Pitched somewhere between a circus and the Animal Planet television channel, the safari has become a mainstay of the Kenyan economy.

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But in 2010 Discovery cut off access to some of the most popular channels, including Animal Planet and the Military Channel, saying Sky Angel violated its contract by distributing them over the Internet.

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Combining stakes in Discovery Channel and Animal Planet into new publicly traded company later this year.

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Though by Breton's reckoning there had been ten documentaries about the birds and Project Puffin already--including shows aired on the National Geographic Channel and the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet--he felt there was more of the story to be told.

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And just as network television did with successful law shows like Law and Order and CSI, Animal Planet--owned by Discovery Communications , which also owns Discovery Channel--spun their top show into a franchise: There are four shows--in New York, Houston, Miami and Detroit--about animal cops.

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In 2012, during the twelve hours the Puppy Bowl was broadcast, Animal Planet had 8.7 million viewers, setting a record for the channel.

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Among the programs added are Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, TLC's Say Yes To The Dress and Animal Planet's Whale Wars, as well as thousands of TV episodes from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo.

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