History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Entertainment segment.

The network was originally focused on history-based, social/science documentaries as well as the news. During the late 2000s, the History Channel pivoted into reality television programming. In addition to this change in format, the network has been criticized by many scientists, historians, and skeptics for broadcasting pseudo-documentaries and pseudoscientific, unsubstantiated, sensational investigative programming.

As of November 2023, the History Channel is available to approximately 63,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 99,000,000 households. International localized versions of the History Channel are available, in various forms, in India, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

History

Twentieth century

The company indicated that plans for a history channel were in the works in 1993, it purchased the Lou Reda Productions documentary library and long-term rights for the Hearst Entertainment documentaries archive. The History Channel was launched on January 1, 1995, initially owned by A&E Television Networks. Its UK counterpart in a partnership with British Sky Broadcasting (now Sky UK), followed on November 1, 1995. Its original format focused entirely on historical series and specials.