This article is about the type of specialty TV channel. For channels called Documentary Channel, see Documentary (TV channel) and DOC: The Documentary Channel

DOC: The Documentary Channel

Documentary Channel is a specialty channel that features documentary programming. It airs independent documentary films from around the world, including those never-before-seen in the United States....

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A 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....

 which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. Some documentary channels further specialize by dedicating their television program

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

ming to specific types of documentaries or documentaries in a specific area of knowledge. DOC: The Documentary Channel

DOC: The Documentary Channel

Documentary Channel is a specialty channel that features documentary programming. It airs independent documentary films from around the world, including those never-before-seen in the United States....

 and The History Channel

The History Channel

History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

 are examples of this. There is some overlap between news channels and documentary channels, but while a documentary channel may also broadcast programs about current affairs, it will, as a rule, air longer, more in-depth segments and not present up-to-the-minute news coverage. Also, many other TV channels regularly air documentaries, but unless a channel is significantly dedicated to documentary-type programming it probably will not be considered a documentary channel. As of 2006, some of the most famous documentary channels are the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

 and the National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...

.

Examples of documentary channels

• Al Jazeera Documentary Channel
  Al Jazeera Documentary Channel
  Al Jazeera Documentary Channel is an Arabic language documentary channel and a branch of the Al Jazeera network. It was launched at 12:00 GMT on 1 January 2007. It aims to provide viewers an immense amount of high quality documentary films...
  
  
• Canal D
  Canal D
  Canal D is a Canadian French language Category A specialty channel owned by Astral Media. Canal D focuses on documentary programming primarily in the form of documentary-style television series that focus on a variety of topics such as crime, biographies, nature, science, and more.-History:In June...
  
  
• Discovery Channel
  Discovery Channel
  Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
  
  
• DOC: The Documentary Channel
  DOC: The Documentary Channel
  Documentary Channel is a specialty channel that features documentary programming. It airs independent documentary films from around the world, including those never-before-seen in the United States....
  
  
• Docu TVE
  Docu TVE
  Cultural·es was a Spanish television channel owned by TVE. The service was only available on Digital+ and was launched in 1994. Cultural.es aired documentaries produced in Spanish and features programming on a variety of themes...
  
  
• documentary
• The History Channel
  The History Channel
  History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
  
  
• National Geographic Channel
  National Geographic Channel
  National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
  
  
• Phoenix
  Phoenix (German TV station)
  Phoenix is a publicly-funded television station in Germany which is produced jointly by public broadcasting organizations ARD and ZDF. Its programming consists of documentaries, news broadcasts, special events coverage, and discussion programmes...