So What's The Fixation With the Plus + Sign?

Discovery Communications is the latest to enter the marketplace with Discovery+, putting the cable programmer’s wide array of unscripted series in a $4.99 a month package starting in January. CBS All Access — the streaming home for ViacomCBS-owned programs and films — will be relaunched as Paramount+ next year, affixing the symbol to the name of the company’s 108-year-old movie studio.

They join the brigade of plus-named services that include Disney+, ESPN+, Apple TV+, BET+ and AMC+.

The LA Times reports Steve Kazanjian, president and chief executive of Promax, the trade association for marketing companies serving the entertainment industries, said the repeated use of the arithmetic symbol has made it an efficient tool to create awareness of the new services.

“There is a stake in the ground that’s around ‘plus’ right now,” he said. “It’s in the consumer lexicon. It owns a bit of emotional equity in your brain already, which is really powerful.”

Discovery found that was the case when it conducted surveys and focus groups with consumers on possible names for its service. The company considered dozens of original monikers — testing Latin words and new-fangled creations that came from combined words — a route that Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-lived streaming service took when it melded “quick bites” into Quibi.

But the rapid growth of Disney+ — already at 86 million subscribers just one year after its launch — paved the way for Discovery to adapt a plus sign as well.

Adding the plus sign to an established name is a way to tell consumers that the service carries content that goes beyond what the consumer already associates with the brand. For Disney, that includes projects from Pixar and Marvel, the Star Wars universe, National Geographic programming and the library of 21st Century Fox programs it owns such as “The Simpsons.”

Discovery wanted to tap into consumers’ affection for its flagship channel Discovery, which has a global reputation as a provider of adventure, exploration and nature programming. Adding the plus helps convey the wide range of unscripted fare from the company’s other networks — from true crime to the guilty-pleasure reality series “90-Day Fiancé.”

The plus sign also needs no translation, making it an asset to a company that wants to distribute its service overseas. Discovery+ is already operating in the United Kingdom and India.

Discovery launches its Discovery+ streaming service on Jan. 4.