Disney Channel (UK and Ireland)

Disney Channel was a British and Irish children's television channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company (UK) Ltd.
The channel was broadcast from October 1, 1995 to September 30, 2020. A one-hour timeshift channel called Disney Channel +1 was available on Sky and Virgin Media.
==History==
===Pre-launch===
In 1989, Disney Channel UK would have been the first international Disney Channel to launch with the help of Sky Television and the channel featured much of the promotional material surrounding the launch of Sky Television and the Astra satellite. However, the partnership and a proposed joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Sky Television went into a lawsuit after the discussion regarding the joint venture took place in November of 1988, but The Walt Disney Company felt that it was no longer on equal footing on "decision-making responsibility" in a 50-50 partnership. The Walt Disney Company was supposed to launch two new channels in the UK, but when the talks broke down, Sky filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company, claiming ₤1.5 billion in damages. The Walt Disney Company claimed that it wanted to get more influence over decision-making in the partnership and change the terms of the partnership. The Walt Disney Company was also reluctant to provide its share of funding for The Disney Channel.
The lawsuit was later settled, and then The Walt Disney Company sold its joint-venture interest to Sky Television, and Sky went on to access the Walt Disney Pictures' movie library for 5 years. However, with these 5 years having expired, The Walt Disney Company went on to launch The Disney Channel in the United Kingdom without any interest in Sky, but formed a distribution deal with Sky, offering The Disney Channel for free to cable and satellite subscribers if they had subscribed to Sky's movie package. The Disney Channel was also available as a standalone package without having to subscribe to Sky's movie package
===Post-launch===
On December 7, 1994, The Walt Disney Company announced that it had reached an agreement with the British Sky Broadcasting to launch The Disney Channel in the United Kingdom as a subscription service in Autumn of 1995. It was also announced that the channel will be available for free on Sky and cable operators that have already subscribed to the Sky Movies package. The Disney Channel UK will be the first brand with that name. Back in January of 1994, The Walt Disney Company also announced its joint venture with CLT Multi Media to launch Super RTL in Germany. The new 50-50 partnership went well in Germany, and Super RTL was launched in April of 1995, broadcasting throughout Germany and portions of Austria and Luxembourg.
On August 25, 1995, it was announced that The Disney Channel was set to launch in the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 1, 1995, broadcasting everyday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on channel 26, timesharing with Sky Movies Gold on the Astra 1B satellite service. It was also announced that the channel would be a subscription-only channel and not carry advertising. The channel will deliver family entertainment, with all programming aimed at being suitable for all members of the family. The programming schedule features dramas, comedies, cartoons, documentaries, and feature films from the Disney archives, including the TV premieres of The Jungle Book and Cool Runnings. During the channel's launch, the advertising agency will be Mellors Reay & Partners, while media services will be handled by BBJ Media Services Ltd. The Disney Channel eventually launched in the UK on Sky on October 1, 1995, becoming the first Disney Channel to be launched outside the United States. Its first broadcast was the UKTV premier of the 1967 film The Jungle Book.
Disney Channel UK's studios and broadcast playout facilities were mainly in Teddington Studios (where the defunct ITV franchisee Thames Television was based, which ended its broadcast in 1992, losing their franchise to Carlton), for its first year of broadcasting. Then, in late 1996, they were moved to Stephen Street (where Thames Television had its original headquarters). In 1994, the year before Disney Channel UK launched, Pearson acquired Thames Television's business. In the early years, Pearson also offered playout and transmission services for the Disney Channel.
Within two weeks after the launch of the channel, The Disney Channel had talks with the ITC (Independent Television Commission, now Ofcom) on how Disney's products, attractions, and services are promoted on the channel. The channel said that it does not carry advertising at the time, but it has been talked about by the ITC about establishing clearly defined breaks for self-promoting its products and services. However, as Disney and ITC agreed, the breaks were signified by the appearance of the on-screen Disney Consumer Arcade motif.
In July of 1997, the ITC revealed that Disney Channel's marketing methods were improper because the channel was supplied 'free' to cable customers who were already paying for a minimum of two premium film channels, including Sky Movies and The Movie Channel. Cable companies wanted to be able to supply the channel to subscribers as a standalone channel and as a bonus promotional channel for premium channel subscribers. In September of 1997, Disney Channel decided to make more continuity links between programs. However, Corinthian Television had permission to let Disney Channel make them at St. John's Wood Studios. After each run of interstitials, this resulted in the creation of the new live block, Disney Channel UK Live. During the same month, Disney Channel began to air more programmes than movies, although the latter was still the main focus. Around this time, a preschool block called the "Under-Fives block" began airing, featuring mostly acquired preschool programming.
Following the ITC investigation, Disney Channel became available on Sky and cable operators as a separate premium channel on March 2, 1998. To promote the channel's new availability to cable operators, Disney Channel offered three days of unencrypted programming from March 21 to 23, 1998, as part of its 'Big Free For All' campaign. On December 6, 1998, Disney Channel UK announced that it had appointed Paul Robinson, the former managing director of Talk Radio, as its new managing director and vice president. He was responsible for the channel's day-to-day operations, including all programming and marketing. Paul Robinson takes over Tom Wszalek's place, which later became the senior vice president for Walt Disney Television International's digital TV development.
On February 15, 1999, Disney Channel introduced an evening movie slot that airs different family movies every night at 7 p.m. The first movie to air on this new movie slot was The Sword in the Stone. To promote the slot, Disney Channel hired Creative Forager to set up a special build site at London's Cromwell Road, featuring a lounge set that includes a sofa with Mickey Mouse head-shaped pillows, a lamp, and a TV. At 7 p.m. every weeknight, a real family would sit on the sofa together to watch the movie. This resulted in a 300% increase in viewing figures for the Disney Channel's new movie slot. On September 1, 1999, Disney Channel was relaunched and rolled out a daily schedule structure that includes the preschool zone (also known as Playhouse Disney) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Children's Zone from 2pm to 7pm, and the Family Zone (also known as The Wonderful World of Disney) from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. the next day. With the changes, the Playhouse Disney-branded programming block in the UK was the first Playhouse Disney to launch outside the United States.
The lineup for the preschool zone between 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. will include Winnie the Pooh, and a cookery series Bite Size, which was produced by Walt Disney Television International UK. The lineup for the Children's Zone include an animated adaption of the 1996 TV sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which was entitled Sabrina: The Animated Series. Buena Vista Productions continued to supply more shows on the Disney Channel UK Live block, such as Microsoap and Crash Zone, which was also being produced by BBC and the Australian Children's Television Foundation (which in-credit was the Seven Network) respectively. The lineup for the Family Zone will also include the evening movie slot, which already premiered on 15 February of that year at 7 p.m.
In 2000, Corinthian became part of Thomson Multimedia and was simply known as Corthinian Television Facilities. However, Corthinian quickly noticed that their company would make a lot more money if they have to look after all the requirements of the channel, including its post-production and playout, and not just the live studio links. In September of 2000, Disney Channel UK launched three additional sister channels on the BSkyB Digital satellite TV service. The three new channels were an separate Playhouse Disney channel, which broadcast 15 hours of preschool content from the 5-hour preschool block of the same name; Toon Disney, which focused on cartoons and behind-the-scenes documentaries; and Disney Channel +1, which was the one-hour timeshift of Disney Channel. Until 2002 and 2003, respectively, these networks were not available on NTL or Telewest, both of which at the time could still only receive Disney Channel. Likely due to this, the Playhouse Disney block remained on air until July 2004.
Paul Robinson also stated that the new structure also helps Disney address the problem of having "different channels in one". A channel consisting of cartoons, preschool programmes and family entertainment in one schedule meant "someone was always upset". With the launch of these two dedicated channels, Disney should throw its whole weight behind each segment while simultaneously meeting the needs of different age groups. Toon Disney was also crucial for Disney's own marketing strategy, as it was known for providing a dedicated outlet for the world's best-known animation factory. Before Toon Disney UK's launch in September of 2000, Paul Robinson also stated that only a third of Disney Channel's broadcast time was focused on cartoons. However, a 24-hour cartoon channel was an obvious decision. While there was a lot more time to play with the schedule, Disney had to fit in original animations over the cartoon classics that it is best known for. Before the launch of these two sister channels in September, Disney Channel at the time had 4 million subscribers, which was a million more than 1998. However, Disney Channel UK's rivals at the time, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, had around 7 million subscribers, but these channels were in basic cable or satellite packages, while Disney Channel was a premium channel.
In May of 2001, Disney Channel UK introduced a new live block slot entitled Studio Disney UK, airing from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. The programming block featured live links between programmes such as cartoons, dramas and comedies. Disney Channel UK had a live block before the launch of the Studio Disney brand, but they decided to rebrand it into "a proper name and identity", and to make the feel of the show "more pacey and quirky". Static Design, the production design arm of Static 2358 (now defunct), had designed the identity of Disney Channel UK's new live block, in addition to an on-screen package including 10 idents, stings, on-screen bugs, programme menus, and a style guide. Studio Disney UK also featured a team of two to six presenters who did the live links in between programs and also gave viewers the opportunity to phone in and win prizes or appear as part of the small studio audience. On June 30, 2001, Disney Channel ceased broadcasting on Sky's analogue satellite service. At the time, Disney Channel stated that only 99% of its viewers were digital customers. Switching their services to digital meant more money for their customers to receive new channels, such as Disney's new sister channels and Disney Channel's +1 timeshift service, and viewers who already received Disney Channel got their new additional Sky Movie channels through Sky Digital.
In 2002, Disney Channel's operations were significantly expanded because of an insufficient room at St. John's Wood Studios, so they should have a contract to fulfill, Corinthian took out a lease on a £15m purpose-built facility at West London's Chiswick Park (which was 85,000 ft in size), and the Disney Channel relocated their European operations hub there, with Corinthian responsible for everything in terms of providing broadcasting facilities for the Disney Channel.
Disney Channel's new studio facilities in Chiswick featured two new studios (with control rooms), 10 non-linear editing suites, two 3D graphic origination suites, and a multi-control transmission and playout facility (which has six transmission master control facilities and four multi-language audio dubbing suites). The operation was one of the first-ever fully file-based automated environments involving a digital robotic archive storage, digital asset management services, and a server-based automated transmission playout. Two studios, which were not particularly large, were fully utilised, with one being the base for Studio Disney and the other one used regularly for kids gameshows and other shows. This included the talent show Star Ticket.
On August 17, 2004, BSkyB has announced its deal with The Walt Disney Company to launch a Disney Channel-branded games service on Sky Gamestar, which is in the Games section of Sky's interactive services on its digital platform. The new service was entitled Disney Channel Play and was available to Sky Digital's 7 million customers. It was also available through all four Disney channels (including Disney Channel, Disney Channel +1, Playhouse Disney, and Toon Disney). All games had free demos, which viewers must pay to extend their playing for longer or on a per-play or per-day basis. On September 1, 2004, Disney Channel expanded its hours to be airing overnight temporary. However, the channel returned to being a 24-hour service permanently on September 11, 2017 until the closure,[citation needed] with the night schedule airing reruns of the German children's TV series Binny and the Ghost (known as Billie and the Ghost in the United Kingdom), the Argentine soap opera Violetta, and their in-house production The Evermoor Chronicles. In November of 2004, Corinthian's parent company, Thomson Multimedia, was rebranded as Technicolor after the purchase of the American film technology company of the same name. However, Corinthian became part of Technicolor Network Services. However, Technicolor continued to provide playout services for the Disney Channel until its contract expired in 2012.
On July 1, 2005, Studio Disney and other associated spin-off shows, which were also produced by the studio and/or co-produced with other studios, ended. However, with the changes, the studios (which are the home of the ended shows) were mothballed, the production crews that had been working for these shows were made redundant, and the cameras at these studios were removed, but some equipment from these same studios was moved into various post-production suites around the building. However, while Disney Channel was the final British children's TV channel to stop operating live studio links during the after-school hours, the free-to-air children's TV channel CBBC continued to produce these live-studio links; Disney Channel's rival pay-TV channel Nickelodeon had already stopped doing these; and the children's block on ITV1 and CITV also ended live-studio links a year ago.
On March 16, 2006, changes were made to the Disney services in the UK. Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney in the UK stopped being premium add-on channels and instead operated as part of basic-level subscription packages, joining Jetix. However, this resulted in the "premium" aspect of Disney Channel (which includes Walt Disney Pictures' movies and a selection of Disney-branded animation) being merged with Toon Disney to launch a new channel, Disney Cinemagic, which was a premium channel included as a standalone channel and as a bonus channel as part of Sky's movie packages. Toon Disney was replaced with Disney Cinemagic; Toon Disney closed at 6 a.m., and Disney Cinemagic launched at 10 a.m. Disney Channel +1 closed and was replaced with Disney Cinemagic +1. However, Disney Channel +1 subsequently returned in June of 2006. During the same month, Disney Channel changed its focus to air more original sitcoms, changing its demographic mostly towards girls. However, Playhouse Disney was not affected by these changes and continued its usual preschool programming formula. However, an archive sports channel, ESPN Classic, was also launched on March 13, which was actually three days before the launch of Disney Cinemagic in the UK. In October of 2006, Disney Channel was added to Top Up TV Anytime, which downloads programming overnight from various channels to a Thomson DTI 6300-16. In 2007, Disney added more On Demand content to Virgin Media's service.
In late 2007, BSkyB announced their plans to launch their own pay-TV service on DTT, as well as Freeview's offering, entitled Picnic. However, the purpose of Picnic was to offer a cheaper but limited offering compared to the Sky Digital satellite package for those without a satellite dish. Disney Channel became part of the service, and the channel was supposed to be airing from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. only on the new service. After Disney Channel joined Sky's proposed service, Picnic, Rob Gilby, the managing director of Disney Channel UK, stated that "Our strategy is to make Disney channels available via as many potential platforms as possible. Pay DTT is a natural next step for us, as Disney Channel is an advertising-free, subscription-only service." However, Picnic was cleared by Ofcom for its proposed launch in 2008, but Sky already put Picnic on hold that same year due to indecisiveness on Ofcom's part. Picnic became Now TV, an OTT internet streaming service that was launched in July of 2012. Before 2016, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD were also part of the service.
In January of 2009, Disney Channel UK announced that it would launch an in-house sales team to forge commercial deals for the channel, both online (disney.co.uk) and on-air. It was opened up to allow brands to associate themselves with popular Disney Channel properties, including Hannah Montana and High School Musical, for the first time. This also includes sponsorship around popular Disney Channel shows and movies, as well as sponsorship for special events and integrated campaigns across the online and mobile platforms. Despite this change to include sponsorship, Disney Channel UK remained free of advertising.
The channel began broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen in May of 2010. A new set of program mini-idents that would play before the program would start were launched in September 2010. In September of 2011, a new logo was adopted. The same month, an HD version launched on Sky.
In 2012, Technicolor's playout contract for the Disney Channel across the United Kingdom and Ireland expired, and Encompass became the new playout provider and continued to provide playout services for the Disney Channel until the channel's closure. During the channel's history, Disney has always outsourced its playout operations; thus, it never had an internal in-house operation. However, over time, it brought some media functions in-house, such as production.
On July 1, 2013, Disney Channel and Disney Junior (formerly Playhouse Disney) began to carry advertising. During the same month, a new website was launched with On Demand services. However, on March 28, 2013, Disney UK fully exited the premium TV market (with the exception of ESPN) with the closure of Disney Cinemagic in the country. Despite the changes, Disney has signed up with Sky for its movie content deal to launch Sky Movies Disney. However, the deal led to Disney's premium offering becoming part of Sky's movie channels and Sky's on-demand service, allowing viewers to access and watch movies from Disney in the same place as other movies from other movie studios. Disney would never have the option to launch another premium movie channel anymore and would focus on the basic pay-TV market. Sadly, this resulted in the loss of the children's TV animation programming Disney Cinemagic aired, which would mean Disney might be relinquishing control to Sky (under strict branding rules as part of the licensing agreement) and the loss of the subscription standalone option. Although it is not confirmed, it was likely that Disney's exit from the British premium pay-TV market (with revenue from Disney Cinemagic subscriptions, possibly subsidising both Disney Channel and Disney Junior) was connected to Disney's plan to introduce advertising on Disney Channel and its sister channel Disney Junior in July of 2013.
Disney Channel left the Now TV streaming service in 2016, few months after the launch of DisneyLife (now Disney+) in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Nat Geo Wild was launched on the Disney Channel's original slot. At the time, the channel was not owned by Disney; it was acquired during the 21st Century Fox acquisition.
Before the relaunch of DisneyLife to Disney+ in March of 2020, DisneyLife also offered internet streams of Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior, in addition to showing programming on-demand as part of the service. However, DisneyLife's replacement, Disney+, didn't include these streams; it might have been a sign that linear TV channels have such a future.
===Closure===
On 3 June 2020, it was announced that David Levine, Disney's vice president of kids programming for the British, European, and African channels, and the general manager for Disney Channel UK, would leave the company on June 30. On June 25, 2020, it was announced that Disney Channel UK would leave the airwaves in favor of Disney+. Disney Channel, along with its sister channels Disney Junior and Disney XD, closed at midnight BST on September 30, 2020. The closure occurred 25 years after the channel launched in 1995. The YouTube channel of the network however, continues to remain active after the closure.
The channels were removed from Virgin Media and Sky, and their content was moved exclusively to Disney+. The final programme to be broadcast before its closure was the 2019 film Descendants 3. It then showed adverts and "I Want This" from Raven's Home, followed by an ident that froze for a few seconds and then cut to an image slide featuring the channel's logo, signalling the channel's closure.
The channels were removed from Virgin Media on September 29, the day before the shutdown,[better source needed] with CBBC and CBeebies taking the network's former Sky EPG slots on 1 October. In November of 2020, the broadcast licences of Disney Channel UK, Disney XD UK, and Disney Junior UK were handed back to Ofcom, along with other Disney-branded European children's TV channels' broadcasting licences. Due to Brexit, a lot of these European feeds now have broadcast licences handled in Spain, authorized by the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (also known as CMNC). Sky Movies Disney closed two months later, on December 30, 2020, which meant that Disney+ became the home of Disney movies in the UK and Ireland. However, Fox UK closed down on June 30, 2021, leaving only National Geographic and BabyTV as the only Disney-owned pay TV channels in the UK.
After the shutdown of Disney Channel UK, Disney vacated the building at Chiswick Park, and the building was handed back to the property's landlord in June of 2021. Even at the end of Disney's occupancy, the building still had two attached studios that were installed when Disney moved there. However, the facility was no longer needed due to the move to digital streaming distribution via Disney's streaming platform, Disney+. Disney still has its EMEA headquarters in Queen Caroline Street in Hammersmith, London (which is 3 miles away from their original headquarters).
==Programming==
Main Article: List of programs broadcast by Disney Channel (UK and Ireland)
==Related channels==
===Disney Channel HD===
The high definition version of Disney Channel, launched on in September of 2011.
===Disney Channel +1===
It was the time-shift version, launched on September 29, 2000, which re-aired the Disney Channel programs an hour later. It briefly became a timeshift channel for Disney Cinemagic upon its launch in March of 2006, but the name returned to Disney Channel +1 in June.
==External links==
*Official site
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Category:TV channels
Category:Walt Disney Television
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Category:The Walt Disney Company
Category:Disney+