The Discovery Channel building gets in the Shark Week spirit. Photo by Flickr user kodismom.
The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week has been a long-standing tradition of the cable broadcaster, which first ran a full week of specials devoted to the more than 400 species of selachimorpha in 1987. This Sunday, August 1, begins another seven glorious days of shark-related programming. But what are your online viewing options?
The Discovery Channel’s official Shark Week site has no shortage of video available, with clip playlists like Top 10 Shark Attack Videos and Top 20 Shark Facts to whet your appetite for the cable programs.
Those video unfortunately are not embeddable, and for diehard shark fans they’ll probably come off as reruns. But there is some original online content happening this week. Discovery Channel has partnered with the Georgia Aquarium, which will be hosting the official online-Shark Cam, which will begin broadcasting at 12:30 PM ET/9:30 AM PT on Sunday.
The Shark Cam programming includes shark feedings (the Georgia Aquarium has four whale sharks — the world’s largest fish — as well as hammerhead, tiger and zebra sharks), in addition to live chats with shark experts.
You can also buy episodes from last year’s Shark Week on iTunes for the exceptionally reasonable price of $ 0.99 an episode (a price point Apple has been urging content partners to embrace).
And while Late Late Show‘s Craig Ferguson is taking on hosting duties for Discovery Channel this year, there’s no video yet of what he might bring to the festivities — except, of course, for this announcement of his new gig in June.
If we find more Shark Week-related video fun online, we’ll update this post accordingly. In the meantime, guys, Shark Week. Get excited.
Picture courtesy of Flickr user kodismom.
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