Discovery Communications

Discovery Communications, Inc.

Discovery Communications headquarters at Silver Spring, Maryland.
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, and DISCK NASDAQ-100 Components (DISCA and DISCK) S&P 500 Components (DISCA and DISCK)
Industry	Mass media
Predecessor	Discovery Holding Company
Founded	1985 (1985) as The Discovery Channel 1994 (1994) as Discovery Communications
Founder	John S. Hendricks
Headquarters	Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Robert Miron (Chairman) David M. Zaslav (President and CEO)
Products	Broadcasting, cable television, radio and Internet
Revenue	US$ 5.5 billion (2013)[1] US$ 4.4 billion (2012)[1]
Operating income	US$ 1,998.0 million (2013)[1] US$ 1,855.0 million (2012)[1]
Net income	US$ 1,075.0 million (2013)[1] US$ 943.0 million (2012)[1]
Total assets	US$ 14,979.0 million (2013)[2] US$ 12,930.0 million (2012)[1]
Total equity	US$ 6,197.0 million (2013)[2] US$ 6,293.0 million (2012)[2]
Number of employees	5,486 (2014)
Divisions	List of Divisions
Subsidiaries	Media Alliance (20%)[3]
Website	corporate.discovery.com

Discovery Communications, Inc. is an American global mass media and entertainment company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. The company started as a single channel in 1985, The Discovery Channel.

Discovery also is a provider of educational products and services to schools, including a series of K-12 digital textbooks, through Discovery Education, and Discovery Digital Networks.^[4]

DCI both produces original television programming and acquires content from producers worldwide. This non-fiction programming is offered through DCI's more than 50 network entertainment brands, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Science Channel, Velocity, American Heroes Channel, Discovery Family, Discovery Life and a family of digital channels.

Despite being publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, the Newhouse family exercise the largest stake in the company, 31%, through privately held Advance Publications.^[5]

Discovery Digital Network shows are offered through multiple services, including Animalist.com, TestTube.com, Sourcefed.com, YouTube, iTunes, and more than 40 other distribution partners and devices.^[6] Discovery has 375 million monthly online streams of its programming.^[7]

Discovery launched Discovery Channel Online, the network's website, on July 4, 1995.^[8]

In April 2014, Discovery announced a partnership with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard to launch digital studio New Form.^[9]

In May 2014, Discovery and Liberty Global announced an agreement to form a 50:50 joint venture to acquire All3Media, a producer and distributor of TV programming.^[10]

In December 2015, Discovery launched the company’s first U.S. TVE streaming service, Discovery GO, connecting viewers with live and on-demand access to shows and series from nine U.S. networks in the Discovery portfolio – Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science Channel, Velocity, Destination America, American Heroes Channel and Discovery Life.^[11]

Corporate governance

Officers

NBCUniversal executive David Zaslav was named president and CEO on November 16, 2006.^[12]

In addition to Zaslav, current executives include:^[13]

• Joe Abruzzese, President of Advertising Sales
• Adria Alpert Romm, Chief Human Resources & Global Diversity Officer
• Bruce Campbell, Chief Development, Distribution & Legal Officer
• Bill Goodwyn, President & CEO Discovery Education
• Paul Guyardo, Chief Commercial Officer
• John Honeycutt, Chief Technology Officer
• David Leavy, Chief Communications Officer, Senior Executive Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Business Operations
• Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, President, Discovery Networks International
• Andrew Warren, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Ownership

Prior to September 18, 2008, DCI's ownership consisted of three shareholders:

• Discovery Holding Company
• Advance/Newhouse Communications which is owned with Advance Publications
• John S. Hendricks, the company's Founder.

On December 13, 2007, Discovery Holding Company announced a restructuring plan. Under the plan, the Discovery Holding's Ascent Media business would be spun off, and the remaining businesses, Discovery Communications, LLC and Advance/Newhouse Communications, would be combined into a new holding company.^[14] The reorganization was completed on September 17, 2008. The new Discovery Communications, Inc. is now a fully public company and trades on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbols DISCA, DISCB, and DISCK. SEC filings are submitted by the Discovery Holding Company.^[15]

In May 2014, the company announced a special dividend of shares of the Company's Series C common stock payable to holders of record of the Company's Series A common stock, Series B common stock and Series C common stock as of the close of business on July 28, 2014. As a result of the dividend, each holder of a share of the Company's Series A common stock, Series B common stock or Series C common stock will receive one additional share of the Company's Series C common stock on or about August 6, 2014.^[16]

Divisions

DCI operates its businesses in the following groups: Discovery Networks U.S., Discovery Networks International, Discovery Studios Group, Discovery Digital Media, and Discovery Education.^[17]

Discovery Networks U.S.

The company started out with just a single channel, Discovery Channel, launched in 1985. In 1991, they acquired their rival The Learning Channel.

In the mid-90s, Discovery Communications started developing several new networks. The first of these to launch was Animal Planet, which was launched in cooperation with the BBC in 1996. In October 1996, four digital networks were launched to take advantage of the then-new digital cable space; Discovery Kids, Discovery Travel & Living Network, Discovery Civilization Network and Discovery Science Network.^[18] This was followed by the 1998 launches of Discovery Wings Channel and Discovery Health Channel.

They also bought the Travel Channel in 1997, CBS Eye on People (became Discovery People) in 1998 and The Health Network (became FitTV) in 2001.

Discovery Networks were early to go into high-definition television with the launch of Discovery HD Theater in 2002. With the launch of high-definition simulcasts of Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and Science Channel in 2007, the original HD channel changed its name to HD Theater. In December 2015, the company launched its first U.S. TVE streaming service, Discovery GO, connecting viewers with live and on-demand access to shows and series from nine U.S. networks in the Discovery portfolio – Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science Channel, Velocity, Destination America, American Heroes Channel and Discovery Life.^[19]

Starting in the middle of the 2000s, Discovery have been reviewing and overhauling most of their "digital" networks.^[20] The networks have evolved from being offshoots of the Discovery Channel, into separate entities with their own identities. The "Discovery" moniker has gradually been dropped from channel names. Some networks had kept the globe in their logo to signal their affiliation to Discovery Networks, but this practice has also been gradually discontinued.

Discovery Networks U.S. operates 13 channels.^[21] According to SEC filings, the division "also operates web sites related to its channel businesses and various other new media businesses, including a video-on-demand offering distributed by various cable operators."

The division's channels include:^[22]

Discovery Networks International

Led by flagship network Discovery Channel, Discovery Network International,^[25] distributes international brands, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Real Time, Discovery Home & Health, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, DMAX, Discovery Kids, ID: Investigation Discovery, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Turbo Xtra, Discovery Max, Discovery World, Shed, Discovery History, Discovery HD Showcase, Discovery HD Theater, Discovery HD World, Discovery en Español, Discovery Familia, Discovery Civilization, Eurosport's four pay-TV network brands across Europe and Asia, Switchover Media’s five brands in Italy, Fatafeat in the Middle East, and SBS Discovery Media’s 17 television brands in the Nordic region. The company employs an extensive localization strategy by offering customized schedules and programming in 45 languages worldwide via hundreds of distribution feeds.

In June 2015, Discovery Communications won the multiplatform rights across Europe to the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024.^[26] Discovery and Eurosport promised more coverage than ever across screens to Europe's 700 million residents. Discovery paid 1.3 billion euros for the rights in 50 countries (France and the UK for just the 2022 and 2024 games) and committed to broadcast 200 hours of the summer games and 100 hours of the winter games on free-to-air TV.

All other networks here.^[28]

Discovery Studios Group

Discovery Studios Group is a full service production, distribution and merchandising group within Discovery Communications.^[17]

Discovery Studios Group consists of:

• Discovery Studios
• Discovery Consumer Products
• Discovery Program Sales
• Discovery Private Networks
• Discovery Music Source
• Discovery Access
• Raw

Discovery Digital Networks

Discovery's portfolio of web-native networks, Discovery Digital Networks,^[29] includes Revision3, Animalist, TestTube, SourceFed and The DeFranco Network. Company CEO David Zaslav said those digital networks have more than 200 million views a month with 50 million of those on Facebook. ^[30]

Discovery Education

Discovery Education is a division which offers "standards-based digital content for K-12, transforming teaching and learning with award-winning digital textbooks, multimedia content, professional development, and the largest professional learning community of its kind." Discovery Education partners with districts, states and like-minded organizations to captivate students, empower teachers, and transform classrooms with customized solutions that increase academic achievement. In 2013, Discovery Education expanded its reach by acquiring Espresso Group Ltd.^[31] Serving 3 million educators and over 30 million students, Discovery Education’s services are in half of U.S. classrooms, over 40 percent of all primary schools in the UK, and more than 50 countries.^[32]

History

Discovery Networks announced in November 1994 to launch new channels by second quarter 1995. Those channels were Animal Planet, the Science channel, Living home channel and the Time Traveler history channel.^[33]

On March 17, 2009, Discovery revealed that it owned the rights to several patents related to e-books, in announcing a patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon.com, maker of the Kindle e-book reading device. The patents were originally developed by the company's founder John Hendricks; the specific patent in question in the suit was applied for in 1999 but issued in late 2007.^[34][35]

On December 21, 2012, Discovery announced it had taken a 20% minority interest share with TF1 Group in sports broadcaster Eurosport, valued at €170 million (US$221.6 million).^[36] On January 21, 2014, Discovery became the majority shareholder in Eurosport, taking a 51% share of the company.^[37] In 2015 Eurosport sports television network Setanta Sports Asia. On Oct. 1, as previously announced, Discovery closed a transaction to acquire 100% of Eurosport.^[38]

In November 2015, Discovery took a 3.4% interest in Lionsgate with Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav joining Lionsgate's board of directors.^[39] "As with all our creative partners, we look forward to telling world-class stories with Jon and the deep management team at Lionsgate, and further strengthening Discovery's content pipeline across our linear and digital platforms around the world," Zaslav said.

2010 hostage crisis

On September 1, 2010, the DCI headquarters was the site of a hostage taking, a lone gunman identified as James J. Lee, armed with two starter pistols^[40] and an explosive device, took three people hostage inside of the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, prompting an evacuation of the building. Lee's motive was believed to have been grounded in environmental activism. Lee had previously been arrested in 2008 while protesting in front of the same site. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland has since labeled the crime a terrorist attack.^[41]

The incident began at 1:00 p.m. ET, when 43-year-old James Jay Lee entered the building with two starter pistols and fired a single round at the ceiling of the lobby.^[42][43] The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) confirmed that Lee had an explosive device and was holding three people^[44] hostage in the lobby.^[42][45] The building was placed on lockdown and most of the 1,500 employees were evacuated.^[45] Children from a day care center inside were safely removed to a nearby McDonald's restaurant on Colesville Rd.^[42] The police began to communicate with Lee soon after the incident began.^[42] The Montgomery County police chief, J. Thomas Manger, said that the police were "trying to get him to release the hostages and surrender peacefully".^[45] Lee was shot dead by an MCPD SWAT team at 4:48 p.m. ET after the hostages made a run to escape.^[46] The remaining hostages were immediately freed.^[47] The incident was described by the FBI as the first instance of a would-be suicide bomber taking hostages in the United States.^[48]

James Jay Lee (c. 1967 – September 1, 2010) was born to a Korean-American father and a Japanese mother, in Los Angeles, California and raised in Hawaii.^[49] He was an environmental protester who, in 2008, was given six months of supervised probation and fined $500 after he was arrested during a protest outside the Discovery Communications headquarters. In 2003, he was convicted of smuggling an illegal immigrant into the country from Mexico and sentenced to 18 months in prison.^[40]

Lee had published criticisms of the network in an online manifesto at Savetheplanetprotest.com,^[43] among which was a demand for the company to cease the broadcasting of television series displaying or encouraging the birth of "parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions".^[50] His manifesto also railed against "immigration pollution and anchor baby filth", leading commentators such as Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center to decry Lee as an "eco-fascist".^[51] Lee's opinions were dominated by Malthusian analysis,^[52] though he also cited works ranging from Daniel Quinn's novel My Ishmael to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth.^[53] The Washington Post credited the Twitter community for initially breaking the story.^[54]

Corporate identity branding campaign

On October 1, 2013, the 13 Discovery-owned or co-owned networks in the U.S. began airing 10-second wraparounds after many of their show promos. The network logos are arranged in a circle around the phrase "Your Family of Networks." Through animation, the logos then spin and dissolve, revealing the parent company's logo at the end.

See also

• Antenna Audio, acquired in 2006
• National Geographic Society
• A+E Networks

References

External links

• Official website