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.
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.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3]
