History (American TV network)

History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008; stylized in all caps) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company's General Entertainment Content Division. The network was originally focused on history-based, social/science documentaries as well as the news. During the late 2000s, History pivoted into reality television programming. In addition to this change in format, the network has been criticized by many scientists, historians, and skeptics for broadcasting pseudo-documentaries and pseudoscientific, unsubstantiated, sensational investigative programming. As of February 2015, around 96,149,000 American households (82.6% of households with television) receive the network's flagship channel, History. International localized versions of History are available, in various forms, in India, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The company indicated that plans for a history channel were in the works in 1993, it purchased the Lou Reda Productions documentary library and long-term rights for the Hearst Entertainment documentaries archive. The History Channel was launched on January 1, 1995, with its UK counterpart, a partnership with British Sky Broadcasting, following on November 1, 1995. Its original format focused entirely on historical series and specials. During the 1990s, History was jokingly referred to as "The Hitler Channel" for its extensive coverage of World War II. Since then, much of its military-themed programming has been shifted to its sister network Military History. A&E Networks considered History to be the driver in international expansion due to a lack of international rights to A&E international co-productions. As expected, the History Channel led A&E's overseas expansion in Brazil with TVA (April 1996), the Nordic and Baltic regions with Modern Times Group (1997), and in Canada (1997).