01 March 2005

When you go to Egypt these days, you hear a lot about preservation and higher ticket prices. This is good because although many of the wonders of Egypt's past have lasted for literally thousands of years, they are feeling their age.

The same could be said of the European multichannel TV business. It is no longer new and there is increasing competition. In this environment, the question facing channel providers is how to make channels relevant to increasingly fragmented audiences.

One tested but expensive way to stand out is through new and innovative programming. For Discovery Networks Europe this has meant not only launching more channel brands to carve out more specific audiences but also adding programming that allows it to rise above the increasingly crowded multichannel landscape. Hence the launch this month of Egypt Week, a themed week of new and archived shows on a scale that Discovery has never attempted before. The line-up is impressive and includes several reality-style programmes starring a local hero, Dr Zahi Hawass. He is Egypt's top preservationist and a leading archaeologist. He also wears a hat that gives him more than a passing resemblance to Indiana Jones.

Discovery is betting big on Dr Hawass but the programming special is part of a much bigger plan to raise awareness of the Discovery brand, especially in Europe and the Middle East. This year, four more Discovery-branded channels will launch across the EMEA territory (excluding the UK), following the launch of Discovery in France and Animal Planet in Germany last year. In the UK Discovery already operates nine channels.

Similar to other large players, Discovery has been extending its brand; in its case beyond wildlife into technology, history and most recently lifestyle programming. It's called taking up shelf-space. Discovery is also developing local brand awareness by increasing its local sales and programming offices across Europe.

Broadening the brand is just one of the keys to survival in the new digital world. The whole business model of a channel is changing from a linear, narrative experience. Ancillary content is being added that can pop up in different formats depending on the receiving device favoured by the viewer.

This is certainly the strategy of Jetix, formerly Fox Kids, which is competing in the children's programming market around the world. Now controlled by Disney, Jetix is expanding not just through launching - or buying - more channels but through increasing the number of "touch points" that its programmes have with its viewers. Jetix doesn't even call Power Rangers or Pucca or Shaman King programmes. They are "properties" to be exploited across video-games, ring-tones, clothing and interactive applications. Last year Jetix set up a cross-media advertising sales unit.

Jetix also sees value in producing more original content. It has a inked first-look and co-production deals with non-US producers such as France's Marathon, as well as producing with its new parent Disney. It is also into event programming: its Kids Cup championship was a series of football matches played by kids in different markets with a final televised at the Manchester United Soccer School at Disneyland Paris last year.

Catering to your audience is key but the crowded multichannel future is also about leverage. Disney's acquisition of Jetix provides the latter with a way into the very crowded US market. Jetix is now a block on Toon Disney and on ABC Family in the US and having Disney as a co-producer means that it can produce higher budget shows.

This search for leverage seems to be behind the recent purchase of an 87% stake by United Globalcom (backed by Liberty Media, soon to be Liberty Global) in Zone Vision, the company that started off representing channels in central and eastern Europe long before anyone else. Zone Vision had gone about as far as it could without a larger backer. Being allied with Europe's largest cable operator, UGC, could help tip the balance. Working hand-in-hand with UGC will mean that ideas for new channels can be worked out to UGC's spec, meaning they will be a better fit for the operator. And in Japan Zone Vision also hopes a deal with Jupiter Programming, backed by Liberty Media, to launch a 24-hour Reality TV channel will put it in a better position to prosper and perhaps propagate other channels now that Liberty and UGC have agreed to merge.

Back in Egypt, Dr Hawass warns that in 100 years monuments like King Tut's tomb will be reduced to powder if environmental conditions, including too much CO2 being breathed on them by visitors, are left unchecked. A reminder to channel operators: consider the environment and adapt.