Washington – There is nothing more universal, it turns out, than a father yelling at his offspring.
Since its debut in 2002, millions of viewers worldwide have tuned in to watch “American Chopper,” Discovery Channel’s reality show about the battles between motorcycle builder Paul Teutul Sr. and his sons at a family-run business in New York state.
The show is No. 2 in Poland. It recently debuted in Malaysia. Teutul’s sometimes vulgar vocabulary has been translated into Castillan, Portuguese and Chinese.
The channel and its parent, Discovery Communications Inc., are half-owned by Douglas County’s Liberty Media Corp. But soon, Discovery Communications will be spun off as a separate, publicly traded company.
Discovery Communications will be worth about $6.5 billion, or $2.32 a share, Andrew Baker, an analyst at Cathay Financial LLC, told Bloomberg News in March.
Now in its 20th year, the operation has moved beyond the science-based premise of founder John Hendricks.
It has set aside the risky Internet and video-on-demand ventures that cost it tens of millions of dollars during the dot-com craze.
Instead, it is trying to divine the tastes of 160 countries, hoping that U.S.-produced shows such as “MythBusters” might take off in Tanzania, or “FBI Files” might shoot to the top in South Korea.
Discovery is also trying to tap local sentiment with shows produced in Asia, Britain and elsewhere. The formula has already produced a couple of regional winners, such as “Virtual History,” a British show that uses computer-generated imagery – Adolf Hitler’s face superimposed on an actor’s body – to re-create historic events.
“Afterlife,” a show popular in Asia, looks at how people in different cultures deal with death.
If that seems to be an exotic strategy for a company that began with a focus on documentaries about the natural world, there is a good reason. While its 16 U.S. channels still drive revenue at Discovery, they have been beset by challenges, including a sense that they are now at a saturation point with limited potential for growth. About 90 million U.S. households receive Discovery channels with their cable subscriptions.
Ratings are down at TLC, an important piece of the Discovery operation.
The success of the popular “Trading Spaces” home-decorating show has been undermined by numerous copycats, and the loss of audience has forced the company to give sponsors several millions of dollars in make-good advertising.
The company brought in new management recently and stepped up program development. As many as 90 new shows are now in the works, with the first batch to debut this fall.
Discovery Communications chief executive Judith McHale said in an interview that consumer tastes are changing more rapidly than ever.
“We have to constantly reinvent ourselves,” she said.
Discovery has room to add subscribers to its digital networks, such as FitTV and DiscoveryHome. But by and large, Discovery’s U.S. networks are a “mature” business, said Andrew Baker, an analyst at Cathay Financial LLC.
So Discovery is setting its sights overseas – and inside classrooms. The company is planning to invest $100 million over the next several years developing its international subscriber base, and will put an equal amount into a nascent education business.
Both the education business and the international channels take advantage of Discovery’s library of programs.
The education division, for example, recently began marketing a service that delivers video clips to U.S. classrooms for about $1,000 per school. The clips, sorted so they meet state education standards, come with lesson plans and quizzes. Discovery plans to expand the video- streaming service overseas and is testing a home service in the United States.
