Animal Planet (European TV channel)

Animal Planet

Country	United Kingdom
Broadcast area	Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Middle East, Africa
Network	Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA
Headquarters	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Programming
Language(s)	English
Picture format	1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Timeshift service	Animal Planet +1 (UK)
Ownership
Owner	Warner Bros. Discovery International
Sister channels	Discovery Channel Discovery HD Discovery Home & Health Discovery Historia Discovery History Discovery MAX Discovery Science Discovery Shed Discovery Travel & Living Europe Discovery Turbo Discovery World Investigation Discovery DMAX Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Liechtenstein DMAX United Kingdom & Ireland Quest Real Time Italy TLC Netherlands TLC Poland TLC UK and Ireland
History
Launched	1997 (1997)
Closed	March 9, 2022 (2022-03-09) (Russia)
Availability
Terrestrial
evotv (Croatia)	Channel 112
Zuku TV (Kenya)	Channel 416

The Pan-European Animal Planet is a feed of the U.S. channel of the same name, which broadcasts to several countries in Europe, UK, Africa and the Middle East.

The channel is broadcast in English, Czech, Hungarian and Russian. The HD feed also carries a Turkish audio track. Turkey has its own SD feed. The channel also carries DVB subtitle tracks in Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Macedonian, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian and Swedish.

There used to be a separate feed for Romania, but the channel closed down in 2013.

Many regions in Europe that previously received the pan-European version of the channel, now receive a localised version.

• Animal Planet (Dutch TV channel) for The Netherlands and Flanders.
• Animal Planet (German TV channel) for Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
• Animal Planet (Polish TV channel)
• Animal Planet Russia
• Animal Planet Turkey
• Animal Planet (British TV channel) for the UK & Ireland

Ukraine, CIS and the Baltic countries still get the pan-European feed in Russian and English.

History

The channel launched in Europe in 1997 and on 1 September 1998 it began broadcasting in the UK via the Astra Satellite and on analogue cable. It was on air each day from midday until midnight.

In October 2008, Animal Planet adopted the new branding and current logo.

In March 2009, the on-air logo changed its colour from green to white and became transparent.

On September 4, 2012, Animal Planet improved its picture quality by increasing the resolution from 544x576 to 720x576.

Since October 2012, all of the programming - including promos - is broadcast in Anamorphic widescreen picture format.

On 31 December 2017, Animal Planet ceased broadcasting in Africa on DStv.

Currently, Animal Planet is ad-free on its main feed. Some countries, like Romania and Moldova, get localised ad blocks. Animal Planet Italy for Italy and the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland ceased broadcasting on 31 January 2019 after a new distribution agreement between Discovery and Sky Italia.

On 9 March 2022, Discovery Inc. closed Animal Planet in Russia due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Programming

• After Dark
• Animal Battlegrounds
• Baby Planet
• Bad Dog
• Cats 101
• Dark Days in Monkey City
• Dogs 101
• Galapagos
• Growing Up...
• I'm Alive
• Killer Wales
• Max's Big Tracks
• Must Love Cats
• Penguin Safari
• Rescue Vet
• Safari Vet School
• Search for the Knysna elephants
• Shamwari: A Wild Life
• Talk to the Animals
• The Magic of The Big Blue
• Trophy Cats
• Wild Africa Rescue
• Wild Animal Orphans
• Wild France
• Wildest Islands
• Wildest Islands of Indonesia
• Wildlife SOS
• World Wild Wet