receivers for the encrypted channel had been held up with the Customs authorities for more than two months because of an incorrect entry in the import documents. Cable operators are to be charged a maximum retail price of Rs 2.50 per subscriber for the service.