Kingson

Kingson (stylized as KINGSON) is an Hopelandian over-the-air, basic cable and satellite television channel which is partially owned by the National Broadcasting Network, headquartered in Albany. It was founded by Hat Trick (unrelated to the Nashlandian production company of the same name) in 1992 and was launched on January 2, 1993 as a minuscule cable network, later it was sold off to NBN in 1996. Kingson broadcasts on the .3 subcarrier of NBN O&Os and affiliates all over the country and broadcasts content aimed at kids and teens, with part of the schedule being produced locally and the foreign programming sourced from Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD, coming mainly from Flarland and the United States.
The channel is also one of the most-watched terrestrial subchannels. Its competitors are IBS's Qoox and, since 2021, UBS's U Kids, and to some extent, the cable networks.
==History==
===Cable network===
Hat Trick Productions was set up in 1990 to launch the Kingson cable channel. At the time of its launch, the channel was uncertain about its potential subject. The family idea was turned down when Hopeland had two kids channels, Fun City (now defunct) and the newly-launched Hopelandian feed of Nickelodeon.
In 1991, Hat Trick began investing in the upcoming channel. At the time they looked after local investors like United Cable Networks (now Echo) and Comtam to carry the service because they had the largest nationwide coverage.
The channel launched in January 1993 on both operators. Initially it was a combined kids and family channel broadcasting dhows for kids until 7pm and acted as a family channel during the evening, in a similar vein to Nick at Nite. By the end of 1993 the channel increased its coverage by making its service available on Astrowave. A similar format was adopted for the ill-fated Toonhouse channel later on.
===NBN takeover===
NBN (already a Disney company) bought the channel and Hat Trick in 1996. This also coincided with the surname of NBN's mascot, and gave it a platform for its massive return. It was an attempt at complementing the premium Disney Channel with more local programming. There was briefly a Kingson Zone on NBN.
As Disney Channel was moving to basic cable tiers in the early 2000s, Disney wanted to reposition it as an all-Hopelandian cartoon channel, with the aim of giving time to new Hopelandian animated series.
===Terrestrial carriage===
The channel became an OTA service in 2005. Until 2007 it was available exclusively on NBN O&Os before making it available on the entire NBN network. In line with it was a change to its programming structure by making it show more Disney shows due to its status, but kept its local reputation.
On July 3, 2009, an HD feed of the channel started broadcasting, using the HD capacity left unused by Toon Disney after the launch of Disney XD.
On February 12, 2011, Ketogene premiered.
The channel held a 25 Days of Kingson event in anticipation for the network's 25th anniversary in December 2017.
===Possible merger with Disney XD===
As Disney XD closures are becoming more prevalent around the world, due to the investments made by Disney in divesting a series of linear television networks in order to concentrate on Disney+, as part of future plans, Disney XD is likely to shut down and have much of its contents integrated with Kingson, keeping its terrestrial carriage.
On December 1, 2020, the Hopelandian feed of Disney XD stopped carrying anime and first-run showings were now on Kingson, raising speculations about the possible shutdown of Disney XD.
On January 10, 2022, Disney announced the shutdown of the Hopelandian feed of Disney XD, finishing the merger with Kingson. The two channels have had identical programming.
==Branding==
===Mascots===
Since 2011, Kingson has been using corporate parent NBN's mascot Milo Kingson (who, indeed, has his own animated series). Milo was used somewhat unofficially as a mascot since the mate 90s at earliest.
Beforehand, the channel had two merpeople, the brother and sister team of Stormy and Sandy, as their mascots. While they stopped being official mascots they have become secondary characters in the current Milo Kingson canon.
===Slogans===
The network often used yearly slogans:
*Kingson Rules! (2011)
Other slogans and taglines used for regular purposes:
*New from Kingson/New to Kingson (2000-2012, former used for new original productions and latter for imports)
==Programming==
===Blocks===
*Kingson Junior: It is the oldest block to air on the network, dating back to 1998. It is shown weekdays from 7am to 12pm. The content in this block is mainly from Disney Junior, though it also has more local content (from Disney Hopeland and third-party companies) in order to comply with local regulations. The block uses Milo's "baby" as a mascot. It's slogan is "it's OK to learn and play".
*Unnamed anime block: a block showcasing various anime programs featured on the channel, such as Pokémon, Beyblade: Burst, Doraemon and Yo-kai Watch. Oddly enough, some shows are local Hopelandian dubs.
*Randomation Animation – Randomation Animation is a weekend morning animation block on Saturdays from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, which debuted on July 13, 2013. The block is used to counter NBN's kids block.
==Services==
*SAP: Since 2000 at least, the channel has SAP for most programming, broadcasting in Spanish. There are limited exceptions. Disney XD is the only other channel to do so, as Disney Channel and Disney Junior have separate feeds in Spanish. This only applies to the cable and satellite feeds of the channel.
*West feed: a West feed (+2) is generated from HXOF-TV's central offices in Palmerston.
*Kingson On Demand
*NBN Now: Kingson programming can be found on the Kids section of the new NBN Now app.