Discovery announces new slate for OTT service

NEW DELHI: Discovery Inc-owned video streaming service, discovery+, has announced a new slate of originals for November including the third season of docuseries Money Mafia showcasing stories of Mumbai’s underworld; Ekaant Sarhad Paar which explores the mythological locations of Ramayana; and matchmaking show Written in the Stars.

Last June, the factual entertainment broadcaster had said it was expanding its play beyond infotainment to genres like kids, sports and entertainment programming. Starting June, over 100 new shows including kids and library content from American broadcast network A+E Networks were added to the slate of discovery+. The service now covers genres like reality, sports, kids, learning, food, travel and history across seven languages - English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Bengali

International media companies AT&T Inc. and Discovery, Inc. in June 2021 announced a definitive agreement to combine WarnerMedia’s entertainment, sports and news assets with Discovery’s non-fiction and international entertainment and sports businesses to create a standalone global entertainment company. Media experts said the combined entity could be a powerful competitor in the Indian web streaming segment, challenging the might of incumbents like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, if it invests enough in local content. While Warner’s streaming service HBO Max is currently unavailable in India, discovery+ launched only in 2020 here and is yet to fully find its feet.

Last August, the platform had announced a new slate of originals including the second season of its celebrity food show Star vs Food, Money Mafia, an original that ventured into the world of white-collar crime like cyber fraud, Ponzi schemes and stock market manipulation, the Indian remake of American reality series Say Yes To The Dress, among others. AT&T-owned WarnerMedia and Discovery network said that in the new global entertainment company, Warner will own stock representing 71% of the new entity, and Discovery 29%.