Discovery Channel has widest distribution in Europe

The Discovery Channel is the widest distributed network in Europe, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. Covering 270 international channels/networks across 212 major operators in 43 EMEA countries, the TV Channel Distribution in Europe report concluded that the Discovery Channel was available on 171 platforms.

Top 10 channels by carriage

                                        No of
Group      Channel                      operators
---------  ---------------------------  ---------
Discovery  Discovery Channel            171
Fox        National Geographic Channel  169
Eurosport  Eurosport                    164
Viacom     MTV                          160
Turner     CNN                          157
Disney     Disney Channel               154
BBC        BBC World News               153
Turner     Cartoon Network              149
Eurosport  Eurosport 2                  145
Discovery  Animal Planet                140

Source: Digital TV Research

HD channels are growing in importance as operators are eager to give subscribers something new. Of the 270 total tracked, 86 channels (32%) transmit in high definition (HD). National Geographic provides the most distributed HD channel. The UK’s BSkyB leads in HDTV provision, by offering more than 67 HD channels.

Top 10 HD channels by carriage

                                           No of
Group      Channel                         operators
---------  ------------------------------  ---------
Fox        National Geographic Channel HD  126
Eurosport  Eurosport HD                    122
Fox        Nat Geo Wild HD                 85
Discovery  Discovery HD Showcase           74
AETN       History HD                      65
Viacom     MTV Live HD                     62
Discovery  Animal Planet HD                61
Eurosport  Eurosport 2 HD                  59
Fox        Fox HD                          46
HBO        HBO HD                          38

Source: Digital TV Research

Companies stress the importance that a stable of channels has for pan-European success. In this report, 14 groups contributed 257 channels – or 95% of the total. In fact, these groups provided 83 of the 86 HD channels covered.