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American Heroes Channel

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American Heroes Channel
CountryUnited States
Broadcast areaNationwide
HeadquartersElizabeth, New Jersey
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerWarner Bros. Discovery
ParentWarner Bros. Discovery Networks
Sister channels
List
History
LaunchedJuly 15, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-07-15)
Former names
  • Discovery Wings Channel (1998–2005)
  • Military Channel (2005–14)
Links
Websitewww.ahctv.com

American Heroes Channel (formerly Military Channel and originally Discovery Wings Channel) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The network carries programs related to the military, warfare, and military history and science.

As of November 2023, AHC is available to approximately 28,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2014 peak of 62,000,000 households. Along with Boomerang, Cooking Channel, Destination America, Discovery Family, Discovery Life, and Science Channel, American Heroes Channel is among the less prevalent networks of Warner Bros. Discovery.[1]

In recent years, AHC has lost carriage with the growth of streaming alternatives including its parent company's Max, and has generally been depreciated by Warner Bros. Discovery in current retransmission consent negotiations with cable and streaming providers.

Background

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The channel launched in July 1998, as Discovery Wings Channel; it originally focused on programs relating to aircraft and aerospace. During its early years, the network also aired a weather segment near the top of each hour featuring aviation forecast data from the National Weather Service. Discovery Communications filed a trademark application with the United States Copyright Office for the use of the name "Military Channel" in 2002, after the trademark was abandoned by an unrelated start-up cable network based in Louisville, Kentucky, also named The Military Channel, which went dark in 1999 and later went bankrupt. That network – which focused on the heroes, history and hardware of the international military scene – experienced difficulty raising capital, despite early success.

Logo as Military Channel, used from January 10, 2005 to March 2, 2014

On January 10, 2005, the network was rebranded as the Military Channel.[2] Carrying over from its original format, many of the network's programs as the Military Channel were dedicated to aerial warfare and related technologies and issues. In 2005, the channel aired its first live program from Philadelphia at the site of the Army–Navy college football game, two hours before that game's kickoff, in which Fox Sports commentator Chris Myers hosted from a set outside of Lincoln Financial Field.

On March 3, 2014, the channel was rebranded as American Heroes Channel, with the intent to "provide more history based, narrative-style documentary programming."[3] The network is a sponsor of the United Service Organizations (USO) and frequently runs commercials for that organization.

Programming

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Many of the programs featured on American Heroes Channel are war documentaries, the contents of which deal in large part with modern warfare, and in particular the U.S. military from World War II onward. While the A+E Networks-owned History, Military History and H2 air similar programming, those networks tend to show more programs about other time periods and cultures (ancient, Roman, Medieval, Eastern, and other forms of warfare). AHC has a more contemporary subject matter than those competitors, but it occasionally presents historical programming as well. Actor Dennis Haysbert serves as the network's continuity announcer for its on-air promotions.

In addition, the channel also presents feature films with a military theme (usually within the hosted movie series An Officer and a Movie, which is hosted by Lou Diamond Phillips), as well as individual episodes of other shows (such as Belly of the Beast, Build It Bigger, Extreme Machines, Timewatch and Unsolved History), which incorporate military-related content. These are often shows that were produced for other Discovery Communications-owned channels.

List of programs

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Current programs

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  • Against the Odds
  • America: Facts vs. Fiction
  • American Lawmen
  • American Titans
  • Ancient Assassins
  • Blood and Fury: America's Civil War
  • Blood Feuds
  • Chasing Conspiracies
  • Codes and Conspiracies
  • Cold War Armageddon
  • Egypt's Greatest Mysteries
  • Forbidden History
  • Gunslingers
  • Hitler
  • How the World Ends
  • Inside Secret Societies
  • Mafia's Greatest Hits
  • Mafia's Most Wanted
  • Manhunt: Kill or Capture
  • Nazi Death Squad
  • Nazi Fugitives
  • Nazi Secret Files
  • Origins
  • UFO's The Lost Evidence
  • War Stories
  • What History Forgot
  • WWII Confidential
  • WWII: Witness to War

Former programming

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Some programs are available to stream on Max.

References

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  1. ^ "U.S. cable network households (universe), 1990 – 2023". wrestlenomics.com. May 14, 2024. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Higgins, John M. (November 30, 2004). "Discovery Wings Becomes Military Channel". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  3. ^ Baysinger, Tim (January 9, 2014). "Discovery Rebrands Military Channel as American Heroes". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
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