MUMBAI: Media and entertainment company Discovery Communications has announced that it will make available its high definition channel Discovery HD Theater globally shortly.

The channel had launched a couple of years ago in the US. Today it claims to be one of the most widely distributed HD networks in the US. The US network, which offers HD programming from the company's top brands including Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, will be the model for the international network.

The international network will be offered as a stand-alone channel or in programming blocks. The company plans to offer the network worldwide, focussing in markets where HDTV is gaining a foothold, such as Canada, Mexico, Korea, China, Japan, Germany and the UK.

One of the programme specials on the channel is Destination HD. This visits exotic locales which are rich in culture. Recently it focussed on Belize a small country in the Caribbean. It took a comprehensive look at the place from the Swing Bridge in the heart of Belize City to the remote Maya Temples. It visited Lamanai and Caracol - two strongholds of the Maya culture, the excavations of which are still in progress. Belize has got tiny islands off the coast and a total population that may merely fill a district of a big city in another country.