With the aim to increase its Indian viewership, Animal Planet has made announcement that it will launch a parallel 24-hour Hindi feed that will go on air from April 1, 2008.

Deepak Shourie, Discovery Networks India Managing Director said, “From April, viewers across India would be able to watch the channel Hindi. This move will help us increase viewership of the channel,” he added.

Animal Planet is already available in English but there is more pressure on networks to provide their service in Hindi also with the intention that they can expand their penetration in mass markets.

‘Discovery’ and ‘National Geographic’ has already offered a Hindi service to viewers.

The channel has also decided to show a few India-centric shows in the coming months that includes Riding the Cobra Express with Jeff Corwin, Tigers of the Sunderbans, Ghost of the Ganges, When Bamboo Flowers, In Search of King Cobras and Chasing Nature.

“We have acquired a lot of programmes related to India, but we haven't produced anything yet. We will probably produce India-centric shows but only when the time is right,” Mr. Shourie said.

Besides, the channel is also enhancing its prime time content. The channel has introduced four one-hour long time-band shows that will be aired between 8 pm till 12 midnight every day

Shourie further said, “There is immense potential in the Hindi speaking market. We are taking this initiative to expand our viewership and at the same time also looking forward to increasing our advertising base. And if the need occurs, we are ready to go for regional languages as well.”

According to a figure, India stands at 28 million which is about 10 per cent of its global viewership of the channel.