Singapore: Discovery founder squeezes out Discovery
June 27, 2018
By Chris Forrester
John Hendricks launched factual broadcaster Discovery back in 1985. He retired as the broadcaster’s chairman in May 2014 after 32 years in the job. He moved on to found a new service, Curiosity Stream, three years ago as an ad-free non-fiction streaming service that’s now putting hard cash into documentary programming.
Curiosity Stream is one of 7 channels and services now being offered to subscribers of Singapore’s StarHub cable system. The new channels go ‘live’ on July 3rd.
StarHub says that the Discovery channels will go dark on June 30th, and adds that the former Scripps Networks channels (Asian Food, HGTV, Food and Travel) and now owned by Discovery will go dark in August. Local reports say that Discovery was asking StarHub for US$11 million annually for access to the channels.
The seven new channels on offer from StarHub are CuriosityStream HD, Travelxp HD, Gusto TV HD, Makeful HD, GEM HD, Fight Sports HD and Colors Tamil HD, which will be available from July 3rd. The new channels will be available free-to-view for two weeks until July 15th.