NBC Asia (1994–1998) On January 1, 1994, the channel was officially launched as NBC Asia. It featured mostly
NBC programs as well as the
NBC Nightly News,
The Tonight Show,
Saturday Night Live and
Late Night. Like its European counterpart, it could not broadcast United States-produced primetime shows due to rights restrictions. It did, however, also air some
NBC Sports output. During weekday
evenings, NBC Asia had a regional evening news program. It occasionally simulcast some programs from
CNBC Asia and
MSNBC.
National Geographic Asia (1998–2023) On July 1, 1998, NBC Asia was rebranded as the National Geographic Channel. The NBC programming moved to
CNBC Asia. On February 4, 2008, the Nat Geo Junior programming block of two non-contingent hours, late morning and late afternoon, was launched on the channel. ''I Didn't Know That
, Mad Labs
and Wild Detectives'' were the initial shows on the block.
Closure National Geographic and its sister channel
Nat Geo Wild have remained on-air until the announcement of the channel closure on October 1, 2023. This announcement led many of the pay TV providers
to lose all of the Disney/Fox linear channels, including National Geographic itself. However, the majority of National Geographic's libraries, including their documentary films, have been included on
Disney+ (or
Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand) content hub as Disney currently owns the partial ownership on
National Geographic Global Networks. Later on, the Taiwan feed closed down on January 1, 2024; with
BBC Earth serving as its replacement. The only Asian country that still have not ceased in operation is Japan, as the Japanese feed is currently operated by The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd; both the Middle Eastern and
Indian sub-continent feed is yet to be determined, while the earlier territories currently share the feed with the European/African feeds from The Walt Disney Company EMEA. == Feeds ==