Continuing a campaign to overhaul its lesser U.S. cable networks, Discovery Networks U.S. is renaming military-themed Discovery Wings as the Military Channel.
The network is one of the original Discovery digital networks launched in 1998 to soak up some of the shelf space cable systems created when they started compressing part of their signals. Now that distribution of those networks has exceeded 30 million, Discovery is paying more attention to programming and marketing those channels.
The Military Channel adopts the name of a failed cable network that went bankrupt in 1999 and ultimately liquidated its library of military films and trademarks. While Discovery Wings had focused solely on aviation, The Military Channel will broaden its programming to tell more-personal, “behind-the-lines” stories of servicemen and women and provide deeper explorations of military technology, strategy and history. The revamp will commence Jan. 10.
