Discovery Health Channel
Discovery Health Channel was a U.S. subscription television channel. Launched in July 1998, it was owned by Discovery Communications as a spin-off of Discovery Channel, focusing on health and wellness-oriented programming.
| Discovery Health Channel | |
|---|---|
 Final logo | |
| Launched | July 1, 1998 |
| Closed | December 31, 2010 |
| Owned by | Discovery Communications |
| Headquarters | Silver Spring, Maryland |
| Replaced by | OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (channel space) Discovery Life (merger with FitTV) |
| Sister channel(s) | FitTV TLC |
| Website | http://www.discoveryhealth.com |
In the beginning, DHC's programming consisted of reruns of medical- and health-themed programming from other Discovery networks, particularly TLC. As the network matured, it began producing its own reality series, mostly dealing with babies (Babies: Special Delivery, Birth Day), bodies (Plastic Surgery: Before and After, National Body Challenge), and medicine (The Critical Hour, Dr. G: Medical Examiner). DHC also showed episodes of the CBS medical drama series Chicago Hope on a semi-regular basis. DHC also aired fitness-related programming, most of which later spun off to its sister network FitTV. DHC won its first Daytime Emmy in 2004 for its original series about adoptive families, Adoption Stories.
On January 15, 2008, Discovery announced a joint venture with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions to re-launch Discovery Health as OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, in 2009.[1] After multiple delays, OWN officially launched on January 1, 2011, replacing Discovery Health.[2][3]
On February 1, 2011, FitTV was rebranded as Discovery Fit & Health. The network initially took on Discovery Health's programming with FitTV's fitness programming as a complement. It was relaunched in 2015 as Discovery Life, to reflect a generalization of its scope to include life events and family stories.[4][5][6]
References
- "Discovery, Winfrey to Team Up On Network". Washington Post. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
- "Oprah costs Discovery a fortune". New York Post. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- "Oprah Winfrey's OWN network lineup will aim to offer 'mindful television'". National Post. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- Steinberg, Brian (2014-07-08). "Discovery to Switch Fit and Health Channel to Discovery Life in January". Retrieved 2016-08-27.
- "Discovery Health Lives On, Combining With FitTV". Multichannel. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
- "Discovery's Fit & Health to Rebrand as Discovery Life". Adweek. Retrieved 2018-03-10.