{"id":19503,"date":"2023-04-05T08:50:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-05-08T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T16:12:15","slug":"curiositys-bakori-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity\u2019s Bakori Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launched by cable TV pioneer and the founder of Discovery, John Hendricks, Curiosity has been steadily building its brand across the globe through a variety of avenues, including its SVOD service Curiosity Stream, pay-TV channels and a new FAST service. Aligning with key players in local markets has been central to the company\u2019s success thus far, Bakori Davis, global head of partnerships and distribution, tells TV Real<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV REAL: <\/strong>What\u2019s been Curiosity\u2019s overall approach to international expansion?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>We have our streaming service and TV channels, we license content, and we have studios. At heart, we are a content company and we are trying to grow in every way we can. A huge part of that will be as we expand internationally. We\u2019re already available in 175 countries with our SVOD service. We have other partnerships in various regions worldwide and want to expand those.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>As you look at opportunities in any given market, how do you determine if you want to focus on your pay-TV, FAST or SVOD services?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>First and foremost, it is a partnership-driven approach. So, a lot of our strategy comes from where the partners are. We test where the market is, we\u2019ll talk to various partners, and if they are still trying to push pay TV, that\u2019s what we will offer. If they want to get into the growth area of streaming, we will partner with them to help promote that. We read the market and decide where we think our biggest partners can be beneficial in building the brand. Trying to build a brand from the ground up on your own is very difficult. A local partner can offer ways to get the brand out there to the customers. That helps dictate how we approach any market.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>And what about the approach to revenue models? Your channels are ad-supported. Are you looking at an AVOD model in streaming as well? And what about adjusting pricing for different markets?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>We\u2019ve had consistent pricing across markets. We\u2019re now testing the waters in many markets, but I think we will always, first and foremost, be a subscription service. We have always been very reasonably priced. We will always have content that supports an ad-based model, but I don\u2019t think a hybrid tier in our case would make sense. We have content that we put on AVOD\u2014we have FAST channels. It\u2019s all part of building an increasingly strong presence in front of the paywall.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>Tell me about the FAST channel. How is it faring? And are you looking at launching more?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>We have Curiosity Now in the U.S. We are looking to expand that in other regions. People say FAST is all about niche; you get in and carve your lane\u2014maybe it\u2019s a science and tech channel or a history channel. We\u2019re trying to determine the best way to reach the end consumer. As much as FAST is mature in the U.S., it\u2019s still tough to tell who is watching in many other markets. What is the best offering? Is it just a play to take up shelf space? We know we can\u2019t be too scientific about it, but we do want to expand.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>It does feel like everything old is new again; FAST feels like the early days of pay TV!
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>It is a shelf-space grab. I also think platforms are getting smarter about not having too many and finding the ones that have appeal.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>What\u2019s been the key to managing those very different relationships\u2014from legacy pay-TV players to telcos to direct-to-consumer?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>One of our biggest advantages is our wide range of products. There are many ways we can partner with providers, which means there\u2019s room to work with many different people without stepping on each other\u2019s toes. Even the traditional platforms want to try new things\u2014they\u2019re asking if they can partner with us on our SVOD service and help promote that as part of their offerings. At the same time, telcos, which historically have not been as steeped in content, are putting out loads of apps and saying, let\u2019s just see what sticks. I don\u2019t think those two negate each other. We\u2019ve done both. We\u2019re targeted about whom we partner with. Integration can take months to get your service up and running, let alone managing that after the fact. So we need to be selective about whom we partner with.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>Every region is dealing with its own unique issues right now, be it war and a banking crisis in Europe or the state of the economies in Latin America. As you look out globally, where would you like to be doing more?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>One filter is where we made an investment in localizing. Our content is offered in 11 languages now. So then it becomes, how do we further monetize the content we\u2019ve now localized? Those, by default, will be markets where we want to go deeper in our partnerships. That\u2019s a helpful filter. And then there are also places where we know the opportunity is wide. I take Africa as a good example. We have an existing relationship that takes the Curiosity channel across 55 countries in Africa. As they move into the streaming world, and with the sheer population of the territory, how do we go deeper and expand our offerings even further? India is the same thing. We are launching with Amazon in India. The size and economic opportunity of that market beg the question, What else can you do? Latin America is the same. It was difficult four or five years ago, but now it\u2019s so alive. We need to move with those trends.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>I\u2019m curious if being a leaner independent operator gives you certain advantages today compared with the behemoth tech giants, where decision-making has far more layers. Does it give you a greater ability to be agile?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>We can be more flexible. We can jump on our opportunities more quickly. Our partners have benefited from that. They want to try new things within their businesses, and we can be opportunistic in that regard. I have been at larger companies where you can get analysis paralysis. You have to appreciate your position in the market. You have to exploit that as an advantage. Let\u2019s move quickly and tackle opportunities when they come.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>What other opportunities are you pursuing in the year ahead?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>We have some exciting new partnerships that are coming. We have a partnership in Australia with Fetch for a linear channel. That will be a first for us in Australia. We have a lot of activity happening in Germany right now. We have a JV there with two partners, Spiegel TV and Autentic. In that market, we\u2019ve made the first localization of our SVOD app. So separate from our global site, we now have a German-based version. All the content is in German, and the UI and UX as you navigate the site are also in German. That\u2019s hopefully the first of many of making the Curiosity Stream experience localized. We hope to replicate that in other markets where we can.<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>What factors do you consider in a territory to determine if that\u2019s the route you should take? I imagine localization on that scale isn\u2019t cheap!
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>The truth of the matter is, once you do the initial re-skin, the initial localization, the subsequent markets are much easier. Once you have the full template in place, I won\u2019t say it\u2019s plug-and-play, but it\u2019s less effort than the first one was. The things we considered first were: Are we with the right partners on the ground? Can they help promote it and help make sure that the word is out? Do we have localized assets? For our SVOD platform and our pay channels there, we had already localized a bunch of German assets. And then you say, how else can you further monetize this content?<\/p>\n

TV REAL: <\/strong>A lot of platforms are keen to go it alone, direct to the consumer. Why has the partnership model been so crucial for Curiosity?
\nDAVIS: <\/strong>You see other streamers go out and just launch in markets, based on their consumer site, and then they search for partners. Ours happen first. It is all about our partnership strategy. We are open to integrating our app. We\u2019re open to having some sort of business relationship with those partners that helps them enjoy in the growth as well. That\u2019s the message we want to get out. We want to ensure that it\u2019s a win-win for us and our partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bakori Davis, global head of partnerships and distribution at Curiosity, on how the company has been building its brand with partnerships in local markets across SVOD, FAST and pay-TV channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":19504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[5034,5740],"class_list":["post-19503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-bakori-davis","tag-curiosity","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nCuriosity\u2019s Bakori Davis - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Curiosity\u2019s Bakori Davis - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bakori Davis, global head of partnerships and distribution at Curiosity, on how the company has been building its brand with partnerships in local markets across SVOD, FAST and pay-TV channels.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-05T12:50:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-08T16:12:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/BakoriDavis_Org_Portrait.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"426\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/\",\"name\":\"Curiosity\u2019s Bakori Davis - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-05T12:50:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-08T16:12:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/curiositys-bakori-davis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Curiosity\u2019s Bakori Davis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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