Discovery Expands Program Blocks

CANNES: Discovery Enterprises International has landed several deals to launch program blocks with European broadcasters, including RTL in Croatia.

Germany’s kabel eins renewed its Discovery Channel branded block agreement through 2009. Featuring 50 hours of content per year, the weekly branded block on kabel eins is called K1 Discovery and features a wide variety of genres, including science, technology, engineering, history and current events. This is the fifth consecutive year that K1 Discovery is part of the kabel eins schedule.

Discovery also signed a new program block agreement with RTL in Croatia. The Discovery Channel branded block, which will broadcast through June 2009, airs weekly and includes 30 hours from series such as Storm Chasers, Man Vs. Wild, Hazard Pay and Everest: Beyond the Limit. This deal was extended to include a DVD/home video licensing agreement with RTL and Net Zagreb in Croatia, where RTL will also promote Discovery DVD titles in the market.

In a further deal, digital channel Barrandov TV, which launched earlier this year in the Czech Republic, also went for a Discovery Channel branded block as part of its lineup. The deal includes more than 38 hours of content. These follow on a recent deal where Discovery renewed its branded block agreement in Poland with TV4. This deal will run until the end of June and the slot is called 4 Discovery.

"These deals represent our continued commitment to strengthening ongoing relationships with international broadcasters and forming new partnerships with third-party clients in order to extend Discovery’s extensive programming library and breadth of nonfiction genres to even wider international audiences," said Caleb Weinstein, the senior VP of Discovery Enterprises International.