Destination America

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Destination America
CountryUnited States
HeadquartersSilver Spring, Maryland
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerDiscovery Communications

Destination America is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Discovery Communications. The channel primarily features lifestyle and paranormal programming.

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, which originally featured programming focused on American culture, including food, lifestyles, and travel. The channel has since increased its focus on reality series devoted to paranormal topics and investigations.

As of February 2015, approximately 57,238,000 American households (49.2% of households with television) receive Destination America.[1]

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".[2] 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.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5][6] 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.[7][8]

File:Planet green discovery channel.svg
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.[9][10] 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.[11]

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."[12] 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.[12]

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.[13][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 also announced 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 (Destination America's relative channel via Lionsgate, which parent company Discovery along with Liberty Global acquired a 3.4% stake in back in November 2015)[17][18]in January 2016.[19]

The March 4, 2016, premiere of the paranormal invagative series Paranormal Lockdown was the highest rated series premiere ever in Destination America’s history.[20] The show was moved to TLC for its second season which premiered on December 16, 2016.

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.[11]

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. ^ 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.
  2. ^ "Discovery plans launch of four newly created nets". Multichannel News. November 21, 1994.
  3. ^ "Leisure Time Is Over". Multichannel News. February 29, 2004.
  4. ^ NY Times
  5. ^ Growth Plan at Discovery
  6. ^ GM and Discovery Communications Form Media Partnership on First-Ever 24/7 "Green" Network, Planet Green, Discovery Communications, May 21, 2008.
  7. ^ Discovery Communications press release
  8. ^ Bob Woodruff to Anchor New Series on Planet Green
  9. ^ TreeHugger Home Page
  10. ^ green-treehugger-champion/ Ken Rother – VP of Planet Green & TreeHugger Champion Interview
  11. ^ a b Stelter, Brian (March 10, 2010). "Planet Green Moves Away From Its Eco Theme". The New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  12. ^ a b Schneider, Michael (February 12, 2011). "Discovery Plans to Revamp Planet Green". T.V. Guide. Lionsgate. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  13. ^ "New Cable Network: Destination America". USA Today. May 2012.
  14. ^ Levin, Gary (April 4, 2012). "Discovery Networks to launch Destination America". USA Today. Retrieved April 4, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  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. ^ Gerry Smith (June 30, 2016). "Malone May Have Bigger Plans Beyond Lions Gate Purchase of Starz". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  18. ^ Michael J. de la Marced (November 10, 2015). "Liberty Global & Discovery Communications Take Stakes in Lions Gate". The New York Times. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  19. ^ "Pop Gets Into Ring With Impact Wrestling To Become New TV Home". Deadline. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  20. ^ "Paranormal Lockdown Sets a Record Rating for Destination America".
  21. ^ Ghostly Encounters
  22. ^ "GHOSTS IN MY HOUSE".

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Destination_America&oldid=799086651"