Discovery (UK & Ireland)
Television channel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Discovery Channel (often referred to as simply Discovery) is a British pay television channel, operated by Warner Bros. Discovery. Its programming is based on programming produced by Discovery Networks Europe, Discovery Channel Canada and Discovery Channel from the US.
Ireland
 | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | United Kingdom Ireland |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 2160p UHDTV (downscaled to 1080i and 16:9 576i for the HDTV and SDTV feeds, respectively) |
| Timeshift service | Discovery Channel +1 |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA |
| Sister channels | Animal Planet CNN International Cartoon Network Boomerang Cartoonito Discovery History Discovery Science Discovery Turbo DMAX Eurosport Food Network Investigation Discovery Quest Quest Red Really TLC TNT Sports |
| History | |
| Launched | 1 April 1989 |
| Links | |
| Website | discoveryuk |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Sky Go | Watch live (UK and Ireland only) |
| Virgin TV Go | Watch live (UK only) Watch live (+1) (UK only) |
| Virgin TV Anywhere | Watch live (Ireland only) |
History
It first became available in the UK on 1 April 1989 when Discovery Channel Europe was launched. It was the first extension of the Discovery Channel outside the United States.[1]
Prior to 1993, satellite viewers in the UK could receive the channel from Intelsat satellites at 27.5° West. In July 1993, the Discovery Channel launched on the Astra 1C analogue satellite on the popular 19.2° East position where it used to broadcast only in the evening, starting at 4 pm. On Astra, the daytime space was filled by CMT Europe until 1994, when TLC (later on Discovery Home & Leisure) moved there. Eventually, Discovery Home & Leisure would broadcast until 4 pm when Discovery Channel would take over, and broadcast for ten hours until 2 am.
On 19 August 1998, it was announced that with the launch of Sky Digital on 1 October 1998, The original namesake American channel would expand its broadcast hours to begin at 8 am, now broadcasting for 18 hours per day. This did not apply to the analogue version which kept its start time at 4 pm. On the same day, it was announced that several new Discovery networks would launch, one of which was the timeshift service Discovery +1, the first of its kind in the UK.[2]
Analogue broadcasts were terminated in 2001.
On 22 May 2006, Discovery HD was made available on Sky as part of the Sky HD launch line-up. It was also made available on Virgin Media's cable service on 1 April 2010.[3] From 30 June 2011 Discovery HD began to simulcast Discovery Channel in high-definition rather than use a separate schedule.
The channel briefly had a 90-minute timeshift, called Discovery Channel +1.5. It launched on 25 June 2007.[4][5] It was replaced by Discovery Science +1 on 21 April 2008.[6]
An Irish advertising feed was launched in 2010. Sky Media Ireland operates the channel's output in terms of advertising, sponsorship and scheduling.[7]
In January 2011, Discovery Channel UK released its new look which places its emphasis on the D-globe logo. The project was created by DixonBaxi and Double G Studios.[8][9]
On 25 January 2017, Discovery UK announced that they were in a dispute over the fees paid by Sky for broadcast rights and for a time it seemed as though the channels could be removed from the platform after the end of that month.[10] However, an agreement was reached and programming continued uninterrupted.[11]
On 28 November 2022, Discovery launched on BT TV and it launched in the BT TV Player as well and it will be added from value packages as well.