Discovery Channel (British and Irish TV channel)

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, UK viewers 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 from the morning to 4 pm when Discovery Channel took over and would broadcast for ten hours until 2 am.

With the launch of Sky Digital in October 1998, Discovery Channel moved its start time to 8 am, broadcasting for 18 hours per day. The time-shift channel, Discovery Channel +1, launched at the same time, as did several sister channels.[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] It was replaced by Discovery Science +1 on 21 April 2008.

An Irish advertising feed was launched in 2010. Sky Media Ireland operates the channel's output in terms of advertising, sponsorship and scheduling.[5]

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.[6][7]

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.[8] However, an agreement was reached and programming continued uninterrupted.[9]

• MythBusters
• American Chopper
• Extreme Engineering
• How Do They Do It?
• How It's Made
• Deadliest Catch
• Storm Chasers
• Man vs. Wild (known as Bear Grylls: Born Survivor)
• Modern Top Ten
• Wheeler Dealers
• Coal
• Fifth Gear
• Bugs, Bites and Parasites
• X-Ray Mega Airport
• Richard Hammond's Big

• Official website