Report: Discovery Channel is Most-Distributed Service in Europe

LONDON: According to a new report from Digital TV Research, Discovery Channel is the service with the widest distribution in Europe, available on 171 platforms.

National Geographic Channel was second on 169 platforms, Eurosport third with 164 platforms, MTV fourth on 160 and CNN fifth with 157 operators. The top 10, in consecutive order, is Disney Channel, BBC World News, Cartoon Network, Eurosport 2 and Animal Planet.

The report also shows that HD channels are growing in importance. Of the 270 total tracked, 86 channels, or 32 percent, transmit in HD. National Geographic Channels provides the most-distributed HD channel on 126 operators. The U.K.'s BSkyB leads in HDTV provision, offering more than 67 HD channels.

Digital TV Research covered 270 international channels across 212 major operators in 42 EMEA countries, and found that having a stable of channels was a key to pan-European success—14 groups contributed 257 channels or 95 percent of the total. These group provided 83 or the 86 HD channels covered.