Discovery Communications’ investment in 3D-based 3net has been a...

2011 as a partnership involving Discovery, Imax and Sony and has since gained carriage on Comcast, DirecTV, Service Electric Cablevision and Netflix. “It’s doing OK, but we don’t have any plans to do anything differently with it,” Zaslav said Thursday. “It’s not clear that 3D is catching on in the home in a way that’s meaningful.” But Discovery, which has an extensive library of 3D content, can use the technology for securing carriage deals with cable operators, Zaslav said. The 3net channel and its 3D content has given Discovery an advantage on its competition, in that “we know better than anybody what looks good in 3D,” he told us. Despite being offered by DirecTV and Comcast, “only a small number” of viewers are watching 3net, Zaslav said. Discovery’s new-media business, which includes online video service Revision3, is losing money, but “it’s not a material amount,” Zaslav said. Revision3, which Discovery purchased a year ago, recently introduced TestTube.com, a science-theme digital video network, last month with 15 short-form series that will be rolled out gradually. TestTube.com, which will initially be available through Revision3’s website and app, Microsoft’s Xbox and Google’s YouTube, will have a range of programming including science-based DNews and Thanks, Disaster, which seeks to find “silver lining” in tragic events, Discovery said. “We're trying to figure out who the audience is” for TestTube.com, “how we can hang out with them and what the economic model is for these shows,” Zaslav said. “It’s also for us to learn more about this type of programming.” Revision3 also acquired Internet video developer Philip DeFranco’s online channels and ventures, including The Philip DeFranco Show, SourceFed and The Vloggity. DeFranco will join Revision3 as a senior vice president. The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which Discovery operates in a venture with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, will turn profitable in the second half of the year, Zaslav said. OWN in May showed Tyler Perry’s The Have and Have Nots and Love Thy Neighbor, each getting 1.5-1.7 million viewers. Discovery also will seek to build on its April acquisition of Norwegian cable operator SBS Nordic from Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, Zaslav said. SBS, which has been renamed SBS Discovery, had a 30-40 percent share of the Nordic market, operating 12 TV and 19 radio stations, he said. SBS had annual revenue of about $700 million and gross margins of 22-23 percent, SBS said. Discovery’s fiscal 2012 annual gross margin was 72.8 percent, the company said.