Discovery Channel (Italian TV channel)

Discovery Channel is an Italian television channel, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Italia.

Discovery Channel

Country	Italy
Broadcast area	Italy San Marino Vatican City Switzerland
Programming
Language(s)	Italian, Original
Picture format	1080i HDTV
Ownership
Owner	Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA
History
Launched	1 September 1997; 28 years ago (1997-09-01)
Closed	1 July 2025; 2 months ago (2025-07-01) (+1 timeshift version)
Links
Website	www.discoverychannel.it
Availability
Streaming media
Discovery+	Discovery Channel HD

History

Discovery Channel was launched on 1 September 1997 on the pay-television platforms TELE+ Digitale and Stream TV and has been exclusive to Sky Italia since its launch in 2003. With the launch of Sky Italia, Discovery quickly branched out by launching the additional channels Discovery Travel & Adventure, Discovery Science and Discovery Civilisation Channel, followed by Animal Planet and Discovery Real Time in 2005.

The present Discovery Channel logo was adopted on 9 April 2019.

A timeshifted version of the channel, called Discovery Channel +1, started on 10 November 2008.^[1][2]

A high-definition simulcast of Discovery Channel started on 20 July 2009.^[3] It was the first channel from Discovery EMEA to be simulcasted in both SD and HD.

The sisters channels Discovery World, Discovery Travel & Living and Animal Planet respectively closed on 1 March 2016 (Discovery World; 11 August 2008, as Discovery Civilisation Channel) and 1 February 2019 (Discovery T&L and Animal Planet).

From 1 July 2021, the channel moved to channel 405 on Sky.

From 1 November 2023, the channel moved to channel 407 on Sky.

While from 1 November 2023, the timeshift +1 version of the channel moves to channel 408.

Discovery Channel closed on Sky on 1 July 2025, due to Warner Bros. Discovery declining to renew its contract with Sky Italia, causing the permanent shut down of its timeshift variant. As a result, the channel became exclusive to the Italian version of Discovery+, but it was announced that the channel would become available on free-to-air terrestrial television sometime during the fall.^[4]

It was later announced that Discovery Channel would replace the Italian version of Warner TV on free-to-air Italian terrestrial television on 5 October 2025, on channel 37.^[5]