Discovery launched its much-ballyhooed Planet Explorer Istanbul Web site on Friday, the first part of its push to create a series of products built around a common geographic theme. Through the year's end, Istanbul-related products will be represented through every channel at the company's disposal - including the Nature Company, a nationwide group of more than 100 retail stores.
"Two-and-a-half years ago we sat down and outlined this major initiative that would live across all these platforms. This fall you'll see television pilots that carry the brand; when you walk into a Nature Company store, you'll see Planet Explorer living there; and the Web site, which will support the CD-ROM," says Discovery founder and chairman John Hendricks. Discovery is even considering creating 30-minute infomercials driven by the Planet Explorer line. "We want to put the power of the company behind this," Hendricks says.
The Web site's centerpiece is Sélam: The Secret Language, which takes place in Istanbul, and plays much like a CD-ROM-based computer game, but is created using Java. Sélam will be updated four times in the future, so that the game can continue to develop, and players will presumably be drawn back. Also on the site is a tour of Istanbul's major sites rendered in QuickTime VR.
Intrigue in Istanbul will be the name of the television program the Discovery Channel has slated for the fall. The CD-ROM game Byzantine: The Betrayal will be released for Christmas, and will be heavily promoted at the Nature Company, where it will be sold along with Turkish art and handicrafts.
"Eyeballs are driven offline to online," says Patrick Keane, an analyst at Jupiter Communications. Keane says that Discovery is very aware of this, and he expects "ubiquitous promotion" on the Discovery Channel, and within Nature Company stores.
"They are a new model for a media company in general. They are able to leverage a lot of different outlets, be it television, a retail environment, and obviously the Web. That plays into their strengths in trying to promote their content in several areas."
While no one from Discovery ever seems to mention the buzzword "edutainment," it is obviously a guiding principle. "One of the fundamental concepts," says producer Harry Moxley, "is that this is to be authentic - after spending 40 hours with this game you'll be going away with a lot of knowledge." Hendricks added that knowledge about Istanbul is "knowledge that, certainly, your neighbors don't have."
Hendricks admits that the Planet Explorer series is the product of a more focused vision than that which drove some of the company's recent new media ventures. Discovery Interactive, for instance, has sometimes worked in a scattershot manner, putting many resources behind diverse products. The company went through a round of layoffs earlier this year. "It's always a challenge when your company has many different operating ambitions," said Hendricks. "We're trying to make assets that are transferable across media." The Web site, he points out, makes use of the nodes that Discovery created for the CD-ROM.
