History Channel

Frequency: Cable
Country: United States
Launched: January 01, 1995 (Sunday)

Programs cover a wide array of periods and topics, while similar topics are often organized into themed weeks or daily marathons. Subjects include military history, medieval history, the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, modern engineering, and historical biographies. Many programs compare contemporary culture and technology with the past, while some programs have a more esoteric focus such as conspiracy theory, religious interpretation, UFO speculation, or reality television. The History Channel maintains a corporate initiative called Save Our History, dedicated to the preservation of history and historical sites and artifacts, similar in spirit but not to be confused with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2007 The History Channel launched "Take a Veteran to School Day," designed to foster relationships between U.S. military veterans and students; R. Lee Ermey is the spokesman for the initiative.

Launched on January 1, 1995, the channel is owned by A&E joint venture (Hearst, Disney, NBC) and Sky News Corp. and operates, in various forms, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Latin America. The network is also currently available in South Asia under a deal between STAR TV and AETN International. Interestingly, the channel has consistently produced prime time ratings in the U.S. comparable to or higher than the A&E Network itself. The channel is not to be confused with a similar, independently-owned, Canadian service, History Television. Indeed, the phrase "Not available in Canada" became a de facto slogan for the channel in its early years, as a result of its use in promotional ads, at least those aired on A&E (which is available in Canada).

A British version of the History Channel is a joint venture between A&E and British Sky Broadcasting; a high-definition version was launched at 8pm BST on Thursday October 26, 2006, on the Sky HD platform in the United Kingdom. An HD version of the network launched in the United States in September 2007 on Dish Network. It also launched on DirecTV in September.

A Scandinavian version was launched in September 1997, broadcasting for three hours per day on the analogue Viasat platform. Initially time-sharing with TV1000 Cinema, it was later moved to the Swedish TV8 channel and continued broadcasting there until November 2004 when Viasat launched their own history channel, Viasat History, in the Nordic region and closed down the History Channel. On February 1, 2007 the History Channel returned to Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden when the UK version was launched as a stand-alone channel on the Canal Digital satellite platform.

The History Channel started its operations in India in late 2003, with News Corp's STAR as its sales partner. A joint venture of A&E and Astro All Asia Networks plc is launching the History Channel in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei in the second and third quarters of 2007, and in Taiwan and China by the end of the year. Some other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea currently have their own versions of the network.