The Hindu Business Line : Discovery ties up with Shloka Publications

DISCOVERY Channel and Shloka Publications, a Yash Birla group company, have entered into a tie-up to launch educational CDs for children. The CDs under the Shloka Educational Series would have titles from the various shows already being aired on the channel such as Habitats of the World and the History of Earth.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Manish Malani, Director and CEO, Shloka Publications, said: "At the moment we have launched nearly 16 titles from the Discovery Channel. Besides, we also intend launching titles from Discovery Travel and Living for adults in the future."

There are also plans to launch merchandise as part of a co-branding pact with Discovery Channel. Mr Malani said: "There are talks to start merchandising items such as T-shirts and mugs in association with Discovery."

While it is sourcing content from Discovery Channel for its VCDs, the company also looking at providing its own content to other Indian television channels. For instance, it is planning to provide a children's section for the religious channel, Sanskar.

Shloka Publications, known for publishing educational reference books for children, has graduated to new areas such as marketing of CDs and VCDs and even making animation films.

Its in-house creative team has also made films based on Indian mythological characters with titles such as Divine Children of Children of India and Saints of India.

The company has tied up with the US-based publishing and media house, WRC Media, for its educational books for kids as part of the Shloka Educational series.

WRC Media distributes technology software, testing materials, and reference products for both home and library usage.

"We are in talks with more companies in the field of education for acquiring intellectual property rights," said Mr Malani.

Besides, the company has also made a foray into retailing. It has launched its own stores under the retail brand - Toddlers to Teens - in Mumbai. "These are pilot stores which has been set up on property owned by the group. But later we will roll out the stores to more cities."

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