The channel previously used to cover Poland[5] and Turkey,[6] with respective audio tracks for the two markets, until 2010[7] and 2012[8] respectively when two fully-localized feeds were launched for the two countries. In Albania, the EMEA feed was previously available from 2012 to 2018, with Albanian subtitles available for programs.[9]
Majority of programming from Disney Channel are also available on Disney+ throughout the regions and South Africa.
History
Disney Channel, then known as The Disney Channel began broadcasting on 2 April 1997 on satellite provider Orbit (now OSN) in the Middle East and North Africa region.[2][3][10] At first, the channel was only available in English, but on 1 April 1998, a separate Arabic sub-feed was added. Animated films and series were dubbed in Arabic,[11] while live-action films and series were subtitled. Disney Channel Middle East was then picked up by satellite provider Showtime in fall 2001. The channel featured the logos (resembling Mickey Mouse head) in two versions (the one with the channel's name written in English and the other in Arabic for each feed), until June 2003 when it adopted the 2002 US Disney Channel logo.
Somewhere at that time, both the Arabic and English feeds of the channel were merged. In consequence, on 3 January 2005 Disney Channel Middle East started to simulcast Disney Channel Scandinavia, including its schedule and the prints of the series and movies for this feed (which were modified to also include Arabic dubbing credits). Then somewhere between November and December 2005, Disney Channel Scandinavia and Middle East started to add dubbing credits to its programming through subtitles.
Disney Channel Scandinavia and Middle East started gradually becoming individual feeds in 2006, starting with a different rotation of films (that gradually got more different), though this did not stop Arab satellite provider Orbit from adding a Swedish audio track to the Middle Eastern feed on 16 April 2007 (which was subsequently removed years later).
The Middle Eastern feed became a pan-regional network, as the channel was launched in Sub-Saharan Africa on 25 September 2006,[12][4][13] Poland on 2 December 2006,[5][4] Turkey on 29 April 2007;[6][14] and Greece along with Cyprus on 8 November 2009.
In September 2009, when the feed separation from Disney Channel Scandinavia was complete, the Middle East feed (now broadcasting in most of the EMEA region) started to share promotions and events with the CEE feed.
The channel adopted a new logo and underwent a rebrand on 21 July 2014.[18] In 2015, Disney Channel EMEA switched its aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9.
In 2017, a high-definition feed of the channel was launched. It includes Arabic subtitles for live-action films and TV series. Also in that year, Disney Channel EMEA rebranded using the 2017 European branding package. And in August 2018, the Albanian transmission ceased.[19]
On 24 June 2022, Disney Channel EMEA, Israel, Spain and Portugal rebranded with a new graphics,[20] with the customized wordmark logo; designed by Flopicco from Rome, Italy.[21]
Availability
Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East sub-feed is the oldest sub-feed, and began broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa on 2 April 1997.[2][3][10] The feed is currently available in both English and Arabic. The vast majority of all animated series can be watched with Arabic dubbing, but live-action programs are almost always aired in English only with Arabic subtitles instead. It also has its own website, which is offered with English and Arabic versions. On 31 December 2023, Disney Channel was removed off the OSN cable provider because OSN did not renew its contract with Disney to offer its channels in its catalog, and was replaced by Cartoon Network later that night.[22]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Launched on 25 September 2006 on Multichoice's DStv,[12] it later went 24 hours since 2007.[13] Broadcasting in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. This feed airs programs in English only, without foreign-language subtitles.
Greece & Cyprus
Launched in Greece and Cyprus on 8 November 2009 on NOVA. The feed is currently available in both English and Greek. Most programs, whether animated or live-action, are generally dubbed into Greek on this sub-feed, although some programs are aired with Greek subtitles instead. It also has a Greek-language website.
Other countries
Expanded between 2009 and 2012 with multiple distributors through Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia (including the disputed Kosovo) and Slovenia. All programs are exclusively aired with English audio, with Serbian, Croatian and Slovene subtitles. On February 28, 2023, the feed launched in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), replacing the Scandinavian feed (which was distributed on television provider Allente). The Scandinavian feed was itself replaced in the Nordics by the EMEA feed on 5 June 2023. The Scandinavian feed would relaunch on 2 April 2024 replacing the EMEA feed.
Disney Jr. is a pan-regional and sister channel; focused on toddlers and preschoolers, aged 2–6 years old. It launched on September 1, 2010, in MENA, Sub-Saharan Africa, Greece & Cyprus as Playhouse Disney. On June 1, 2011, Disney Junior was launched, replacing Playhouse Disney.[23]
On 31 May 2016, Disney Junior was launched in a full Arabic language counterpart; exclusively on OSN.[24]
Disney XD (closed)
Disney XD was a pan-regional and sister channel; focused on older kids and teenagers (mostly boys). It was launched in the MENA, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, North Macedonia and Slovenia[25] in 2009;[26] and in Sub-Saharan Africa in May 2011.[27]
In South Africa in June 2014, Multichoice fined R5000 (around $300) after failing to provide a warning before airing an advertisement for the fantasy drama series WolfBlood, containing horror scenes on the morning of 31 December 2013.[28]
In 2018, an Arabic language counterpart launched.[29]
The channel was later closed in Sub-Saharan Africa on 1 October 2020;[30] the MENA region and in the Balkans, on 31 December 2020;[31][32] and Greece on 31 January 2021.[33]
Jetix was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action/adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated from the Saban Entertainment library, airing live-action and animated series with some original programming. The channel's target audience was older children and adolescents aged 8–15.
Star Movies is an Asian-based pay television channel owned by Disney Entertainment. Star Movies was originally launched in 1994 as a single channel broadcast across Asia, but it has regionalized into different localized channels since then. Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific have since rebranded some of the network's international feeds in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia as Fox Movies, but retains the Star Movies brand in the Middle East & South Asia.
Disney Channel is a Scandinavian children's television channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Limited. On 5 June 2023, it was shut down and merged into Disney Channel EMEA, but was relaunched on 1 April 2024.
Disney Channel was an pan-Asian pay television kids channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia.
National Geographic Wild is a global pay television network owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%). The channel primarily focuses on wildlife and natural history non-fiction programming. It is a sister network to National Geographic TV.
Jetix Europe N.V. was a European television broadcasting company that owned children's television channels and programming blocks across the Europe and Middle East, such as Jetix and Jetix Play.
Nickelodeon is an pan-Arab pay television channel for kids that is exclusively available on OSN. It is the official Arabic-localised variant of Nickelodeon and until 2011, it was the last remaining channel to retain the 'splat' logo that was used from 1984 to 2009 in the United States.
Boomerang Europe is a pan-regional children's pay television channel that was last owned by the EMEA sub-division of the international division of Warner Bros. Discovery. Based on the namesake American channel, it primarily aired animated programming from the Warner Bros. Animation library, along with reruns of older Cartoon Network series.
Disney Channel is a British-managed Polish television kids' channel, owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company and a localized version of the U.S. channel of the same name.
National Geographic is a pan-Asian subscription television channel owned by Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific. The channel featured non-fiction, factual programming involving nature, science, culture and history, produced by the National Geographic Society, just like History and Discovery Channel.
Investigation Discovery is a pay television channel available in several European nations. It competes in the same genre as Crime & Investigation Network which is also available in several European nations. The ID channel features crime programming, including "missing persons and murder inquiries, cold cases and historical crime," as well as documentaries on forensic investigations. One such program is Deadly Women, an investigative series in which former FBI agent and profiler Candice DeLong looks at female killers throughout history.
Disney Cinemagic was a European programming block and television channel brand that was active from 2006 to 2019, owned by the Walt Disney Company Limited (UK) (50%) Sky plc (50%) and operated by the Disney Channels Worldwide division of the Walt Disney Company. It used to be broadcast on most countries in Western Europe; currently, formerly-branded Disney Cinemagic channels in France and the United Kingdom and Ireland are run by third parties which primarily airs films by the Walt Disney Studios.
Cartoon Network is one of two digital children's television channels that air animated series: Cartoon Network MENA, which serves the Middle East and North Africa division along with Greece and Cyprus; and Cartoon Network Africa, which exclusively serves Sub-Saharan Africa. Both feeds are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery under its International division.
This article is about the children's television channel feeds of Cartoonito, a programming block and television network brand owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, targeted at/for preschoolers, broadcast in the Middle East and North Africa, Greece, Cyprus and Sub-Saharan Africa and operated by its EMEA arm.
Disney Jr., officially Disney Jr. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is a British-managed preschool pay television channel targeting younger viewers aged 2–7, owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Limited, the international division of The Walt Disney Company serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Launched on 1 June 2011 as a replacement for Playhouse Disney outside Africa and headquartered at Hammersmith, West London, it broadcasts in 7 languages and in 4 languages only with subtitles.
DreamWorks Channel, commonly known as DreamWorks, is a pay television network owned and operated by the NBCUniversal International Networks division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. First launched in Southeast Asia on 1 August 2015, it expanded to the rest of Asia as well as Europe, Africa and Oceania. Its programming is mainly sourced from DreamWorks Animation.
TNT is a pay television channel focused on movies. The network is broadcast in Africa under the TNT name, as well as in the Arab world as TCM MENA; the latter features its own schedule and optional Arabic subtitles.
Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks aimed at preschool children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small".
Star Channels is a multiplex suite of premium Middle Eastern and North African subscription television channels owned by The Walt Disney Company EMEA. Its programming consisted mostly of non-dubbed movies and series with Arabic subtitles.
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