The Explorers: “Now shooting in 8K-16 bit”
November 26, 2020
By Chris Forrester
France-based The Explorers has gained an enviable reputation for its ‘Earth Inventory’ concept. Founder Olivier Chiabodo has recently struck a valuable output deal with Samsung for carriage on their 4K/HDR and 8K/HDR high-end TV sets. Earlier this year Apple TV awarded The Explorers its ‘App of the Year. accolade.
“We now shoot everything in 16-bit 8K so the quality is extremely high. On Social Networks we have 71,000 followers, some 18,000 subscribers and 85,000 members to our OTT channels in 4K and 8K. We are available in 17 languages. We produce 52-minute productions, and 26-minute edited versions and also 12, 8, and even 2 and 1-minute short-form clips,” said Chiabodo, talking to delegates to the UHD Summit last week. “We are the first to stream 8K/HDR-10 in OTT.”
Chiabodo said that more than 10 million users had downloaded The Explorers app and was now the largest nature video catalogue in 8K and 4K HDR. “We are now in more than 15 million Samsung screens, and the number is growing daily.”
“But in March this year everything stopped. We could not travel. We had discussions with the French government and since March we started filming the first of our French inventory and shooting everywhere in France, above and below the water, and in the air, and in every region in France. We have captured 50 hours and after editing everything goes on the platform,” he added.
He told delegates that China was extremely important in terms of 8K. “They are looking at 8K and in conjunction with 5G. We have collaborations with Huawei and TenCent and are the first OTT 8K on their video platforms.” He explained that 2021 would see The Explorers active with the UN’s Biodiversity event COP 15 taking place next May in China.
As outlined above, monetisation is taking place and The Explorers also has a 5-year deal with luxury fashion and design group Kering which includes brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Boucheron and others.
Chiabodo said that the objective at the moment was not to sign up paying viewers but instead to work with high-profile businesses to gain viewership which could be monetised eventually. “We want to be Nature’s Netflix. You can watch very high-quality video, and the second function is like Instagram where our users help us with our overall inventory. The likes of Netflix do not have much Nature content. Our aim is to have that content, as well as the Platforms and Users. We have also opened a shop where our branded merchandising is available. It goes very well.