• by Paul Gough , July 31, 2003

With several months under its belt and a good upfront, the Discovery Times Channel is moving into its first fall season with three times more original programming than it had at its rebranding in March.

The channel, a partnership between The New York Times and Discovery Networks, has grown to a distribution of 30 million households from 14 million a year ago. It's also making strong gains in a 2003 study, ranking sixth among 220 media brands measured by Harris Interactive's EquiTrend brand study and fifth among 78 TV networks.

"That's going to be a real winner," predicts Joe Abruzzese, president of advertising sales at Discovery Networks.

Discovery Times Channel's mission is to tell the story behind the story, using its unique place among Discovery Network and The New York Times. While it prides itself on delving into the history, in its short history it's been able to catch current trends pretty well too. Its inaugural night of programming delved into terrorism and the Middle East just as the United States was involved in a second MidEast war in a decade. It was a not altogether planned coincidence; the specials had been in the works long before the channel knew the war might happen.

"Our mission, the brief for the network, is to pick up where the news leads off, to go in depth," said Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the Discovery Times Channel. And Schiller ought to know, having come to Discovery from the executive wing at CNN. She said the heavy emphasis on international stories isn't an accident. There's even more coming in the third and fourth quarters.

"That's something that we think is important that a lot of other American television networks aren't doing," Schiller said.

July and August features in-depth documentaries on the U.S. military's role in post-war occupations, the children of North Korea and the post-Milosevic Yugoslavia and the post-Saddam Iraq. September and October feature programming that's closer to home, including:

Making The Grade, a look at the standardized testing process that will be mandated by President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" Act. It premieres Sept. 2.

Crisis in California, a behind-the-scenes look at the people who work in Los Angeles, the nation's largest school system. Premieres Sept. 9.

MLK Boulevard, a travelogue of some of the more than 500 towns and cities nationwide that honor the slain civil rights leader.

"We're ramped up now so that you're going to see a lot more premieres on the channel," Schiller promises. "We've got a really good story to tell in how we're different than what other networks are doing."

Schiller said Discovery Times Channel has received a great response from the documentary filmmaking community that is excited about having a full hour to expose character and build strong narratives. It also works closely with the New York Times newsroom, not just in its nightly look at the Times' front page but in ways that drive the content.

She said the main focus now is on specials, although she isn't ruling out other types of programming in the year or two ahead.

"Are we looking at potential series down the road? Yes," Schiller said. But no decisions have been made.

Discovery Times is also finding success with its advertising strategy, enlisting General Motors as its first big charter sponsor, Schiller said.

Abruzzese said advertisers spent six times more money on the company's digital networks like Discovery Times Channel than it did last year.

"People are staking a position for the future, that they know the networks will eventually grow into successes and why not establish themselves earlier," Abruzzese said.