Website www.discoverylife.com | Founded 1 February 2011 | |
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Launched February 1, 2011; 6 years ago (2011-02-01) Owned by Discovery Communications Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV) Formerly called Discovery Fit & Health
(2011–2015)
Discovery Life Channel
(2015–2016) Sister channel(s) Discovery Channel
TLC
Animal Planet
Discovery Family
Science
Investigation Discovery
American Heroes Channel
Destination America
Velocity
Discovery en Español
Discovery Familia Headquarters Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States Parent organizations Discovery Communications, Discovery Limited Replaced Discovery Health Channel, FitTV TV shows Untold Stories of the ER, New Girls on the Block, Forensic Files, I'm Pregnant and, Call 911 Profiles | ||
Discovery Life, formerly Discovery Fit & Health, is an American digital cable and satellite ADC television network that is owned by Discovery Communications. The channel's programming focus is dedicated to various life events of a medical or mental nature. Launched on February 1, 2011, it is the result of the merger of Discovery Health Channel and FitTV and features programs formerly found on both channels.
Contents
As of February 2015, approximately 46,696,000 American households (40.1% of households with television) receive Discovery Life.
History
Discovery Communications shut down the original Discovery Health Channel at 11:59 pm ET on December 31, 2010, and used its old channel space a minute later to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network, a new network under the auspices of former talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Its old shows soon began airing on FitTV.
On January 17, 2011, Discovery Communications announced that FitTV and the intellectual property of the Discovery Health Channel would be merged and renamed as Discovery Fit & Health on February 1, 2011, using FitTV's old channel space. Gradually the fitness-oriented programs carried over from FitTV were phased out in favor of more docudrama-style programming.
Re-brand
Discovery Communications rebranded the channel as Discovery Life on January 15, 2015, with an objective of attracting a wider audience and appealing to more cable and satellite carriers. The station is particularly targeted toward women aged 25–54. According to network general manager Jane Latman, "a focus on ‘life’ vs. ‘health’ makes [the channel] more accessible, offering a compelling platform for great storytelling that chronicles the drama inherent in our everyday lives.”
In Poland the channel was launched on February 1, 2015 in lieu of Animal Planet. The HD version of Animal Planet remained unchanged and is still available on digital platforms and on cable.
The channel currently airs a mix of original programming alongside existing series and one-off specials from the Discovery/TLC catalogue. Programs span the topics of medical emergencies (Untold Stories of the ER, Mystery Diagnosis), addiction and mental illness (Cracking Addiction, Hoarding: Buried Alive), pregnancy and childbirth (A Baby Story, Outrageous Births: Tales from the Crib), and sex (Sex-a-thon, Sex Sent Me to the ER).
Programming goes off the air in lieu of paid infomercials on weeknights from 2am, with regular programming resuming at 6am.