Cartoon Network (Middle Eastern and African TV channel)

Cartoon Network (Middle Eastern and African TV channel)
Cartoon Network is one of two digital children's television channels that air animated series: Cartoon Network MENA (formerly known as Cartoon Network EMEA), which serves the Middle East and North Africa division along with Cyprus; and Cartoon Network Africa, which exclusively serves Sub-Saharan Africa. Both feeds are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery under its International division.
The network began as part of the larger UK/pan-European service on 17 September 1993; the UK branch would separate itself in October 1999, but kept a nearly identical schedule until August 2001.
Cartoon Network EMEA used to share channel space with TNT Africa; the latter would air from 21:00 to 06:00 CET, while the former would run for the rest of the day.
On 1 July 2016, an HD feed on beIN known as Cartoon Network MENA was launched, replacing Cartoon Network Africa in the MENA region. It features both English and Arabic audio tracks. In addition to being offered by various Gulf IPTV providers (as well as Cablevision in Lebanon and most Cypriot TV providers except for Nova), Cartoon Network MENA also has a different management team, different branding and a fully separate schedule from Cartoon Network Africa.
History
Since September 17, 1993, Cartoon Network Europe has been broadcasting from the Astra 1C satellites for Central Europe and Intelsat 707 for Eastern Europe. Broadcasting was carried out from 5:00 to 19:00, and the TNT UK channel was broadcast in the evening. Initially, the channel was legally called Cartoon Network Europe, and it also featured several soundtracks in the following languages: English, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French and Italian.
At first, Cartoon Network broadcast cartoons from Warner Bros, MGM and Hanna-Barbera, such as: Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies and Tom and Jerry. A few years later, he began broadcasting his own animated series: The Powerpuff Girls,Dexter's Laboratory, etc. As a result, most of the programs from Warner Bros were relegated to the background, and the original animated series took up most of the air.
In August 1996, Cartoon Network increased the broadcast time to 21:00, and in December of the same year switched to round-the-clock broadcasting.
On October 15, 1999, Cartoon Network Europe was renamed Cartoon Network UK, and became available only for the UK, Ireland and Malta. The TV channel switched to paid TV broadcasting, and was encrypted on Astra 1C using VideoCrypt. For Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Cartoon Network EMEA was launched, which was free and transitional, as Warner began to localize its channels across Europe. Cartoon Network EMEA copied Cartoon Network UK schedule until 2001, but there were exceptions, shows such as Dragon Ball Z and Angela Anaconda were not broadcast, as there were no pan-European broadcast rights.
In April 2005, Cartoon Network was completely dubbed into Russian, and Greek subtitles were added on 20 June 2005.
In 2011, Cartoon Network EMEA was renamed to Cartoon Network Pan Feed.
Cartoon Network switched to widescreen on 6 October 2014, and also rebranded with the CHECK It 3.0 graphics package on that same day.
On July 1, 2016, Cartoon Network Pan Feed was launched in the MENA region, which replaced the African channel in the Arab world, broadcasting in 1080i HD with a soundtrack in Arabic. The channel has a different schedule, program composition and censorship rules (sometimes scenes that are not affected in the Arabic feed are edited). It is also offered with Greek subtitles in Cyprus.
Cartoon Network MENA's English-language website can be found at CartoonNetworkME.com, Another site, CartoonNetworkMENA.com, launched around the same time and serves as a hub where users can choose between the English- or Arabic-language versions.
Since November 10, 2020, Boomerang has received a Czech license (RRTV) in order to ensure the continuation of legal broadcasting in the European Union in accordance with the EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services (AVMSD) and the law on the single market after the UK leaves the European Union. Since the Czech Republic has minimum broadcasting rules, it was chosen for licensing purposes in the EU. Cartoon Network Pan Feed was renamed Cartoon Network Pan-European, and later renamed Cartoon Network MENA again. Broadcasting center of the TV channel is still located in London
In an interview with C21 in May 2021, WarnerMedia EMEA mentioned that they're looking to add programs for girls and family which consist of live-action and animated series.
Sister channels
Boing
Boing is a television channel that airs repeats of programs formerly seen on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. It launched on 30 May 2015, as the fourth extension of Turner's larger Boing brand.
Cartoonito
Cartoonito is a television channel which airs cartoons. Two versions of the channel exist; one for the Arab World, Greece and Cyprus (Boomerang MENA), and another for Sub-Saharan Africa (Cartoonito Africa). It originally launched on 5 June 2005 as Boomerang EMEA.
On 1 July 2016, Boomerang MENA was launched, replacing the African feed in the Middle East and North Africa; it airs in 1080i with English and Arabic audio tracks on beIN, and is also available in Greece and Cyprus, albeit with a Greek audio track.
The morning Cartoonito block launched on 4 April 2022. On 25 March 2023 the channel rebranded to Cartoonito completely.
Toonami
Toonami is a television channel catered towards young adults consisting of DC animation from Batman, Superman and Young Justice. It launched in 2017 on Kwesé TV until the platform went defunct in 2019. Then it was made available on Cell C's defunct streaming service Black for that same year.
In March 2020, the channel was revived as a 2-month pop-up channel on DStv thereafter it was made available full-time on the StarTimes platform after its closure. As of March 2021, Toonami can also be found on Canal+, Intelvision, Azam TV and Zuku TV.
See also
Cartoon Network around the world
TNT Africa
List of programs broadcast by Cartoon Network
References
External links
Switch options website
Official Middle East website (in English)
Africa website
Children's television networks
Middle East and Africa
Television channels and stations established in 1993
Television channels and stations established in 1999
Television channels and stations established in 2016
Television stations in South Africa
Television channels in Greece
Television channels in Cyprus
Mass media in Dubai
Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA