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Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel (also delivered via IPTV, terrestrial television and internet television in other parts of the world), founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history. In the U.S., the programming for the main Discovery network is primarily focused on "reality-based" television themes, such as speculative investigation (with shows such as Mythbusters, Unsolved History, and Best Evidence), automobiles, and occupations (Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch); it also features documentaries specifically aimed at families and younger audiences.

History

On June 17, 1985, Discovery Channel was launched as the flagship channel of Discovery Communications with $5 million in start-up capital from the BBC, the American investment firm Allen and Company, Venture America and several other investors.

On January 4, 2006, Discovery Communications announced that Ted Koppel, longtime Executive Producer Tom Bettag, and eight former Nightline staff members were joining the Discovery Channel.

The network's ratings improved in 2006 after a drop widely attributed to an over-reliance on a few hit series such as Monster Garage and American Chopper. Some critics said such series strayed from Discovery's mold of helping viewers learn about the world around them. Beginning in 2005, Discovery revamped its lineup to focus more closely on its traditional themes of popular science, history, and geography. The network garnered a total of seven primetime Emmy award nominations in 2006 for shows including The Flight that Fought Back (about United Airlines Flight 93) and Deadliest Catch.

In 2007, Discovery Channel's top series include Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, the Emmy-award winning Planet Earth, MythBusters, and Deadliest Catch.

Discovery's announced plans for 2008 include a new series with Josh Bernstein, who left History Channel to join Discovery. Other announced series include Fight Quest, Smash Lab, and the fourth season of Deadliest Catch.

Discovery Channel is currently the most widely distributed cable network in the United States, reaching more than 92 million households, part of its global audience of 431 million homes in 170 countries and territories. Versions of the channel are seen in Latin America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, India, Malaysia and other countries.

Programming

Popular programming on the channel today includes Shark Week, an annual week of programming dedicated to facts about sharks; Deadliest Catch, about fishing for crab in the Bering Sea; the popular science shows MythBusters and How It's Made; Dirty Jobs about blue collar occupations; a quiz show Cash Cab, FutureWeapons, about cutting edge weapons technology and Man vs Wild, showing how a man can survive in the wild.

Name	Launch	Country	Language	Content focus	Bias
Discovery Channel	1985	USA	English	Technical	Cars / Woaw / USA
Discovery Science	1999	USA	English	Technical, Astronomy	USA
Discovery Knowledge	1999	UK	English	WWII
Discovery Home & Health	1999	USA	English	Health and wellness
Discovery Travel & Living	1999	USA	English	Traveling, how-to travel, hotel and cities touring
Animal Planet	1996	USA	English	Wildlife, animals, relation between humans and animals
Military Channel	1998	USA	English	Wars
Travel Channel	1987	USA	English	travel entertainment

Non-television ventures

Pro Cycling Team

Shortly before the 2004 Tour de France, Discovery Channel announced it would become the primary sponsor of a professional bicycling team starting in 2005, featuring seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. However, after the 2007 victory with the Spaniard Alberto Contador Discovery Channel announced its retirement from cycling sponsorship. This sponsorship ended after the 2007 cycling season.

Radio

Discovery Channel Radio was a channel on the both major United States satellite radio services.

The programming consisted of audio versions of popular programs from its multitude of TV channels. Discovery was previously on XM Satellite Radio but was dropped in early September 2005. Sirius Satellite Radio dropped Discovery Radio from its slate on February 21 2007.

Store

Discovery Channel also lent its branding to retail stores in malls and other locations across America, as well as an online store. Educational gifts were the store's specialty. On May 17 2007, Discovery Communications announced it was closing its stand-alone and mall-based stores. Hudson Group will continue to operate the Discovery Channel Airport Stores, and the website remains in operation.

Telescope

Discovery Channel is also funding the construction of the Discovery Channel Telescope, in partnership with Lowell Observatory.

Marketing and branding

Taglines

Discovery Channel's previous taglines had been "Explore Your World" and "There's no thrill like discovery." However in view of its changing focus towards more reality-based programming and away from strictly educational programming, the slogan was changed to "Entertain Your Brain". The new tagline for the revamped Discovery Channel was "Let's All Discover...", with a continuing phrase or sentence that relates to a show. For example, when advertising for MythBusters, the commercial would end, "Let's All Discover, Why No Myth Is Safe". With the 2008 logo change came a new tagline: "The World is Just...Awesome." The newest commercials include the song "Wonders Never Cease" by Morcheeba, from the album entitled The Antidote and the song Typical by Mute Math. Their most recent commercial I Love the World, created by the 72andSunny agency, contains amended verses and the refrain from the traditional campfire song "I Love The Mountains".

Logos

International

Discovery Channel reaches 431 million homes in 170 countries. Currently, Discovery Communications offers 29 network brands in 33 languages. In a number of countries, Discovery's channels are available on digital satellite platforms with multiple language soundtracks or subtitles including Spanish, German, Czech, Hindi, Tamil, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Turkish, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Arabic, Slovenian and Serbian. In Bulgaria, Discovery has since 2000–2001 been displayed with Bulgarian subtitles by all cable providers.

Canada

Discovery Channel Canada has an ownership structure different from Discovery Channel. Canadian viewers receive almost identical English-language programming to the channel that American viewers watch, but with some added Canadian content to suit the audience. Most notably, the Canadian channel carries the daily science news show Daily Planet, originally @discovery.ca, the first of its kind. Occasionally, several segments on similar topics are taken from various episodes and put together into one-hour specials that are broadcast on the original Discovery Channel. Canadian channels Discovery HD, Discovery Health, Discovery Kids, Discovery Civilization, and Animal Planet are also seen. All channels are under different ownership, with Discovery Communications having a 20% share in each.

Europe

In the United Kingdom, Discovery Channel UK has some programs in common with the US version, including MythBusters, American Chopper, How It's Made and Deadliest Catch.

In the Republic of Ireland the UK edition is available on most cable/digital operators but with some local content for the Irish market.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland Discovery Channel is part of the PREMIERE-digital-network and supplies specific programs to other networks like ZDF and Kabel 1. Discovery Communications is also owner of the documentary-channel XXP. The channel was bought in spring 2006 from its former shareholders Spiegel TV and "dctp". All programs are dubbed into German. The channel will from September be known as "DMAX", presumably to associate the channel with Discovery.

In the Netherlands, The Discovery Channel is included in most cable subscriptions. Nearly all of the programs are broadcast in their original language, but they are subtitled in Dutch as is the policy of all Dutch television stations.

In Poland, it is included in most cable TV offers. It is also available on satellite digital platforms (sometimes requiring an additional fee). Cyfra Plus makes it possible to see the programs in Polish as well as in English. Also on digital platform "n" there is an additional channel Discovery Historia produced in cooperation with one of the biggest polish broadcaster - TVN.

In Slovenia, it was one of the most popular channels, with a very wide audience, especially after subtitling in Slovene was introduced. However, the popularity - and rating - of DC dropped sharply after 2005, when it dropped most of its history and popular science documentaries, shifting to series about motoring and mechanics, the appeal of which seems to be very limited.

In Serbia, the channel is distributed via cable TV providers with Serbian subtitle. It enjoys moderate popularity, with shows like MythBusters and American Chopper being especially well received.

In Spain, the channel shares schedule and programs with Portugal and is available through most satellite and cable platforms, making it possible to broadcast both in Spanish and Portuguese. All programs are dubbed into Spanish, and some in Portuguese.

Australia & New Zealand

In Australia, Discovery is part of a 6 channel bouquet (not including timeshifts) on digital subscription TV, available on Foxtel, Optus TV and AUSTAR. See Discovery Channel Australia.

In New Zealand, the Australian version of Discovery is broadcast on SKY Network Television.

South East Asia

In India, China, Malaysia, Singapore and the rest of South East Asia, the S.E. Asian version of Discovery Channel is available on digital subscription TV. The most popular programs include American Chopper, Man Vs. Wild, Mythbusters, How It's Made and Dirty Jobs. Discovery Channel Asia still show crime programs e.g. Most Evil and The FBI Files. There also is a large number of programming featuring development and society in Asian countries, especially in India and China.

South-Africa

In South-Africa, Discovery is the same as Discovery Channel in Europe.

Controversy

In August 2008 it was revealed that the Discovery Channel had silenced their popular MythBusters program from airing an episode examining RFID security in regard to its implementation in credit cards. The rationale behind the ban was that the episode would upset the credit card companies, who are major advertisers on the Discovery Channel.