Discovery Kids kickstarts its localisation strategy with 'Mystery Hunters'

MUMBAI: Discovery Kids, the kids channel from Discovery Communications, has launched its first local production, Mystery Hunters India, as part of its localisation strategy for the channel.

Mystery Hunters India is a series that demystifies the intriguing myths of India and will be hosted by 16-year-old Apoorva Arora and Himanshu Sharma, who is presently studying in grade VII.

The series, which will air every day at 6 pm from 22 December, will explain the intriguing myths of India which are still hidden and inexplicable. The show is being produced by BBC which also owns the format of the show.

For this series, Apoorva and Himanshu travel the length and breadth of India to explore the places and delve into the tales which have bewildered people for ages - combining the thick jungles of Kerala to reveal red rain, unearthing the truth behind the mysterious Naga people of the underground to trekking down to the third largest crater lake in the world.

Assisting Mystery Hunters is Doubting Dev (famous standup comedian), the resident skeptical scientist back at the Mystery India Lab. He uses his own brand of humour to conduct fun experiments and uncover the truth.

"In India there are lots of mysteries and kids are very curious to know more about various facts in the country. So we got these two kids Himanshu and Apoorva who are hosting the show. It?s come out very well," Discovery South Asia senior VP, GM Rahul Johri said.

Johri said that Discovery Kids has balance of animation content as well as live action. Discovery Kids, he said, is being positioned as a channel that satisfies the curiosity of kids. "Indian kids want to be entertained but what we hope to provide them is variety and more than just cartoons. That is what we are trying to do with the channel in multiple genres."

Discovery Kids? programming formats include animation and live action series under multiple genres such as adventure, mythology, nature, history and science. The channel?s programming slate features programmes such as Papyrus, Sally Bollywood, Howzatt, The Legend of Enyo and Wild Kratts.

The channel has slowly expanded its distribution footprint and is available on most cable and DTH platforms. It is available on Tata Sky, Airtel digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Videocon d2h, and Dish TV.

"We are available on five of the six DTH platforms. We are available across the country and we have pretty robust distribution. We have been working on the distribution for the last six months and today we are visible across platforms," he asserted.

When queried about the markets that the channel is focussing on, Johri said: "We are growing on a pan-India basis and there is no individual market that we are targeting."

Discovery Kids is available in three languages ? English, Hindi, and Tamil. The target audience is four to 12 years old and their parents with the core target audience being kids seven to 10 years old.