National Geographic (Asian TV channel)
National Geographic (Nat Geo Asia, formerly NBC Asia and National Geographic Channel and also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an Asian subscription television channel that features non-fiction, factual programming involving nature, science, culture and history, produced by the National Geographic Society, just like History and Discovery Channel.
National Geographic | |
---|---|
Launched | 1 January 1994 |
Owned by | Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific (Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International/Disney Asia) |
Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 480i/576i for the SDTV feed) |
Slogan | "Further" |
Language | English |
Broadcast area | Asia |
Headquarters | Head office Mumbai, Hong Kong Studios and production facility: 1 Fusionopolis Link, #03-01 Nexus @ One-North, Singapore 138542 |
Formerly called | NBC Asia (1994 – 1998) National Geographic Channel (1998 – 2016) |
Sister channel(s) |
|
Website | natgeotv |
Availability | |
Terrestrial | |
Nexmedia (Indonesia) | Channel 201 |
Satellite | |
Astro (Malaysia) | Channel 551 (HD) Channel 571 (SD) |
Tata Sky (India) | Channel 551 (SD) Channel 552 (HD) |
TrueVisions (Thailand) | Channel 569 (SD) Channel 558 (HD) |
MNC Vision (Indonesia) | Channel 202 (SD) Channel 450 (HD) |
Cignal Digital TV (Philippines) | Channel 141 (SD) Channel 240 (HD) |
G Sat (Philippines) | Channel 20 |
CBTV Sat (China) | Channel 306 |
HKC Sat, Cable TV Hong Kong (Hong Kong) | Channel 752 (SD) Channel 701 (HD) |
Dialog TV (Sri Lanka) | Channel 39 (SD) Channel 78 (HD) |
Topas TV (Indonesia) | Channel 181 |
SKY NET (Myanmar) | Channel 62 |
DishTV (India) | Channel 51 (HD) |
Transvision (Indonesia) | Channel 250 (HD) |
Sun Direct TV (India) | Channel 61 (HD) |
Airtel Digital TV (India) | Channel 5341 |
OSN (Middle East & North Africa) | Channel 513 |
Sky PerfecTV! Premium Service (Japan) | Channel 675 |
Sky PerfecTV! (Japan) | Channel 343 |
NJOI (Malaysia) | Channel 551 (HD) Channel 571 (SD) |
Cable | |
SkyCable Zamboanga City | Channel 28 (Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines) |
SkyCable / Destiny Cable (Philippines) | Channel 55 (Analog) Channel 41 (Digital) Channel 195 (HD) |
Pioneer Cable Vision Incorporated (PCVI) (Philippines) | Channel 26 |
Cablelink (Philippines) | Channel 62 (SD) Channel 331 (HD) |
First Media (Indonesia) | Channel 110 (SD) Channel 361 (HD) |
TrueVisions (Thailand) | Channel 569 (SD) Channel 558 (HD) |
UCS (Bangladesh) | Channel 30 |
FDI Digital Cable (India) | Channel 500 |
IndosatM2 (Indonesia) | Channel 126 |
Macau Cable TV (Macau) | Channel 402 (SD) Channel 419 (HD) |
Jogja Medianet (Indonesia) | Channel ??? |
Asianet Digital TV (India) | Channel 403 (SD) Channel 818 (HD) |
Max3 (Indonesia) | Channel 140 |
Parasat Cable TV (Philippines) | Channel 72 |
MediaNet (Maldives) | Channel 400 (SD) Channel 805 (HD) |
VTVcab (Vietnam) | Channel 84 (HD) |
J:Com (Japan) | Channel 651 (HD) |
IPTV | |
PEO TV (Sri Lanka) | Channel 50 |
now TV (Hong Kong) | Channel 215 (SD) Channel 218 (HD) |
CHT MOD (Taiwan) | Channel 250 |
IndosatM2 (Indonesia) | Channel 10 |
PTCL Smart TV (Pakistan) | Channel 62 |
Singtel TV (Singapore) | Channel 201 (HD) Channel 203 (VOD) |
StarHub TV (Singapore) | Channel 411 (HD) Channel 400 (VOD) |
VNPT MyTV (Vietnam) | Channel 46 (HD) |
Unifi TV (Malaysia) | Channel 966 (old) Channel 508 (new) |
M2V Mobile TV (Indonesia) | Channel 10 |
It was launched on 1 January 1994 as NBC Asia. As of 2008, the Asian version of National Geographic Channel is available in over 56 million homes. NGC Asia has six different channels of feeds.
History
NBC Asia (1994–1998)
On 1 January 1994, the channel was officially launched as NBC Asia. It featured most of NBC programs as well as NBC Nightly News (the flagship daily evening primetime television news program for NBC News), The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night. Like its European counterpart, it could not broadcast United States-produced primetime shows due to rights restrictions. It also had NBC Sports for the latest action in selected sporting events such as NFL on NBC (a subsidiary of NFL), Major League Baseball on NBC (a subsidiary of MLB), NBA on NBC (a subsidiary of NBA) and NHL on NBC (a subsidiary of NHL). During weekday evenings, NBC Asia had a regional evening news program. It occasionally simulcast some programs from CNBC Asia and MSNBC.
National Geographic Asia (1998 – present)
On 1 August 1998, NBC Asia was rebranded as the National Geographic Channel. As is the case with NBC Europe, however, selected The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night episodes and Meet the Press were moved to CNBC Asia.
On 4 February 2008, the Nat Geo Junior programming block of two non-contingent hours, late morning and late afternoon, was launched on the channel. I Didn't Know That, Mad Labs and Wild Detectives were the initial shows on the block.[1]
Feeds
- National Geographic Asia – Broadcasts in both English and Cantonese via two audio tracks.
- National Geographic India – It is aimed at India and neighbouring countries. It airs in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali via five different audio tracks.
- National Geographic Israel – Includes a Hebrew subtitles track.
- National Geographic Middle East – It simulcasts the Asian from 11:00pm to 5:00am Hong Kong time. Arabic subtitles are available as well.
- National Geographic Japan – includes Japanese subtitles.
- National Geographic Taiwan – includes Chinese subtitles.
- National Geographic Hong Kong – features two audio tracks airing English and Cantonese programming, as well as a Chinese subtitles track.
- In Malaysia and Singapore, the US HD feed is distributed instead of the Asian one. However, any US ads that air are replaced with Malaysian or Singaporean ads, and they switch some latest episodes to older ones. English, Malay and Mandarin subtitles are available via all TV broadcasters.
References
- "Nat Geo blocks target Asian kids". C21media. 4 February 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2018.