National Geographic Global Networks

National Geographic Global Networks (formerly National Geographic Channels Worldwide and National Geographic Channels International) is a business unit within National Geographic Partners (a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society) and Disney Entertainment (who handles distribution and advertising sales for National Geographic Global Networks) that oversees the National Geographic-branded television channels: National Geographic, Nat Geo Kids, Nat Geo Music, Nat Geo People and Nat Geo Wild and National Geographic Studios (formerly known as National Geographic Television). The unit itself was a joint operation between 21st Century Fox (21CF) and the Society, but it was later integrated into the new joint venture National Geographic Partners which they formed in 2015. On March 20, 2019, 21CF's share in National Geographic Partners was assumed by Disney, following its acquisition of most 21CF businesses.[1]

National Geographic Global Networks
TypeJoint venture
IndustryTelevision
ProductsTV shows
OwnerNational Geographic Partners
Disney Entertainment
DivisionsNational Geographic Studios

History

National Geographic had moved towards launching a US cable channel in 1982, but backed out. National Geographic Television, National Geographic Society's for profit TV arm, and NBC formed a joint venture, National Geographic Channels (NGC). NGC then partnered with BSkyB to launch on September 1, 1997 National Geographic Channel services in U.K. and Ireland via BSkyB, Scandinavia via Telenor and Australia via Foxtel. Foxtel and BSkyB were then owned in some form by Rupert Murdoch. Sandy McGovern was president of NGC at the time.[2] The 50/50 partnership was formed to expand NatGeo's National Geographic Television's productions, head by Tim Kelly, that was producing National Geographic Explorer for CBS. The original American version of the channel was launched on January 7, 2001 with Laureen Ong as president and Andrew Wilk as head of programming. National Geographic Society took down its museum and built a TV studio. At the time, the NatGeo kept its TV production unit and got a "sweet heart" guarantee production contract of 44 hours per year at an estimated $500,000 per hour of TV.[3] Additional National Geographic channels in other parts of the world were also launched under the original joint venture.[4]

In 2007, Ong was replaced by David Lyle, from the just closed Fox Reality channel, as CEO and president Howard Owens. In 2010, the company launched Nat Geo Wild channel in the US to go up against competitor Discovery Channel. Ratings dropped as a whole and Lyle and Owens left in 2014. Courteney Monroe moved up from her head marketing post to take over NGC US.[3]

National Geographic Partners unit

On September 9, 2015, the Society announced that it would reorganize its media properties and publications into a new company known as National Geographic Partners, which would be 73% owned by 21st Century Fox. This new, for-profit, corporation would own National Geographic and other magazines, as well as its affiliated television channels—most of which were already owned in joint ventures with Fox.[4] In October 2016, it was announced that the National Geographic Channel, the flagship documentary channel, would drop the word "Channel" from its name.[5]

Brands

Current

Former

Channels by region

All of National Geographic-branded television channels are operated as a part of this unit's business. The Society provides most of programming on the channels, while Disney's broadcast-related units (Walt Disney Television in the United States and Fox Networks Group outside the United States) handle distribution and advertisement sales of the channels. In most cases internationally, the National Geographic and Fox channels cross-promote each other. In some territories, the versions of National Geographic channels are directly operated by Disney.

Anglo-America
United States
Canada
The following channels in Canada are operated by Corus Entertainment under license.

Latin America
Spanish-speaking countries
  •  National Geographic (with sub-regional versions for Mexico, Colombia, Central America [which also covers Caribbean islands], Pacific [Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia], and Atlantic [Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay])
Brazil
  • National Geographic

Asia

NGC Network Asia, LLC operates all of National Geographic-branded television channels across Asia except India and Japan.

NGC Network Asia previously represented television channels from Fox International Channels (FIC) in the region, but they were transferred to the newly formed Asian branch of FIC in the 2009 reorganization of Star TV.[6]

The Asian operations also oversee National Geographic TV channels in the Middle East and North Africa (except Israel).

Pan-regional channels (except India and Japan)
Middle East and North Africa
India
Disney Star handles channel distribution and advertisement sales in the region.
Japan
The following channels in Japan are operated by The Walt Disney Company Japan.
  • National Geographic Japan (in Japanese)

Europe

The European operations also oversee National Geographic TV channels in Israel, Australia and New Zealand. It is also responsible for the channels in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Balkans
Czech Republic and Slovakia
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Wild
France
Ukraine
Greece
Netherlands and Belgium
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Nordic and Scandinavia
United Kingdom and Ireland
Spain
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Wild
Sub-Saharan Africa
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Wild
  • Nat Geo Gold
Israel
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Wild
Germany
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Wild

Former
Italy
Russia and Belarus
Australia and New Zealand
Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and South Korea
Taiwan

References
  1. Szalai, Georg; Bond, Paul (March 20, 2019). "Disney Closes $71.3 Billion Fox Deal, Creating Global Content Powerhouse". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  2. Woods, Mark (August 29, 1997). "National Geographic bows o'seas channels". Variety. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  3. Thielman, Sam (November 14, 2015). "How Fox ate National Geographic". The Guardian. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  4. Farhi, Paul (September 9, 2015). "National Geographic gives Fox control of media assets in $725 million deal". Washington Post. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  5. Schwindt, Oriana (October 26, 2016). "National Geographic Rebrands, Drops 'Channel' From Its Name".
  6. "News Corporation Restructures Broadcast Businesses in Asia" (press release) News Corporation 18 August 2009 Archived from the original on 27 August 2009
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