Discovery's Digital Portfolio Offers In-Depth Programming on The Science Channel, the Military Channel and Discovery Times Channel

Discovery's Digital Portfolio Offers In-Depth Programming on The Science Channel, the Military Channel and Discovery Times Channel

SILVER SPRING, Md., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2007, The Science Channel, the Military Channel and Discovery Times Channel will feature unique and fresh content, including award-winning specials and all-new series focused on niche areas of interest. Upcoming specials and series are as follows:

THE SCIENCE CHANNEL

-- U-864: HITLER'S LAST SECRET -- Thursday, January 18, at 10 PM (ET/PT)
Deep in the icy waters off of Norway lies one of the last great
secrets of the Second World War, the U-864 German submarine. Sixty
years after it was lost, a Norwegian salvage team's remotely
controlled underwater vehicles inspect the submarine's wreck. There is
no trace of the drowned German submariners and Nazi scientists, but
some of the Me 262's engine parts are still there, as are 80 tons of
deadly mercury. Now that the wreck has been disturbed, the Norwegian
salvage team is in a race against time to lift the toxic cargo off the
seabed and ensure that Hitler's last deadly secret is made safe once
and for all.

-- HAWKING DRAMA -- Sunday, January 28, from 9-11 PM (ET/PT)
The story of Professor Stephen Hawking's early years is told for the
first time in a major drama. HAWKING DRAMA stars Benedict Cumberbatch
as the young Stephen Hawking, who, as a bright and ambitious
21-year-old Ph.D. student at Cambridge University, is diagnosed with
the debilitating motor neurone disease and given two years to live.

-- EARTH 2100 (wt) -- Wednesday, January 31, at 9 PM (ET/PT)
EARTH 2100 looks at the future of planet Earth and tells its story
through graphics, animation, dramatic footage and firsthand accounts
of a world in environmental crisis. The program shows a future
dominated by extreme weather and looks at the growing problems brought
about by climate change.

-- LIGHT FANTASTIC: THE LIGHT OF REASON -- Sunday, February 25, at 9 PM
(ET/PT)
Light is why the sky is blue and the grass is green. This is the
story of man's attempt to understand this most elusive phenomenon,
told through the dramatic reconstruction of events and experiments
that have advanced our knowledge and broadened our understanding.
From rainbows to photosynthesis, from brown skin to quantum theory,
light affects everything.

-- EXPLORING TIME -- March
EXPLORING TIME is a striking journey across the vast landscape of
time, revealing how we came to understand the concept of time and what
we are learning about time from cutting-edge researchers today.

-- MAMMAL VS. DINO -- March
MAMMAL VS. DINO is the story of an evolutionary competition that
lasted for 150 million years -- a war between reptilian giants and
warm-blooded mammals. From dinosaur-hunting mammals to mammal-hunting
dinosaurs, MAMMAL VS. DINO explores environmental change and the
biological and social developments of these creatures, with sometimes
surprising results.

THE MILITARY CHANNEL

New series:

-- WEAPONOLOGY -- Mondays at 10 PM (ET/PT), starting January 15
WEAPONOLOGY tracks the progress of weapons technology through a
combination of ingenious inventions, lateral thinking, battlefield
experience and a degree of luck. This series draws together the great
leaps that designers have made in military technology over the last
century.

-- Ongoing premiere episodes of MY WAR DIARY include user-generated
content from members of the U.S. military in Iraq. The Military
Channel is seeking submissions for upcoming episodes:
www.mywardiary.com or 888-751-8088.

-- TANK OVERHAUL -- Tuesdays at 8 PM (ET/PT), starting February 6
Welcome to the world where military geeks, genius mechanics and
eccentric millionaires are living the dream with blowtorches,
industrial lathes and high-tech electronics, restoring four notable
battle tanks from WW II. Each episode follows one tank's story: the
rebuild; the innovations that made each machine great and the
engineering flaws that proved fatal.

-- FIREPOWER: SEASON 2 -- Tuesdays at 10 PM (ET/PT), starting February 6
From the cockpit of a supersonic jet high above the clouds to the deck
of a missile-armed cruiser patrolling the vast expanse of the ocean,
FIREPOWER explains the complexities of military and aerospace
technology in simple, layman's terms.

Saturday night movies:

-- COMBAT CLASSICS starring Sidney Poitier, Ronald Reagan, Jack
Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins and more air Saturdays at 9 PM (ET/PT).

Daily newscast:

-- The Military Channel has added a daily newscast to its programming
lineup, providing up-to-date military news from top defense officials
and military services around the world. AROUND THE SERVICES, a
half-hour news program from the Department of Defense, airs weekdays
at 4 PM ET (1 PM PT).

Specials:

-- ALPHA COMPANY: IRAQ DIARY -- Part 2 premieres Sunday, January 14, at
10 PM (ET/PT) (An encore of Part 1 will air from 8 to 10 PM ET/PT)
During the summer of 2005, filmmaker Gordon Forbes spent three months
embedded with the U.S. Marines 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion during
their deployment to the Sunni Triangle in Iraq. He documented the
daily grind and struggles of the men in Alpha Company as they fought
the war on terror, thousands of miles away from home.

-- DIGGING UP THE TRENCHES -- Thursday, January 18, at 9 PM (ET/PT)
In Belgium, an eight-lane highway is being built across the legendary
Flanders Fields, where over 400,000 soldiers lie lost in the mud.
Now, a group of archaeologists and forensic scientists are scrambling
to excavate the vast network of trenches, bunkers and shell holes that
made up WWI's front lines. For the first time in a century, Flanders
will give up its secrets. The archaeologists' task is to excavate and
analyze the vast trench network and horrifying no-man's land of the
Great War.

-- TOP TEN SUBMARINES -- March
From humble beginnings, submarines quickly evolved into the most
sophisticated and powerful weapons of war ever devised. Whether
patiently stalking their prey in two world wars or carrying
devastating nuclear missiles as a deterrent in the Cold War, these
hunters of the deep have played an often unseen but crucial role in
the conflicts of the 20th century. Based on scientific analyses,
expert opinion, audience polls and technical comparison, TOP TEN
SUBMARINES uses a five-point matrix to rank the best of all time.

-- THE RITCHIE BOYS -- March
THE RITCHIE BOYS is the untold story of a group of young men who fled
Nazi Germany and returned to Europe as soldiers in U.S. uniforms.
They knew the psychology and the language of the enemy better than
anybody else. In Camp Ritchie, Md., they were trained in intelligence
and psychological warfare. Not always courageous, but determined,
bright and inventive, they fought their own kind of war. They saved
lives. They were victors, not victims.

DISCOVERY TIMES CHANNEL
Specials:

-- UNSEEN BEATLES -- Wednesday, January 17, at 10 PM (ET/PT)
Join the Beatles on their last decade of live performances, with
intimate eyewitness testimony from those closest to the band,
previously unheard interviews and never-before-seen home video and
photographs. All document a decade in which the Beatles and the world
changed forever.

-- YEARS OF BLOOD -- Monday, January 22, at 9 PM (ET/PT)
In May 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon. In October 2000, after the
complete failure of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians,
the second intifadah broke out. This film follows, analyzes and tells
the events from that time up until today. Speaking with politicians,
decision makers and leading players involved in the making of history,
this film reaches behind doors into the arena of the making of
policies. Emmy(R) Award-winner Dan Setton manages to clarify and
introduce a new understanding to the infamous and bloody labyrinth of
the Middle East.

-- COULD IT HAPPEN HERE? -- Monday, February 12, at 9 PM (ET/PT)
Examine large cities around the world and assess the threat of natural
disasters, be they hurricanes, earthquakes or volcanoes, just to name
a few. What would the damage be like if "the worst possible scenario"
actually happened? What kinds of precautions are being taken in
preparation? Experts examine the possibility of an earthquake in
Sydney, a tsunami in California, a flood in Paris, a volcanic eruption
in Naples and a windstorm in London.

-- CULT OF THE SUICIDE BOMBER II (wt) -- Part 1: March
On July 7, 2005, London was attacked by a new, deadly enemy -- the
homegrown suicide bomber. How could four British citizens turn
themselves into human bombs? Robert Baer shows how easily extremists
in Britain recruit vulnerable Muslim youths and fill them with hatred
for the West.

Part 2: March
Robert Baer investigates why the "virus" of the cult of the suicide
bomber has attracted a new generation of ever more deadly adherents,
Westerners and women.

-- SAO PAULO KIDNAPPING (wt) -- March
Fifteen thousand homicides per year, 900 abductions in the last few
years and 1,200 armed assaults per day make Sao Paulo one of the most
violent cities in the world. The public officials aren't capable of
maintaining laws and public order. The police are restrained,
handicapped by corruption and limited by lack of budget. Thus,
citizens have to assemble and find solutions by themselves in
order to guarantee their security.

-- TRANSNISTRIA: ARMS TRAFFICKING ON EUROPE'S DOORSTEP (wt) -- March
Since the collapse of the USSR, Transnistria -- a breakaway entity
from Moldavia run by a neo-Communist dictatorship -- has become a
black hole on Europe's doorstep. Transnistria is suspected to be a
base for arms dealers and a key player in international terrorism.

Series:

-- DECODING DISASTER -- Wednesdays at 10 PM (ET/PT), starting February 21
Fires, catastrophic failures, crashes, explosions and natural
disasters -- these are the incidents that shake and fascinate the
nation. What happened? What went wrong? Why didn't we see it
coming? How can we make sure it doesn't happen again? DECODING
DISASTER tries to answer those questions as it goes behind the
headlines to relive the human experience, investigate the causes of
these traumatic events and look at how science is trying to prevent
such tragedies from occurring again.

Discovery Communications, Inc., is the leading global real-world media company. Discovery has grown from its core property, the Discovery Channel, first launched in the United States in 1985, to current global operations in 170 countries and territories with nearly 1.4 billion cumulative subscribers. DCI's over 100 networks of distinctive programming represent 27 network entertainment brands including TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Military Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Discovery en Espanol, Discovery Kids en Espanol, Discovery HD Theater, FitTV, Discovery Travel & Living (Viajar y Vivir), Discovery Home & Health and Discovery Real Time. DCI's other properties consist of Discovery Education and Discovery Commerce, which operates more than 100 Discovery Channel Stores in the U.S. DCI also distributes BBC America in the United States. DCI's ownership consists of four shareholders: Discovery Holding Company (NASDAQ:DISCA)(NASDAQ:DISCB), Cox Communications, Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, the Company's Founder and Chairman.

Source: Discovery Communications, Inc.

CONTACT: Andrew Scafetta of The Science Channel, +1-240-662-5519, or
Andrew_Scafetta@discovery.com; or Jill Bondurant of the Military Channel,
+1-240-662-2927, or Jill_Bondurant@discovery.com; or Amy Hagovsky of Discovery
Times Channel, +1-240-662-2931, or Amy_Hagovsky@discovery.com

Web site: http://www.discovery.com/
http://www.mywardiary.com/

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