The word discovery indicates that there is something new to be discovered, but I have spent the past few weeks browsing a program that has been on the air for more than 20 years, thanks to Discovery Plus: House Hunters.
Thanks to House Hunters (and House Hunters International, Beside Small House Hunters) my days spent at home, working at home and doing nothing but watching TV, were transferred almost exclusively to Discovery Plus. It exists as a white noise in my apartment: the buzz of couples arguing whether to pay $ 560,000 for a house in the nice neighborhood near the beautiful bistro or to risk the $ 480,000 house that needs some work, but is under budget broadcasting from my TV set. From the moment I start working until the second I start to slow down, House Hunters plays continuously on its dedicated channel hosted on Discovery Plus.
“Our bet is when the world gives a complete rotation, that the content that people chose, when they could choose anything on TV or cable, the content that they love and look for at home – 90 days, Top fastener, Property Brothers – they will still love it, ”said Discovery CEO David Zaslav THE New York Times in a recent interview.
Discovery Plus, which hosts programs from networks such as HGTV, TLC, Investigation Discovery and Food Network, was launched at the right time, when ambient television was becoming a must in people’s homes during the pandemic. Author and journalist Kyle Chayka referred to environmental TV as “you don’t have to pay attention to enjoy it, but it is still seductive enough to be attractive if you decide to do it momentarily”. For Chayka, that was Emily in Paris. This reasoning is also what makes House Hunters, as well as 90% of the series on Discovery Plus, a perfect television environment.
Streaming also makes ambient TV possible in a way that cable TV cannot, because there is an entirely ad-free option. Noisy commercials that pass every seven minutes cease to exist. Functionally, I have the option to launch a House Hunters channel that broadcasts episodes of the show 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and forget it. Streaming services are designed to make viewing as easy as possible and to keep people’s attention as soon as they start watching TV.
So far, it’s working better than expected for Discovery Plus. The company has signed up more than 11 million subscribers to the platform since its launch in early January. Discovery’s target audience is people between 25 and 54 years old, a broad range, but with the most available income in 2019, according to Statista. The disposable income of a family headed by a person between the ages of 25 and 54 ranged between $ 69,700 and $ 91,400 in 2019, the Statista reported. Add to that that cable cutting continues to happen at an accelerated pace and that the millennium generation is one of the largest groups to sign up for three or more streaming services, and the potential of Discovery Plus is obvious.
Zaslav pointed out the impressive initial inscriptions as proof that “people don’t really change that much” when talking to Times. It’s probably true, but having an ad-free option that does for adults and college students what Frozen 2 at Disney Plus or Cocomelon on YouTube and Netflix, repetitions of doing for children have become essential in my home. To quote a popular TikTok meme, House Hunters on Discovery Plus you have an “empty head, no thoughts”.
There is another term for this: television in the waiting room. Like daytime TV talk shows or new soap operas, shows like 90-day groom, house hunters, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives they are interesting enough to get someone’s attention, but they are monotonous enough not to become total distractions. They just exist to keep people entertained if they want, but they can stay in the background if someone prefers to check out Instagram or read a book – or, in my case, work.
Discovery Plus still has a long way to go. There are basic product features that need to be fixed (finding videos on demand instead of channels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is more difficult than it should be), and I haven’t seen any new series or specials that caught my eye. Discovery also needs to ensure that it is keeping the vast majority of subscribers. For now, Discovery has fulfilled a need that I didn’t know I had while working at home – pure, continuous TV, an environment in which I don’t have to think for hours the second I click on play.