Peter Weil, Senior VP,GM, Animal Planet International

“Well, we’ve been here for a few years and our distribution has been growing. Of course, it’s not the same size as Discovery – we are probably half of that. There is a lot of enthusiasm, but I don’t think Animal Planet is on top of people’s minds and we intend to change that.”

Peter Weil, as the global head of Animal Planet, is responsible for strategic development and management of the channel internationally. He is also at the helm of editorial and creative directions. He leads a number of regional teams across the globe and is in charge of evolving the Animal Planet brand, innovative on and off-air marketing and overall brand refinement. Speaking to Shubha Kumble during his recent trip to India, Weil shared his plans for the channel, spoke about his dislike of the ‘niche’ label and more. Excerpts…

Q. How do you plan to go about this?

Through a lot of things. One, we are looking to increase the distribution so we can get to the same level as Discovery. Second, we will take our marketing much more seriously -- through a number of events, even something like a press conference, which we haven’t done earlier for Animal Planet. We have started with Bangalore and obviously we will move to other parts of India. Apart from this, we have signages, billboards and we conduct road shows across cities using the ‘It Grabs You’ catch line. This is something we haven’t done before. We are working with a whole bunch of ideas and are constantly evaluating our progress to see what works and what needs to be altered.

Q. Tell us about Animal Planet’s positioning.

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Animal Planet is primarily positioned as a family channel. People often think of it as yet another kids’ channel. What I think is that there are a number of good kids’ channels both here in India and around the world, like Cartoon Network, who make only kids’ programmes; there are a host of news channels, sports channels or movie channels, but there’s hardly anything that the entire family can watch together. We see ourselves as a family channel – something the whole family can watch together. What we offer is non-fiction entertainment and in that sense, we are unique.

Q. Do you think niche channels sell in India?

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I personally don’t like the term ‘niche channel’, but it is highly used here. I look at it as a cable channel. But I see it as having a rather broad appeal. We offer a broad range in terms of programming, so I wouldn’t call it niche in that sense. I absolutely believe that what Animal Planet offers can find a resonance globally. We all have a special relationship with animals; it’s different in different parts of the world. At some places, it’s more about pets, while many refer to wild animals. But I think we all have a relationship with the animal planet – that’s the more important story.

Q. How open are advertisers to a vehicle like Animal Planet?

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I think it’s about us approaching them and this is what we are doing. Our local teams across the country are involved in this. Also, what I’ve been doing in Mumbai and here in Bangalore is going with the local team and meeting people to sell the channel. We came across some real interesting situations. We met people who were in media and when I explained that it was not a children’s channel but a family channel, one of them said, “Oh yeah, I watch it with my three-and-half-year-old and he wouldn’t let me watch anything else.” Another was so familiar with the channel that he knew the programming schedule better than me! So, when you meet someone and they have a personal experience and you try to explain the concept of it being a family channel, they’ll buy in.

I have seen some people making very significant queries. There are questions like how different are we from other channels, how relevant are we to India, whom are we targeting? And they want to be convinced which is exactly what you would expect. Some people want to be sure whether we are really serious about what we are doing – not something that’s here today and gone tomorrow. So, this is a long-term strategy and while working with the team here, it’s my job to convince them. The enthusiasm shown by the local team is great. We spent a couple of hours the other day discussing the channel and ways to make it work.

Q. What kind of a goal has Animal Planet set for itself?

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We have a five-year business plan and all businesses with Discovery have similar five-year plans. We are not allowed to talk about specific figures, so all I can tell you is that at the end of these five years every business plan has to show significant profits. That’s certainly the intention here. I would like us to be up there with Discovery. And that is not a stagnant target as Discovery will keep growing and I would like us to keep pace with them.

Q. Why the sudden emphasis on Animal Planet?

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Our first objective was to launch Discovery and make it strong. We prioritised Discovery. And, I think it is now very strong in India. So, now we want to concentrate on Animal Planet, put more resources into it, reinforce its marketing.

Q. Isn’t that very similar to channels like Discovery or National Geographic?

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We are part of the same family as Discovery; we have the same DNA. Our approach is more to complement each other rather than to cannibalize. First thing, Discovery is about a lot more than wildlife. Second, Discovery’s catch line is ‘Got to Know’ as it is all about knowledge. We, on the other hand, say ‘It Grabs You’, which is more about stronger emotions like love, fear, humour and so on. So, we reach out with a greater emotional appeal with a strong emphasis on entertainment. For instance, we are very proud that we provide laughter through specific programmes like ‘Planet’s Funniest Animals’. This is not the kind of programming you get in other channels – be it Discovery or National Geographic.



The second big difference is that for us, our presenters are very important. Again, if you look at Discovery, they have some great wildlife documentaries – I was in charge of Discovery in London for the UK and Europe. But if you look at what we do, it’s about interaction between people and animals and we have presenters like Steve Irwin and Jane Goodall who are all passionate about animals, are experts on animals and are great for communicating and entertaining.

Apart from this, we are striving to bring out new formats all the time and new approaches. We are constantly coming out with something different like our programme ‘Pet Star’ which is an animal talent competition. You would never run that on Discovery. So, I think that makes us very different from the other channels you mentioned.

Q. Are you also looking at generating more India-centric programming?

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Of course, you cannot go ahead and promote a channel without having something substantial to show. We are coming up with new shows, new concepts and particularly shows that will have a resonance in India. For example, this November we will have ‘India Uncovered’ – a whole week of top programmes on India. These programmes are not just for Indian viewers, they are such great stories that we want to share it with our viewers across the globe.

Q. How has Animal Planet been received across India?

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Well, we’ve been here for a few years and our distribution has been growing. Of course, it’s not the same size as Discovery – we are probably half of that. There is a lot of enthusiasm, but I don’t think Animal Planet is on top of people’s minds and we intend to change that.