BIG BOX BONANZA

Cable World, Nov 3, 2003

Byline: ANDREA FIGLER

Discovery kicked off an aggressive retail campaign Saturday to market its 24-hour high-definition television network, installing Discovery HD Theater displays in 600 Circuit City stores throughout the nation.

"It's our most extensive advertising joint effort to date," said Clint Stinchcomb, SVP and GM of Discovery HD Theater. "In the world of HD, seeing is believing and, more importantly, seeing is selling."

Discovery's exclusive deal with Circuit City calls for the electronics retailer to sell hi-def televisions via the Discovery displays for a year. Aside from installing the freestanding displays, the retail chain will also include Discovery HD Theater promotions in its newspaper ads every Sunday in markets where Circuit City stores are located.

In return, Circuit City gets commercial air space on Discovery HD Theater as well as on Discovery's other standard-definition networks such as Animal Planet, The Learning Channel and the Discovery Channel itself. These networks also will include Discovery HD Theater promos, tagged with a Circuit City logo.

"This is our first-ever in-store promotion with any broadcaster," said Carol Fuller, Circuit City's SVP of marketing and media director.

Although Circuit City has wanted a network partner for some time, it first needed to make sure there was enough HD content available to justify an HDTV purchase for the average customer, Fuller added.

Discovery offers all HD in 1080i, a key factor for Circuit City, she said. On top of that, Discovery HD Theater takes programming from all of its networks, appealing to a broad range of viewers. "The fact is that a majority of consumers out there now still don't understand what high definition is and why they need it," said Fuller. "This display...gives us an opportunity to show customers what this is all about."

Circuit City in-store personnel are trained to inform customers of the ways in which to access this new technology - via broadcast, cable or satellite. Since the retailer already has a deal promoting DirecTV, Fuller confirmed that it would be easy for salespeople to show customers how they can access Discovery HD programming through DirecTV's HD distribution.

However, Circuit City spokesman Bill Cimino was quick to clarify that salespeople are thoroughly trained about the different ways to access HD and will inform their consumers accordingly. Although Cimino would not disclose exactly how many HDTV sets Circuit City has sold this year, he said that sales have been growing due to falling prices and increased HD content.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, digital television products sold in September totaled 530,656 units worth $791.5 million, 87% of which were HDTVs. The units sold in September rose 99% compared with September last year; for the nine months ending in September unit sales rose 62% compared with the same period last year. The CEA projects that 4.3 million digital television units will be sold in 2003, 5.8 million in '04 and 8.3 million in '05.

Discovery hopes to help fulfill these CEA projections with its new Circuit City campaign. "What we hope to accomplish is to jointly promote HD sales, demystify the category and drive customer satisfaction," Discovery's Stinchcomb said.

"We are 24-hours-a-day family friendly programming. Men use us to justify [an HDTV] purchase to their wives and family."

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Could a cable operator piggyback the Discovery promo in Circuit City to win hi-def subs away from satellite?