Disney Branded Television

On November 10, 1981, Walt Disney Productions and Westinghouse Broadcasting announced that they had joined up to start a family-oriented cable television service.[2] In 1982, Disney hired Alan Wagner to develop a cable channel.[3]

By July 15, 1982, Disney incorporated Walt Disney Entertainment, Inc., which was renamed by January 28, 1983 to The Disney Channel, Inc.[4] The Disney Channel was launched in April 1983 as a premium channel with 16 hours of programming.[3][5] The channel became profitable in January 1985.

20 months after launch, the channel moved into the home satellite dish market thus scrambling its signal. The channel started moving to the basic cable level on September 1, 1990 with TCI Montgomery Cablevision.[5] In March 1995, the second Disney Channel began broadcasting in Taiwan[6] while the third is launched in October for the United Kingdom.[5]

By September 29, 1997, the corporate name was shortened to Disney Channel, Inc.[4] Disney had hired Geraldine Laybourne away from the Nickelodeon channel in 1996. She founded a kids channel codename ABZ, which the media speculated to be aimed at preschoolers. Laybourne dismissed this report.[7] In December 1997, the Toon Disney channel was announced as a basic channel consisting of Disney animated programming.[5] As of April 1, 1998, most of the international versions are pay channels while the Taiwan and Malaysia versions are ad supported and the USA version is a basic channel.[8] The Toon Disney Channel was launched on April 18, 1998 on the Disney Channel's 15th anniversary.[9]

In 2000, the Playhouse Disney preschool channel was launched in the United Kingdom.[10] while in the US, in 1997, the Playhouse Disney block was launched on Disney Channel. In June 2001, Disney was looking into launch Playhouse Disney as a channel in the United States for 2002.[11]

Disney Channel, Inc. changed its name to ABC Cable Networks Group, Inc. by January 31, 2001.[4] In October 2003, ABC Family Worldwide was shifted from Disney COO Bob Iger's directly reporting unit to the ABC Cable Networks Group.[12] In early 2004, Disney Channel's original programming leaders took over ABC Family's original movies unit temporarily as two ABC Family executives left the channel.[13]

In January 2004, Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America and ABC Cable Networks Group created the Jetix programming alliance that would rebrand Fox Kids as Jetix for all blocks, channels and companies.[14] ABC1 launched on the United Kingdom's digital terrestrial television platform on September 27, 2004.[15]

In November 2005, Barry Blumberg resigned as president of Walt Disney Television Animation to allow the planned transfer of TV animation to Disney Channels Worldwide.[16]

In 2006, Disney Television India acquired Hungama TV from UTV Software Communications Limited[17] Disney Cinemagic began broadcasting in the UK in March 2006[18] to of several Cinemagic channels, including timeshift and HD versions across Western Europe.[19] ABC1 ceased broadcasting on all UK TV platforms at noon on September 26, 2007.[20]

In Spain, Walt Disney Company Iberia purchased 20% of Management Company Television Net TV SA (or NET TV) on February 2008.[21] In late May 2008, the company announced the move of Disney Channel to the digital over-the air space, replacing NET TV's Fly Music on July 1, 2008.[22]

The company's Japanese unit, Walt Disney Television International Japan, started procuring its own animated series in March 2008, with the first two series to debut at Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008. The company produced Stitch! with Madhouse Company, while Fireball was produced with Jinni's Animation Studios.[23]

After two Disney Channnel stars had various scandals, the company started a set of classes for their young stars in 2009 to adapt to the pressure of fame. Optional monthly life-skill classes were added in 2014.[24]

Disney XD (DXD) was launched in September 2009, taking over the channel space of Toon Disney in the US,[25] while Jetix switched over to DXD (or for some Disney Channel) starting with France on April 1.[26] In April, the Walt Disney Company, Ltd. Japan and Disney Channels Worldwide started Broadcast Satellite Disney Co., Ltd. to broadcast a women and family targeted channel called Dlife with licensed content, received in October 2010 and debuted on March 17, 2012.[27]

Jetix Play closed down on August 1, 2010 in most countries,[28] on September 1, 2010 in Turkey, and in Romania on March 12, 2011. In these countries, the channel was replaced with Playhouse Disney.[28]

On May 26, 2010, Disney–ABC Television Group announced the launch of Disney Junior, which would replace the Playhouse Disney Morning block on sister network Disney Channel in February 2011, and extend to a standalone preschooler-oriented channel that would replace Soapnet in January 2012. All 22 Playhouse Disney channels and blocks outside the U.S. were also renamed to "Disney Junior" in 2011.[29][30][31]

In October 2011, Disney reached a joint venture agreement (49%/51%) with UTH Russia, in which UTH will turn its broadcasting network Seven TV into a Disney Channel starting in early 2012.[32] On March 28, 2013, Cinemagic was replaced with Sky Movies Disney in the UK market under license to BSkyB.[33]

In April 2013, Disney announced that Das Vierte, its recent purchased broadcast station in Germany, would become a Disney Channel in January 2014 as a 24-hour family entertainment network.[34] Disney formed an in-house ad sales company called Disney Media + for the channel, given that two competitors control most ad sales companies.[35][36]

Disney India Media Networks shut down Bindass Play, a Hindi music channel, and replaced it with Disney International HD on October 29, 2017. This general entertainment channel is in English and HD, targeted to ages 14 to 25 while only tapping Disney live action shows.[37][38]

With Disney's March 14, 2018 reorganization, all international channels including Disney Channel have been transferred to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, a new segment, while the US unit is still under Disney–ABC Television Group.[39] On January 9, 2019, Disney India Media Networks shut down Disney XD India and replaced it with Marvel HQ, a channel featuring shows and movies from Marvel Entertainment as well as some acquired programming.[40]

Shortly after the November 2019 launch of Disney+ in New Zealand, Disney shut down its linear channels there. Disney Channels Worldwide announced in June 2020 that on October 1, 2020 all three of the networks owned by Disney Channels Worldwide in the United Kingdom would be shut down with content thereafter would be available via the Disney+ streaming service as the extension of a carriage deal with Sky and Virgin Media could not be reached.[41]

† Management Company Television Net TV SA is owned by Vocento SA, The Walt Disney Company Iberia S.L. (20%) and Intereconomía Corporation SA. Which in addition to the Disney channels owns Intereconomia TV, a generalist channel.[47][48]

Disney Channel different channels around the world, each represented by one colour.

Disney Channel Asia was launched in January 2000 as a single video feed with an English audio track being the default and Mandarin audio and subtitle tracks also available. The channel became available in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. On June 1, 2002, the channel was launched in the South Korea market as a Korean-language feed.[91] Over the first six months of 2005, Disney Channel Asia along with sister channel Playhouse Disney launched in Vietnam, Palau and Thailand and finishing off with a launch of both in Cambodia, its 11th market, with Cambodia Entertainment Production Co. Ltd. as distributor.[92]

Disney Channel does not have a localized version for China. However, many of its live-action and animated series are syndicated on regional channels through ABC owned Dragon Club since 1994. It also has a Chinese website.[93]

Previously, Disney programming was available through programming blocks starting as early as 1994 with Doordarshan then moving to Zee TV until the early 2000s. Disney moved its block to Sony Television for three years. Star TV pick up Disney TV blocks on Star Plus, Disney Time, and on Star Utsav.[94]

In December 2004, Walt Disney Television International India launched a Toon Disney channel with three language feeds (English, Tamil and Telugu)[95] at the same time as the Disney Channel with Star TV network distributing the channels.[96] Disney reached an agreement with Doordarshan (DD) in November 2005 for DD to carry a half-hour block called Disney Jadoo. Thus Disney was up to 4 branded blocks in India.[94]

On April 16, 2015, Corus Entertainment announced that it had reached a multi-year agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group to acquire Canadian rights to Disney Channel's programming library, and launched Disney Channel in Canada on September 1, 2015—the first time that a Disney Channel-branded network has operated in Canada.[82]

Prior to this agreement, rights to Disney Channel programming had been held by Family Channel, a network owned by children's media conglomerate DHX Media which is licensed as a premium service but is carried as a basic service by many television providers. As a result of the fact that the majority of Disney Channel U.S.'s programs aired on Family, coupled with the fact that both channels developed similarly in their respective countries (as both began as premium services before adding availability via basic subscription), Family Channel was commonly considered to be a de facto Canadian version of Disney Channel (though it was often mistakenly assumed to be related to ABC Family (now Freeform), a sister network to Disney Channel U.S. which was formerly known as The (emphasis added) Family Channel from 1988 to 1998; a Canadian version of ABC Family (now Freeform) launched in March 2012, called ABC Spark[123] to avoid confusion with Family Channel, to which it does not share common ownership). Some Canadian-produced original series produced by Family (such as Life with Derek, Naturally, Sadie, and Overruled!) have aired on Disney Channel in the United States and in other countries in the past. In addition to its distribution agreement with Disney Channel U.S., Family also operated an English-language version of Disney Junior as a multiplex channel, as CRTC rules allow pay-TV channels licensed as premium services to add multiplex channels consistent with the network's license. Disney XD and a French-language version of Disney Junior were also owned by DHX Media, operating under separate licenses.

DHX's program supply agreement with Disney ended on January 1, 2016; as a result of these re-alignments, its Disney-branded networks were re-launched as spin-offs of the Family brand beforehand on September 18, 2015 (Family Jr. and Télémagino) and October 9, 2015 (Family Chrgd).[82]