Guys, watch out! There is a new OTT streaming platform that is about to take off in the global market next year and they are not even in going to be in competition with the major OTT giants such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix or Disney+. This new streaming platform is the American Multinational Pay Television “Discovery Channel’s” “Discovery+”.
Although it is an American company, Discovery+ was launched in India back in March of 2020 which had two plans – Rs. 99 for one month subscription and Rs. 299 for one year’s worth of subscription. It has been successful so far, due to the pandemic and they rolled out the service to the UK and Ireland last month.
Discovery+ will be launching globally on January 4th 2021 in the U.S. The streaming platform is expected to roll out across Italy, Latin America (including Brazil), the Netherlands, the Nordics, and Spain during 2021 itself. The streaming service is expected to be a bit more expensive in the U.S. which will be set at $5 per month with advertisements, while the ad-free version will be $7. Certain Verizon customers will have the first 12 months free as part of their service plan.
Discovery+ is not stopping there. There are multiple original series going to be released – 29 in fact, not including feature 3 Indian Originals. Three of them will involve Sir David Attenborough, David Schwimmer and Kevin Hart, while the other 26 will have the likes of Amy Schumer, Ludacris, Dan Levy, Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Martha Stewart among others as part of Discovery+ Originals. Discovery had also made a bold promise of 1000 hours of original content in its first year in America.
Sir David Attenborough is lending his voice for a five-part series called ‘A Perfect Planet’ which will be released next year. It will be available for streaming in India as well. ‘Friends’ and ‘Band of Brothers’ star David Schwimmer will narrate ‘Mysterious Planet’ – a series focusing on the world’s most incredible series. Kevin Hart will go on a road trip on Route 66 to explore the heartland of America (the title for this series still in progress).
The 3 Indian Original Series will have Manoj Bajpayee, Randeep Hooda, Rana Daggubati, and Neeraj Pandey as part of the Discovery+ team. Bajpayee is expected to host, while Pandey will present the series ‘Secrets of Sinauli: Discovery of the Century’ in collaboration with the Archeological Survey of India. Daggubati is expected to embed himself with Jaisalmer’s Border Security Force and live the life of a soldier in the series ‘Mission Frontline’. Hooda will voice a Hindi language series called ‘Ladakh Warriors: The Sons of The Soil’ which will come out next week (9th December 2020) on Discovery+. it will focus on the training of “Snow Warriors” who guard the high-altitude border between India and China.
Discovery+ currently serves India in eight languages -Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Marathi. By 2021, Discovery+ India will get 200 new and exclusive titles for viewing. Besides the aforementioned originals, Discovery+ will also add the latest season of ‘Top Gear’ and ‘Gold Rush’, in addition to the likes of ‘Amma & Appa’, ‘The Indian Dream Hotel’, ‘The Ganges with Sue Perkins’, ‘Aerial India’, ‘The End of The Storm’, and ‘The Impossible Row’.
From December 15th, Discovery+ India is expecting to add six more live channels Dkids, HGTV, Food Network HD, Travel Channel HD, DMAX HD, and Eurosport HD — that are already part of the main global Discovery Network. They join the existing channels that are Discovery HD, Animal Planet HD, TLC HD, Investigation Discovery HD, Discovery Science, and Discovery Turbo.
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