Why natural history is such a good business
THIS month the Discovery Channel is treating American and European viewers to a frenzy of sharks. There are sharks munching on seals (filmed at 2,000 frames per second and slowed down to capture every bone-crunching detail), sharks attacking people and sharks chewing cameras. Discovery has been churning out shark programmes for 23 years. Yet ratings are sound. Nature sells.
Indeed, it is one of the best businesses in media. Discovery Communications, which also owns Animal Planet, TLC and a few smaller channels, made a profit of $372m in the second quarter of this year. That is about as much as the film studios of Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros put together. Its growth appears not to have been affected by the arrival of another channel, Nat Geo Wild, owned by National Geographic and News Corporation. …
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