National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Entertainment and National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between

the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

(73%) and the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

(27%), with the operational management handled by Disney Entertainment. The flagship channel airs non-fiction television programs produced by National Geographic and other production companies. Like

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

(which is 50% owned by Disney through

A&E Networks A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks) is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company th ...

) 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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, the channel features

documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...

with factual content involving

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

, science, culture, and history, plus some

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

and pseudo-scientific entertainment programming. Its primary sister network worldwide, including the United States, is

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% ...

, which focuses on animal-related programs. , Nat Geo is available to approximately 70,000,000 pay television households in the United States- down from its 2016 peak of 91,000,000 households.

History

In the United States, under leadership of its president Tim T. Kelly, the National Geographic Channel launched on January 7, 2001, as a joint venture of National Geographic Television & Film and Fox Cable Networks. National Geographic provides programming expertise and the Fox Networks Group provides its expertise on distribution, marketing, and advertising sales.

'' The '90s: The Last Great Decade'', a documentary series narrated by Rob Lowe, pulled in 1.10 million viewers, and was the second highest-rated July telecast in the National Geographic Channel rating history. ''The 2000s: A New Reality'', also narrated by Lowe, premiered on July 12, 2015. On November 14, 2016, National Geographic Channel changed its name to simply National Geographic to drop the "Channel" from its name. On December 14, 2017, in a deal,

announced it would buy the majority of 21st Century Fox. Disney would assume control of Fox's controlling stake in the National Geographic partnership thereafter. Following the acquisition, National Geographic and its sister channels were folded into Walt Disney Television, with the president of the National Geographic Partners reporting directly to the Walt Disney Television chairman. Disney officially closed the deal on March 20, 2019, having then added Nat Geo into its portfolio of networks. On September 15, 2023,

Byron Allen Byron Allen (born Byron Allen Folks on April 22, 1961) is an American businessman, film and television producer, and comedian. He is the founder of the American media company Allen Media Group (formerly Entertainment Studios), which has intere ...

made a $10B bid to buy ABC, FX & National Geographic as Bob Iger claimed it 'may not be core' to Disney. On November 29, 2023, Iger announced he was no longer interested in selling Disney's linear TV assets, effectively rejecting Bryon Allen's offer.

TV series

National Geographic Channel's TV series, in alphabetical order: *'' Abandoned'' *'' Access 360° World Heritage'' *'' Air Crash Investigation'' *'' Alaska State Troopers'' *''American Chainsaw'' *''American Colony: Meet the Hutterites'' *'' American Genius'' *'' American Gypsies'' *''American Weed'' *''America's Lost Treasures'' *''Amish: Out of Order'' *'' Ancient Secrets'' *''Apocalypse 101'' *'' Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout?'' *'' Banged Up Abroad'' *''Battleground Afghanistan'' *'' Beast Hunter'' *''Bid & Destroy'' *'' Big, Bigger, Biggest'' *'' The Big Picture with Kal Penn'' *''Bizarre Dinosaurs'' *''Borderforce USA: The Bridges'' *''The Boonies'' *'' Border Wars'' *'' Brain Games'' *'' Breakout'' *''Building Wild'' *'' Cesar 911'' *''Chasing UFOs'' *''Construction Zone'' *'' Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey'' *'' Crowd Control'' *''

Diggers The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism.; ; ; Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard (Digger), Will ...

'' *''Dino Autopsy'' *''Dino Death Match'' *''Dino Death Trap'' *''Dinosaurs Decoded'' *''Do Or Die'' *''Do Or Die: The Animals'' *'' Dogs with Jobs'' *'' Doomsday Castle'' *'' Doomsday Preppers'' *''Drugged'' *'' Drugs, Inc.'' *'' Drain the Oceans'' *'' Duck Quacks Don't Echo'' *'' Eat: The Story of Food'' *''Europe From Above'' *''Expedition Wild Week '' *''

Explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

'' *''Eyewitness War'' *''Family Beef'' *''Family Guns'' *''Forecast: Disaster'' *'' Genius'' *'' Going Ape'' *''Hacking The System'' *''Hard Time'' *''Hell on the Highway'' *'' Highway Thru Hell'' *''

The Hot Zone ''The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story'' is a best-selling 1994 nonfiction thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly ebolaviruses and marburgviruses. The basis of the book ...

'' *''Inside the American Mob'' *'' Inside Combat Rescue'' *''Inside: Secret America'' *''Inside: Thirumala Tirupathi'' *'' Kentucky Justice'' *''Lawless Oceans'' *'' The Legend of Mick Dodge'' *''Let it Ride'' *'' Life After Dinosaurs'' *'' Life Below Zero'' *''Life Hacker'' *''The Link'' *''

Live Free or Die "Live Free or Die" is the official motto of the U.S. state of New Hampshire, adopted by the state in 1945. It is possibly the best-known of all List of U.S. state and territory mottos, state mottos, partly because it conveys an assertive indepen ...

'' *'' Locked Up Abroad'' *''Lords of War'' *''

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

'' *'' Megastructures'' *''Meltdown'' *''Mountain Movers'' *''Mudcats'' *''The Numbers Game'' *'' Origins: The Journey of Humankind'' *''One World: Together at Home'' *'' One Strange Rock'' *''Phobia'' *''Polygamy, USA'' *''Port Protection'' *"Primal Survivor" *'' Race to the Center of the Earth'' *'' Remote Survival'' *'' Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections'' *'' Rocket City Rednecks'' *'' Scam City'' *'' Science of Stupid'' *'' Seconds from Disaster'' *''Sky Monsters'' *''Snake Salvation'' *'' Southern Justice'' *'' StarTalk'' *'' Street Genius'' *'' The Story of God with Morgan Freeman'' *'' The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman'' *''Supercars'' *''SharkFest'' *''SuperCroc'' *''

Taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

'' *'' To Catch a Smuggler'' *''The '80s: The Decade that Made Us'' *''The '90s: The Last Great Decade?''
(also entitled ''The '90s: The Decade that Connected Us'') *''The 2000s: The Decade We Saw It All'' *''The Truth Behind'' *''T-Rex Autopsy'' *''T-Rex Walks'' *'' Ultimate Airport Dubai'' *''Ultimate Dino Survivor'' *'' Ultimate Factories'' *'' Ultimate Survival Alaska'' *''When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs'' *'' Wicked Tuna'' *'' Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks'' *''Wild Amazon'' *'' Wild Justice'' * ''Wild Russia'' *''Witness: Disaster'' *''WW2 Hell Under the sea'' *''You Can't Lick Your Elbow'' *'' Yukon Gold'' *'' Yukon River Run''

Theme fanfare music

The National Geographic Channel's signature theme fanfare music, which is played at the beginning of many of the channel's television programs, was composed by Elmer Bernstein. It was originally written in 1964 for the Society's television specials, which were broadcast on CBS, ABC, PBS and NBC from 1964 until the early 2000s.

Other National Geographic US channels

National Geographic HD

The United States

720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...

high definition simulcast of the National Geographic Channel launched in January 2006. It is available on all major cable and satellite providers.

Nat Geo Wild

Nat Geo Wild (stylized as Nat Geo WILD or abbreviated as NGW) is a cable/satellite TV channel focused on animal-related programs. It is a sister network to National Geographic Channel and it is the latest channel to be jointly launched by the National Geographic Society and Fox Cable Networks. It was launched in United States on March 29, 2010, focusing primarily on wildlife and natural history programming.

Nat Geo Mundo

Nat Geo Mundo is broadcast in American Spanish, and was launched in 2011. It shares programming with the Nat Geo Channel available in Hispanic American countries. The channel is fully-owned by the National Geographic Society with no involvement from Disney General Entertainment Content.

Nat Geo TV

Nat Geo TV is an application for

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s and

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers ...

s, along with

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

. It allows subscribers of participating pay television providers (such as

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

and Comcast Xfinity) numerous viewing options, including individual episodes of National Geographic and

's original series and documentaries (which are made available live). On August 23, 2024, Disney began notifying its carriage partners it would discontinue the mobile and digital media player apps for Nat Geo TV, along with DisneyNOW, Freeform, FXNow and ABC, effective September 23. TV Everywhere content would still be available via their respective websites in order to funnel viewers towards Disney+ and

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

Controversy and criticism

Archaeologists have protested that National Geographic shows such as ''Diggers'' and ''Nazi War Diggers'' promote the looting and destruction of archaeological sites by promoting the work of metal detecting souvenir hunters and collectable dealers. In 2013 the National Geographic Channel set off a firestorm of controversy with its reality show ''Diggers''. Professional archaeologists from the Society for Historical Archaeology, the largest scholarly group concerned with the archaeology of the modern world (A.D. 1400–present), roundly criticized the network for promoting the theft of cultural materials on public and private land. The show ''Nazi War Diggers'' was accused of showing unscientific and disrespectful handling of human remains. A promotional quote from a military relic dealer, "I feel that by selling things that are Nazi-related and for lots of money, I am preserving things that museums don't want to deal with," was removed from the channel's website in March 2014. National Geographic expressed regret for how the series was presented by its own website but maintained that many of the accusations against the series were based on misinformation. The show was repackaged, amid controversy, as ''Battlefield Recovery'' for air during 2016 on Channel 5 in the UK.