National Geographic (Nat Geo Asia, formerly NBC Asia and National Geographic Channel and also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is a pan-Asian

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, a ...

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

that features non-fiction, factual programming involving nature, science, culture and history, produced by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

, just like

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

. It was launched on 1 January 1994 as NBC Asia. As of 2008, the Asian version of National Geographic Channel is available in over 56 million homes. NGC Asia has six different channels of feeds.

History

NBC Asia (1994–1998)

On 1 January 1994, the channel was officially launched as NBC Asia. It featured mostly

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

programs as well as the ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...

'', ''

The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...

'', ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

'' and '' Late Night''. Like its European counterpart, it could not broadcast United States-produced primetime shows due to rights restrictions. It did, however, also air some

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

output. During weekday

evening Evening is the period of a day that starts at the end of the afternoon and overlaps with the beginning of night. The exact times when evening begins and ends depend on location, time of year, and culture, but it is generally regarded as beginn ...

s, NBC Asia had a regional evening news program. It occasionally simulcast some programs from

CNBC Asia CNBC Asia is a pay television business channel based in Singapore. A subsidiary of NBCUniversal, it is the Asian service of CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel). Its programmes originate from Singapore. It was officially opening ceremony at ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

National Geographic Asia (1998 – present)

On 1 August 1998, NBC Asia was rebranded as the National Geographic Channel. The NBC programming moved to

. On 4 February 2008, the Nat Geo Junior programming block of two non-contingent hours, late morning and late afternoon, was launched on the channel. ''I Didn't Know That'', ''Mad Labs'' and ''Wild Detectives'' were the initial shows on the block. In the most recent news, National Geographic and its sister channel

Nat Geo Wild National Geographic Wild (shortened as Nat Geo Wild and abbreviated NGW) is a global pay television network owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%) ...

was currently remained on-air, even though that most of National Geographic libraries, including their Documentary Films, has been included on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

(or

Disney+ Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both d ...

for outside Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan) content hub following Disney's partial ownership of

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 Nat ...

. This would lead to some pay TV provider in Southeast Asia, mainly Malaysia & Indonesia, to drop out or replacing their channels following the recent news of closing down Disney/Fox channels sans the National Geographics.

Unifi TV Unifi TV (stylized as unifi tv, formerly known as HyppTV prior to January 2018) is an IPTV service operated by Telekom Malaysia (TM). It was launched in 2010 as part of TM's bundled Triple-play service offering of VoIP Telephone, Internet and ...

for example, has replace Nat Geo with

Techstorm TechStorm is a pay TV channel that carries Asian esports and tech-centric content. It debuted on StarHub and Singtel in 2019 and 2020 respectively The channel is owned and operated by TechTV Network Pte Ltd in Singapore. It was founded by Sing ...

, which focus on technology and esports.

Feeds

* National Geographic Asia – Broadcasts in both English and Cantonese via two audio tracks‚ as well as a Cantonese subtitles tracks. *

National Geographic India National Geographic (also known as Nat Geo) is an Indian pay television channel that features non-fiction, documentaries involving nature, science, culture, and history, produced by the National Geographic Society. National Geographic Channel o ...

– It is aimed at India and neighbouring countries. It airs in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali via five different audio tracks. * National Geographic Israel – Includes a Hebrew subtitles track. * National Geographic Middle East – It simulcasts the Asian from 11:00pm to 5:00am Hong Kong time. Arabic subtitles are available as well. * National Geographic Japan – includes Japanese dubbing. * National Geographic Taiwan – includes Chinese subtitles. * National Geographic Hong Kong – features two audio tracks airing English and Cantonese programming, as well as a Chinese subtitles track. * National Geographic Malaysia and Singapore – the US HD feed is distributed instead of the Asian one. US ads are replaced with Malaysian or Singaporean ads and they switch some latest episodes to older ones. Subtitles are available in English, Malay and Mandarin via all TV broadcasters. * National Geographic Thailand – It simulcasts the Asian from 11:00pm to 5:00am Hong Kong time. Thai subtitles are available as well.

References

External links

* {{Philippine cable channels Mass media in Southeast Asia

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...