Animal Planet is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Discovery Communications. It carriesdocumentary programming focused on or relating to animals at one point, until the decision was made that educational programming was not profitable. This lead to major change to lure in the largest demographic in the United States, gullible people. This lead to the creation of many pointless shows about whales, mermaids and sharks larger than aircraft carriers. Originally focused on more educationally-based television shows, and the network has focused instead on more reality programming since the late 2000s. It is available throughout the United States, as well as in over 70 countries around the world. Country-specific versions of the channel have been created in Canada, India, Japan, Taiwan and other countries.