Documentary Channel is a specialty channel

Specialty channel

A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....

 that features documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 programming. It airs independent documentary films from around the world, including those never-before-seen in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Documentary Channel launched in January 2006, and is independently owned and operated. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, and has offices in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

Documentary Channel's signature series, DocTalk, enters its third season July 1, 2011. DocTalk is a weekly half hour program featuring filmmakers and their newest documentary film projects and releases.

The channel was founded by Oscar nominated and Emmy winning documentarian Tom Neff. The channel is currently run by James Ackerman, who became the President and CEO in May 2009.

Documentary Channel won its first Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

, for Outstanding Documentary, in September 2007, for Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire

Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire

Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire is a documentary film about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It was directed by Peter Raymont and inspired by the book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda , by now-retired Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire...

.

Carriage

Documentary Channel is currently available via Dish Network

Dish Network

Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

 and DirecTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, the latter of which added the channel on March 31, 2010. The press release claims the DirecTV launch doubles DOC's distribution base to 25 million.

External links

• An Idea Whose Time Has Come DigitalFilmmaker article on Documentary Channel's launch