Destination America

Destination America
Launched October 7, 1996 (1996-10-07)
Owned by Discovery Communications
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV)
Country United States
Language English
Broadcast area Nationwide
Headquarters Silver Spring, Maryland
Formerly called Discovery Travel and Living (1996–98)
Discovery Home and Leisure (1998–2004)
Discovery Home (2004–08)
Planet Green (2008–12)
Sister channel(s) Discovery Channel
TLC
Animal Planet
Discovery Family
Oprah Winfrey Network
Science
Investigation Discovery
American Heroes Channel
Discovery Life
Velocity
Discovery en Español
Discovery Familia
Website www.destinationamerica.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV 286 (HD/SD)
Dish Network 194 (HD/SD)
C-Band AMC 11-Channel 615 (4DTV Digital)
Cable
Available on many U.S. cable providers Check local listings for channels
Verizon FiOS 668(HD)
168(SD)
IPTV
Sky Angel 315
AT&T U-verse 1465 (HD)
465 (SD)
Southern Fibernet 1210 (HD)
210 (SD)

Destination America is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Discovery Communications. The channel features lifestyle, historical and travel programming focusing on the culture of the United States.[1]

The network first launched in 1996 as Discovery Travel & Living, as part of a suite of four digital cable networks the company launched that year. From its launch until 2008, the network primarily focused upon home improvement, cooking. and leisure-themed programs. In 2008, the network re-launched as Planet Green, which carried a focus on environmentalism and sustainable living; Discovery spent $50 million on developing programming for the network. Planet Green was ultimately considered a failure; by 2010, the network had begun dropping its environmental programming in favor of reruns of other programs from Discovery Communications' library, leading into its 2012 re-branding as Destination America.

As of February 2015, approximately 57,238,000 American households (49.2% of households with television) receive Destination America.[2]

History

The space was originally used for one of the four digital cable networks launched by Discovery Communications in 1996. The new networks were first announced in November 1994, with a launch planned for Spring 1995. At the time, the network had the working title Living and was described as "a home repair network".[3] The launch was delayed, and the channel made its debut in October 1996, originally known as Discovery Travel & Living and offering programming including do-it-yourself projects, cooking, interior design and landscaping, and party planning.

By 1998, it had settled on the name Discovery Home & Leisure, but the "Leisure" part of the name was dropped on March 29, 2004, when the channel became Discovery Home. Much of the travel-related programming was dropped in the process to provide more focus on home improvement and cooking.[4]

Planet Green

Logo as Planet Green.

Facing increased competition in the home-oriented programming sector, Discovery Communications planned a 24-hour channel focused on eco-friendly living in an attempt to capitalize on a rising environmental movement.[5] Discovery Home was relaunched as the environmentally-themed Planet Green at 6:00 p.m. ET on June 4, 2008; the only program from Discovery Home to continue on after the relaunch was the HGTV Canada-produced Holmes on Homes, which immediately moved to the American HGTV network.[6][7] The channel focused on environmental issues and ecological living, and Discovery invested $50 million in original programming for the rebranded channel with shows such as a weekly eco-newscast series with Bob Woodruff of ABC News.[8][9]

Initial launch logo as Planet Green.

The project began after the Discovery Channel bought the website Treehugger.com from owners Graham Hill and Ken Rother.[10][11] At its launch, Planet Green was available in 50 million U.S. households and included 250 hours of environment-related programming with a programming budget of US$50 million.[12]

In March 2010, Planet Green's programming was broadened to include non-ecology themed shows; despite this broadened focus, in February 2011, Discovery Communications executives were acknowledging the channel's failure. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav stated in a conference call with investors "We think we can probably do something else with that that would be more meaningful."[13] Shortly thereafter the channel had abandoned its theme, rerunning programs from other Discovery Communications channels and featuring programming blocks such as "Paranormal Fridays". Discovery announced a probable rebranding of the channel by the start of the summer of 2012.[13]

Destination America

Logo used until 2015.

On April 4, 2012, Discovery announced through the early release of an article in USA Today that Planet Green would be rebranded as Destination America, targeted mainly towards Middle America and featuring mainly American-centric travel, food, and natural history programming that has been without a home on any Discovery-owned network since Discovery Communications' 2007 sale of the Travel Channel to Cox Communications, along with other Discovery archive content that fits the Destination America format. The channel was originally expected to have a Memorial Day launch on May 28, 2012.[14] The channel's trademark and logo were registered by Discovery Networks on February 28, 2012 through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.[15]

Destination America launched at 12:00 a.m. ET on May 26, 2012 and is available in most areas of the United States through satellite and cable providers such as Dish Network, DirecTV, Comcast, Charter Communications, Verizon FiOS, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, and WOW!. The high definition version of the network is widely available as well. On June 6, 2014, Destination America began airing episodes of Canadian paranormal series Creepy Canada under the alternate title Hauntings and Horrors.

In 2015, TNA partnered with Discovery Communications to air the promotion's programming on Destination America, including Impact Wrestling. Later that year, the network would also announce that it had signed a 26-week television deal for Ring of Honor's weekly show, Ring of Honor Wrestling, which would begin on June 3, 2015.[16] Impact moved to Pop in January 2016.[17]

Programming

Planet Green

Planet Green programming included ecologically themed shows built around celebrities including Ed Begley, Jr., Emeril Lagasse, Adrian Grenier, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ludacris, Tommy Lee, Tom Bergeron, SuChin Pak, Maria Menounos, Bob Woodruff, and Discovery Channel producer Tom Golden. In addition, celebrities gave 'green' tips within network bumpers that transitioned into and out of commercial breaks. The channel was programmed in eight-hour blocks, which repeated three times per day until April 2010. Lacking separate satellite feeds for the East and West coasts of the United States, prime-time programs ran from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time and were then repeated.[12]

Shows previously seen on Planet Green include:

1 originally shown on Discovery Channel
2 originally shown on Animal Planet
3 originally shown on TLC
4 originally shown on FX

Current Destination America programming

Former programming

References

  1. ↑ "New Cable Network: Destination America". USA Today. May 2012.
  2. ↑ Seidman, Robert (February 2015). "List of how many homes each cable network is in as of February 2015". TV by the Numbers. Tribune Media. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Discovery plans launch of four newly created nets". Multichannel News. November 21, 1994.
  4. ↑ "Leisure Time Is Over". Multichannel News. February 29, 2004.
  5. ↑ NY Times
  6. ↑ Growth Plan at Discovery
  7. ↑ GM and Discovery Communications Form Media Partnership on First-Ever 24/7 "Green" Network, Planet Green, Discovery Communications, May 21, 2008.
  8. ↑ Discovery Communications press release
  9. ↑ Bob Woodruff to Anchor New Series on Planet Green
  10. ↑ TreeHugger Home Page
  11. ↑ green-treehugger-champion/ Ken Rother – VP of Planet Green & TreeHugger Champion Interview
  12. 1 2 Stelter, Brian (March 10, 2010). "Planet Green Moves Away From Its Eco Theme". The New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  13. 1 2 Schneider, Michael (February 12, 2011). "Discovery Plans to Revamp Planet Green". T.V. Guide (Lionsgate). Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  14. ↑ Levin, Gary (April 4, 2012). "Discovery Networks to launch Destination America". USA Today. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  15. ↑ "DESTINATION AMERICA – Trademark Details". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Justia.com Trademark Database. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ Caldwell, James (May 27, 2015). "ROH news: ROH announces length of Dest. America TV deal". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Pop Gets Into Ring With Impact Wrestling To Become New TV Home". Deadline. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  18. ↑ Ghostly Encounters
  19. ↑ "GHOSTS IN MY HOUSE".

External links

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