Discovery (TV channel)

**Discovery** (known as **The Discovery Channel** from 1985 to 1995, and **Discovery Channel** from 1995 and 2019) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by Discovery, Inc., a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. As of June 2012, Discovery Channel is the third most widely distributed subscription channel in the United States, behind TBS and The Weather Channel; it is available in 409 million households worldwide, through its U.S. flagship channel and its various owned or licensed television channels internationally.
It initially provided documentary television programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history, but by the 2010s had expanded into reality television and pseudo-scientific entertainment. Programming on the flagship Discovery Channel in the U.S. is primarily focused on reality television series, such as speculative investigation (with shows such as *MythBusters*, *Unsolved History*, and *Best Evidence*), automobiles, and occupations (such as *Dirty Jobs* and *Deadliest Catch*); it also features documentaries specifically aimed at families and younger audiences.

A popular annual feature on the channel is Shark Week, which airs on Discovery during the summer months. Despite its popularity and success, the program has garnered criticism, especially from the scientific community, for being scientifically inaccurate.

As of January 2016, Discovery Channel is available to approximately 94,456,000 pay television households in the United States.

## History

John Hendricks founded the channel and its parent company, Cable Educational Network Inc., in 1982. Several investors (including the BBC, Allen & Company and Venture America) raised $5 million in start-up capital to launch the network.

The Discovery Channel began broadcasting on June 17, 1985. It was initially available to 156,000 households and broadcast for 12 hours each day between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. About 75 percent of its program content had never been broadcast on U.S. television before. In its early years, the channel's focus centered on educational programming in the form of cultural and wildlife documentaries, and science and historical specials. It also broadcast some Soviet programming during this time, including the news program *Vremya*. In 1988, the channel premiered the nightly program *World Monitor* (produced by *The Christian Science Monitor*). In 1988, The Discovery Channel debuted an annual programming stunt called Shark Week, the week-long event eventually gained in popularity starting in the 1990s and continues to be shown each summer on the channel to this day. By 1990, the channel was available in over 50 million households.

The channel began to shift its focus in the early 2000s to attract a broader audience, by incorporating more reality-based series focusing on automotive, occupations, and speculative investigation series; though the refocused programming strategy proved popular, Discovery Channel's ratings began to decline by the middle of the decade. The drop in viewership was widely attributed to an over-reliance on a few hit series, such as *Monster Garage* and *American Chopper*. Some critics said such shows strayed from Discovery's intention of providing more educationally based shows aimed at helping viewers learn about the world around them. In 2005, Discovery changed its programming focus to include more popular science and historical themes. The network's ratings eventually recovered in 2006.

On January 4, 2006, Discovery Communications announced anchor Ted Koppel, executive producer Tom Bettag and eight other former staff members from the ABC newsmagazine *Nightline* were joining Discovery Channel. The network was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards that year for shows including *The Flight that Fought Back* (a documentary about the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001) and *Deadliest Catch* (a reality series about a group of seafood fishermen).

In 2007, Discovery Channel's top series included the Emmy Award- and Peabody Award-winning *Planet Earth*, *Dirty Jobs*, *MythBusters*, and *Deadliest Catch*. Discovery Channel's 2008 lineup included *Fight Quest* and *Smash Lab*.

On September 1, 2010, 43-year-old James Jay Lee entered the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, armed with a handgun. Lee fired at least one shot and held several employees hostage; he was later shot dead by police. Lee had published criticisms of the network at Savetheplanetprotest.com.

In December 2015, Discovery Communications launched its TV Everywhere service, Discovery Go, which features live and video-on-demand content from Discovery Channel and eight of its sister networks.

## Programming

*Main article: List of programs broadcast by Discovery Channel*
Popular programs on the channel have included the Shark Week programming event, *Deadliest Catch*, *MythBusters*, *How It's Made*, *Dirty Jobs*, *Cash Cab*, and *Man vs. Wild*. Christopher Lowell won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000 for *The Christopher Lowell Show* (which aired on the Discovery Channel from 1998 to 2001).

## Non-television ventures

### Pro Cycling Team

*Main article: Discovery Channel 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 the then-seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, whose wins were voided after he was proven to have cheated via doping. After the 2007 victory with the Spaniard Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel discontinued the cycling sponsorship.

### Discovery Channel Radio

Discovery Channel Radio was a radio network whose programming consisted of audio versions of popular programs from the Discovery Communications family of television channels. Discovery Channel Radio was previously carried by XM Satellite Radio, until its removal from the provider in early September 2005. Sirius Satellite Radio dropped Discovery Radio from its lineup on February 21, 2007; it was also carried on both of Canada's major satellite radio services.

### Store

Discovery Channel lent its brand to retail stores in malls and other locations across America, and to an online store. The store's specialty products were educational gifts, videos, books, CD-ROMs and educational kits, most of which were manufactured with the Discovery Channel brand name.

### Telescope

Discovery Channel funded the construction of the Discovery Channel Telescope, in partnership with Lowell Observatory.

### Website

Discovery.com is the Discovery Channel's official website, which primarily provides information on the channel's programming and additional content, including games, tied to those shows.

## See also

* List of documentary channels
* Discovery Kids
* Discovery Times Square Exposition

## External links

### Main

* Official website
* *Official Discovery Store*
* *Discovery Channel's Official YouTube*
* *Discovery Communications Inc.*

### Other

* *Discovery Education*
* *Cosmeo* (Discovery Education's online homework help service)
* *Discovery Channel Japan*
* *Discovery Channel Germany*
* *Discovery Channel Romania*
* *Discovery Channel India*
* *Discovery Channel Canada*
* *Discovery Channel Taiwan*
* *Discovery Channel Russia*
* *Discovery Channel Asia*
* *Discovery Channel Korea*
* *Discovery Channel at TV Ark*