History (European TV channel)

History (known as Sky History in the UK and Ireland) is a European documentary television channel which broadcasts programs related to historical events and persons. There are also reality television, ufology and paranormal programs.

It is a joint venture between Hearst Networks UK and Sky Group with localized channels across Europe. TVT Media is responsible for signal distribution in Europe, with local subsidiaries of A&E Networks as distribution representatives on the continent.

Programming across the channels is primarily in English and where available subtitled or dubbed into regional languages. The channel is available through a number of satellite, cable, terrestrial and IPTV distributors across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. In some countries, advertisements and announcements between programs are localized.

On 6 November 2018, in the wake of the Disney-Fox merger, the European Commission required The Walt Disney Company to sell A&E's European channels, including History.

History has separate versions for Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal:

The History Channel UK launched on 1 November 1995 on the Sky Multichannels service, broadcasting on weekdays from 4:00pm-7:00pm, timesharing on the Astra satellite with Sky Travel, Sky Soap and the Sci-Fi Channel. The channel's schedule consisted of three different shows - Biography (restyled for a British audience), History Alive and Our Century. It operated as a joint-venture between A&E Television Networks and British Sky Broadcasting, and was A&E's first international venture. The channel was also made available on cable providers.

In late-1997, Sky Sports 2, which had broadcast on the transponder at the weekend, extended its broadcast hours to include the entire day. Sky Travel also extended hours, leading to the remainder of the networks that broadcast on the transponder, including The History Channel, to move to transponder 24. On 1 November 1997, the channel was removed from Telewest's analogue cable service.

The launch of Sky Digital in October 1998 allowed the channel to significantly increase its broadcast hours.