Canary in the Coalmine

In 1996, Discovery Networks confirmed that digital was the wave of the future when it launched four diginets. Managed as one entity, with a skeletal staff, the channels (Home & Leisure, Science, Civilization and Kids, and - in 1998 - Wings and Español) were sold as a package to subscribers to entice viewers to check out all of them, and to sell the digital platform. Now, with the digital/analog divide inching toward obsolescence, programming execs at DCI have become anxious to unbundle the brands. According to Vivian Schiller, senior VP & GM of Discovery Times Channel, 'It was always the plan to break each of them out, create distinct identities.'