Pay television or subscription television are subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite television, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television. Subscription television began in the multi-channel transition and transitioned into the post-network era. Some parts of the world, notably in France, Latin America and the United States, have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription.

Non-fiction or nonfiction is content whose creator, in good faith, assumes responsibility for the truth or accuracy of the events, people, or information presented. In contrast, a story whose creator explicitly leaves open if and how the work refers to reality is usually classified as fiction. Nonfiction, which may be presented either objectively or subjectively, is traditionally one of the two main divisions of narratives, the other traditional division being fiction, which contrasts with nonfiction by dealing in information, events, and characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary.

Mayday, entitled Air Crash Investigation in Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Asia, and some European countries, and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television program examining air crashes, near-crashes, hijackings, bombings, and other disasters. Mayday uses re-enactments and computer-generated imagery to reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to each disaster. In addition, survivors, aviation experts, retired pilots, and crash investigators are interviewed, to explain how the emergencies came about, how they were investigated, and how they might have been prevented. The program premiered on Discovery Channel Canada on 3 September 2003.

Built for the Kill is a nature series made by Granada Wild for the National Geographic Channel. It was produced from 2001–2004, with a total of 31 episodes. Each episode runs for approximately 48 minutes including the credits and opening titles.

Departures is a adventure travel television series. An original Canadian production created by Andre Dupuis and Scott Wilson and produced by Jessie Wallace and Steven Bray. The worldwide premiere was with the Canadian Channel OLN on March 17, 2008 and continued for a total of 42 episodes ending on June 19, 2010.

National Geographic is an American digital cable and satellite television network and flagship channel that is owned by Walt Disney Television through National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and National Geographic Society (27%).

Canal Digital is a Nordic pay TV and internet service provider in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor. Since 2003, Canal Digital is fully owned by Telenor.

The National Geographic Channel is a British pay television channel that features documentaries produced by the National Geographic Society. It features some programming similar to that on the Discovery Channel such as nature and science documentaries. The channel was launched in Europe in September 1997 and time shared initially with the failing NBC Europe until NBC Europe's demise in 1998, at which point it began timesharing with Fox Kids ; with analogue transmission of the channel ending, and the sale of Fox Kids to Disney, timesharing was eventually superseded by 24-hour broadcasting. It was later launched worldwide including in Asia and the United States. Today, the channel is available in over 143 countries, seen in more than 160 million homes and in 25 languages.

Tele2Vision is a Swedish cable television distributor owned by Tele2. It was started in 1986.

National Geographic is a subscription television network in Australia and New Zealand that features documentaries. It features programming around subjects such as nature, science, culture and history documentaries plus some reality and pseudo-scientific entertainment programming. It is the Oceanic version of the American National Geographic channel and owned by The Walt Disney Company in Australia.

Hoff Productions, formerly known as Michael Hoff Productions, is an American television production company with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1994, Hoff has created factual television shows for PBS, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, WE tv, and Travel Channel, among others.

National Geographic is a subscription television network, launched in Greece in 2001 by the Disney Channels Worldwide. The channel features documentaries with factual content involving nature, science, culture, and history. Shows can be watched in English with Greek subtitles.

The National Geographic, also commercially abbreviated as Nat Geo, is an Latin American subscription television channel that features non-fiction, factual programming involving nature, science, culture, and history, owned and produced by a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and National Geographic Society, and operated by Disney Channels Worldwide Latin America. Its Brazilian counterpart was launched also at the same time.