History
Fox Kids/Jetix
Fox Kids Italy S.r.l. was originally founded as a subsidiary of Fox Kids Europe N.V. in 2000 to help control the Italian Fox Kids feed. A syndicated Fox Kids analogue block was launched in 2001, airing programmes for a few hours a day. A one-hour-timeshift of Fox Kids would later launch, being one of only 2 Fox Kids timeshift channels in the world (the other being in the United Kingdom).
In 2004, as part of a worldwide partnership between Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America and ABC Family Worldwide that would rebrand their operations under a single brand name titled Jetix, the company was renamed to Jetix Italia S.r.l. The rebrand began with the syndicated Fox Kids block being renamed to K-2 on October 1, while the channel's rebrand to Jetix happened in March 2005.
In May 2005, a sister channel titled GXT launched, which focused on a teenage to young-adult audience. A 1-hour-timeshift of GXT launched on June 1, 2008, exclusively on Sky Italia.
On 8 December 2008, Disney made an agreement to increase ownership in Jetix Italy's parent company Jetix Europe to 96%, and eventually purchased the remainder of the company and had them delisted from Euronext. [1]
On 1 July 2009, K-2 was rebranded as simply K2, and launched as a standalone free-to-air broadcast network.
On 15 July 2009, Jetix Italy S.r.l. announced a management buyout from Jetix Europe under the name of Switchover Media, and would purchase the GXT and K2 networks and blocks from The Walt Disney Company. The company also agreed to operate Jetix Italy for Disney until its rebranding as Disney XD Italy would go to fruition. [2] [3]
In June 2010, Switchover launched a channel aimed at a young male audience, titled Frisbee, which was broadcast on Sky Italia and Digital terrestrial television. [4]
In 2012, Switchover moved out of the youth market with the launch of two specialized adult skewing channels. On May 14, the company launched Giallo, a focused channel with crime drama, thrillers and whodunits programming from the US and Europe. [5] In the Summer, the company under an agreement with Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori launched Focus on Italian digital terrestrial television, based on the popular science magazine of the same name. The channel is aimed at a male audience and factual-based programming. [6]
In January 2013, Switchover was acquired by Discovery Communications (now Warner Bros. Discovery). [7] GXT and its timeshift both ceased broadcasting on December 31, 2014.
Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Branded Television, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children aged 7–11, and older children and adolescents aged 8–15 during the Jetix programming block.
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.
ABC Family Worldwide is a subsidiary of the Disney ABC Networks division of The Walt Disney Company that operates American basic cable channel ABC Family and manages the programming libraries of Disney's subsidiaries BVS Entertainment and Fox Kids/Jetix.
Jetix Play was a preschool entertainment brand, owned by Jetix Europe. The Jetix Play name was primarily used as a sister channel to Jetix in a small number of regions, such as Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East.
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.
Disney XD was a Latin American pay television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company and one of the channels of Disney Branded Television which operated across Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean region. It is based on namesake American television channel.
K2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery for children between 4 and 14 years of age. Its registered office is in Rome. It launched on 1 October 2004 as a syndicated television strand.
GXT was an Italian subscription-based comedy/entertainment television channel.
Disney Channel is a British-managed Romanian pay television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company Limited in London.
Disney Channel is a U.K. pan-European-managed Bulgarian pay television kids' channel, owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It was launched on 19 September 2009, replacing Jetix Eastern Europe. It shares its feed with Disney Channel Romania.
Disney Channel was a Russian free-to-air television channel, serving as a local version of the American Disney Channel. It launched its cable service on August 10, 2010, and its terrestrial broadcast on 31 December 2011. The channel ceased broadcasting on 14 December 2022, due to content licensing issues.
Disney Channel is a children's television channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Limited. It broadcasts in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, the latter sharing its feed with a Hungarian audio track. It was previously known as Fox Kids, and later as Jetix. It was first launched in Hungary in September 2000, and was later expanded to the Czech Republic and Slovakia in February 2001.
Disney Channel is a British-managed Hungarian pay television channel, owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It is aimed at children and teens. It was previously known as Fox Kids, and later as Jetix.
Frisbee is an Italian TV channel marketed towards a children audience of 4 to 14-year-olds, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Walt Disney Company France, formerly Walt Disney Mickey Mouse, S.A. and Walt Disney Productions France, is one of The Walt Disney Company's international divisions and also European divisions. It is headquartered in Paris, Île-de-France.
Disney XD is a Dutch children's television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company. It broadcasts 14 hours a day, time-sharing with Dutch TV station Veronica, and is primarily aimed at children roughly between the ages of 7 and 15. The channel used to have a pay television 24-hour feed that was distributed throughout the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders); however, it was closed down on 31 July 2018. Viewers in Belgium (Wallonia) and Luxembourg received Disney XD France, until that feed was later shut down in 2020.
Disney XD was a British and Irish pay television channel. First launching in October 1996, it originated from the United States block of the same name. and was operated under a joint-venture between Fox Television Entertainment and Saban Entertainment, before moving along to the Euronext-operating Fox Kids Europe. It rebranded itself to Jetix in January 2005 after The Walt Disney Company's prior-purchase of Fox Family Worldwide in October 2001, and then reached its final name in August 2009 after Disney acquired Jetix Europe.
Super Hungama is an Indian pay television channel operated by Jio Star, a Joint Venture between Disney India and Viacom18. It primarily focuses on children's animated series and is a direct sister channel to Hungama.
Disney XD was an Italian television channel aimed primarily at children and teenagers, specifically boys. The channel was owned by Walt Disney Television Italia, a subsidiary of Disney. It was officially version of U.S. television channel launched exclusively on the Sky Italia platform on 28 September 2009, and closed on 1 October 2019.
This is a timeline of UK children's programming on non-BBC and ITV channels.
