Discovery Channel (Flanders)
Television channel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Discovery Channel (often referred to as simply Discovery) is a television channel which broadcasts to the Flemish market.
 | |
| Country | Belgium |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Belgium |
| Network | Discovery Benelux |
| Programming | |
| Language | Dutch |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA (Warner Bros. Discovery) |
| Sister channels | Discovery HD Showcase Animal Planet Investigation Discovery Discovery World Discovery Science TLC French Discovery |
| History | |
| Launched | 1 October 2009 |
| Replaced |
|
| Links | |
| Website | www |
The channel launched on the analogue network of the major Flemish cable company Telenet on October 1, 2009.[1] Prior to that the Dutch version of Discovery had been available digitally in the area.[2] The launch increased Discovery's reach in the Flemish region to 2.4 million households.[3]
The launch of Discovery Channel on Telenet coincided with a major shift in the Telenet analogue offer, which also saw the launch of EXQI Plus and vtmKzoom.[4][5]
Advertising sales for the channel was initially handled by the established Belgian channel Vitaya.[6] At launch, hope was expressed that the channel would eventually carry original Flemish content.[7] In 2010, Vitaya was bought by Vlaamse Media Maatschappij, owners of the leading TV channel in Flanders. As a result, Discovery Channel Vlaanderen would handle its own ad sale from January 2011.[8] The ad sales were later taken over by SBS Sales Belgium.
Before the launch of Discovery Channel Vlaanderen, Discovery Channel Nederland was available for digital subscribers. A Flemish version of TLC, TLC Vlaanderen, was launched in 2015.[9]