Gaming a priority for Discovery Channel

THhe Discovery Channel is eyeing mass market consumers as it moves into video games, the company has told MCV.

At E3, the TV channel announced plans to develop its own iPhone, PC and next-gen titles – and now MCV can reveal that it has signed a deal with UK developer and publisher Slitherine to make its first major game product, Discovery Trivia.

Discovery’s just one of many traditional media companies which has recently expanded to produce its own games. It owns a number of popular learning and education brands on TV.

But it has now grown its strategy beyond just selling the licence for those to other publishers – as it has done with upcoming mobile games based on its properties.
Gaming is a priority for Discovery,” explained director of licensing Sue Perez-Jackson.

Discovery’s mission is to empower people to explore their world and satisfy their curiosity through a number of different platforms.

Games are a natural extension of the Discovery brand. The games arena allows us to bring our programming to the small screen. From animals to space and beyond, games allow us to bring the subjects viewers enjoy on our network to the games in front of them.

Our approach to video games cannot only be part of wider licensing program. We need to look at video games as a natural expansion of our programming and content creation for online, mobile and other media contents.”

She added: The gaming market has expanded in so many ways. It now encompasses such a varied demographic that we feel now more than ever we can take this opportunity to reach a wider market.”

On the studio signing Perez-Jackson added: Slitherine is an industry leader and has an experience like no others in blending entertainment and culturally-relevant content.”

Discovery Trivia is due for release by the end of 2010.