The third in CTV’s new suite of Discovery channels launches today, offering viewers a new twist on the old Discovery Civilization format.
The new channel, Discovery Science, will focus on the ways in which science and technology have contributed to the evolution of human civilization. Keeping in line with the programming mandate of Civilization, the channel will cover topics such as building and construction, science and medical mysteries.
Programs featured in the launch schedule include Build it Bigger (Sept. 28), which runs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, followed by Sci Fi Science with Michio Kaku (also premiering Sept. 28) at 9 p.m. ET. Wednesdays will feature Popular Science’s Future of at 9 p.m. ET (starting Sept. 29), while Thursday-night prime time will kick off Sept. 30 at 8 p.m. with Mega Engineering.
The new channel will be promoted with a multimedia campaign starting Oct. 11, which will join the other two campaigns in place promoting the other two new channels, Discovery World HD and Discovery Investigation (formerly Court TV). The new HD channel launched Aug. 2, while Investigation launched Aug. 30.
The Discovery World HD campaign is the largest of the three, with an extensive national campaign featuring extensive OOH in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. The OOH media plan includes transit shelter advertising in all three cities, digi boards in Toronto, a train wrap in Calgary, TTC bus wraps and interior ads in Toronto, posters in Toronto, and superboards in Toronto and Calgary. Discovery World HD was also promoted with print ads in the Globe and Mail in August, as well as ads in the TIFF program guide. The channel was promoted across CTV in August, and will continue to be promoted on-air and online via the Discovery channel on an ongoing basis. The other two channels will feature much scaled-down versions of the above campaign, each with their own creative executions.
The rebranding of Discovery World HD has been a focus of the campaigns, with a goal toward making consumers aware of the difference between Discovery’s traditional-cable channel and the HD version. The two have always had different programming, a spokesperson for the network says, but since they were both branded Discovery, it led to some consumer confusion. The new brand, Discovery World HD, is meant to clarify the brand in the eyes of consumers, as is the media campaign to support it.
The new channels were born out of a new 10-year deal CTV signed with Discovery Communications in the US earlier this year.
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