RIYADH — Discovery Network announced plans to introduce content with local flavor to the Saudi audience. In an interview with Saudi Gazette, Discovery Network International's president J. B. Perrette shared insight to the network's next plans in the Kingdom during his recent visit to Riyadh. What are your next plans in Saudi Arabia? Now with the Vision 2030's ambitions, we're trying to see what we can do more in Saudi Arabia. We can help in telling stories that inform and excite the youth and families around the important skills that are going to be key in this national transformation whether that will be in our core genres of exploration, engineering, space, technology, science, or even in lifestyle categories. Media is one of the most powerful ways to change culture. We want to bring our 30-year library of content but also our expertise in how to do all that content in an entertaining way. What is Discovery Network's presence in the region? Discovery Network's 13 channels have been present in the region for 18 years, more than half of its 30-year-old existence. Most of its channels are in paid television except for a few such as Fatafeat and Quest Arabiya. Globally, we are present in 222 markets around the world. How can your content be localized? Relevancy starts with bringing in people native to your country who speak the language. It also involves original production in Saudi Arabia and potentially working with partners. By developing production, creative talent and bringing in knowledge and expertise in the field helps produce a more vibrant creative community in Saudi Arabia. We can take some of the great stories and showcase them to an international audience as well. Does that also mean job creation? We're one company, unlike major industrial groups. We hope that by doing what we could, we'd help influence job creation if we could find production partners and business models to do this. How is Discovery adapting to new trends in media? Despite the changes in technology and distribution, we still need to be great storytellers. At the core, we believe we are all about sight, sound, and motion storytellers. We're doing it in different ways. Traditionally, we have 22-minute and 44-minute episodes but that's changed. We found that we want to continue through new medium. We've invested a hundreds of millions of dollars in telling more short-form stories. We created this company called Group 9, a combination of a few digital brands, including the No. 1 news provider to Facebook. They tell short-form stories on social media. That is a whole new business for us to explore. What are short-form stories? Short-form are 1-3 minute videos. They're considered snackable pieces. We're the leaders in that space among the top 5 short-form video companies. As a business, it's not profitable in the long-term but it's also vibrant. We want to figure out how to evolve it. What about innovation? Part of being a brand like Discovery, we have to be innovative. We were the first ones in paid TV, which was an innovative platform 30 years ago. We were the first ones to convert to digital. We're now leaders in virtual reality. The type of content we have involves nature. The closer to real the content is and it looks, the more powerful it is. With high definition, people loved the clarity of the image. When you're watching views of volcano or animals in the African savannah or whales in the ocean, the images are spectacular. When we look at virtual reality or augmented reality, we found that the closer to real the better our content is.
