Toon Disney

**Toon Disney** was a worldwide pay television channel brand that was owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney–ABC Television Group. A spin-off of the Disney Channel, the channel mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, and Nicktoons. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 7–14 during its nighttime block called Jetix. Toon Disney shut down on February 13, 2009, after nearly 11 years, and was succeeded by Disney XD, which has carried some programs previously seen on Toon Disney. A year after relaunching Vault Disney as a cable channel, Disney announced the relaunching of Toon Disney, and the channel was relaunched on Jan. 1, 2016.

## History

Toon Disney was launched at noon Eastern Time on April 18, 1998, the Disney Channel's 15-year anniversary, by Disney/ABC Networks on digital tiers of DirecTV, Marcus Cable and EchoStar. The first show aired on the network was *The Sorcerer's Apprentice* (1940) and other Mickey Mouse shorts. At 7 PM that day, its nighttime block, "The Magical World of Toons", was launched. In the next five months, Toon Disney furthered its programming to cable subscribers such as Americast. At its launch, the channel shared half of its assigned series with the Disney Channel. The channel had no advertising until its viewership reached a set number. On January 31, 1999, the first annual Pumbaa Bowl was broadcast.

By September 2000, the channel was expected to reach 20 million subscribers, and thus, would start showing advertising. Ad sales would be handled by Disney Kids Network. In the Fall of 2000, Disney launched its first overseas Toon Disney channel in the United Kingdom.

In June 2001, Toon Disney US launched its "Most Animated Kid Search". *The Santa Claus Brothers* had its world premiere on the channel in December. In September 2002, eight new shows joined the line-up as part of Toon Disney's fall schedule.. In commemoration of the network's fifth anniversary in April 2003, the channel held a "Toon Disney's Magical Adventure Sweepstakes" in which three winners along with 3 family members each won a trip to Disneyland Resort to see *Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular*.

On February 14, 2004, the Jetix programming block began on Toon Disney and ABC Family as a part of the Jetix programming alliance of ABC Networks Group, Fox Kids Europe and Fox Kids Latin America. The block consisted of the entire acquired Fox Kids/Saban Entertainment action library as the result of a bulk buy-out by The Walt Disney Companyin summer 2001, as well as some original programming. Some shows, like *The Legend of Tarzan*, aired under both the Toon Disney and Jetix brands. The UK channel switched over to Disney Cinemagic in March 2006.

In 2004, 4 new markets added a Toon Disney channel with three in Europe with Germany also adding a time shift channel. In December, Walt Disney Television International India launched a Toon Disney channel with three language audio tracks (English, Tamil and Telugu) at the same time as it debuted along with Disney Channel on Star TV. In 2005, a Toon Disney channel was launched for the Nordic countries, as well as another one for Japan. A Hindi-language audio track was introduced on Toon Disney in India on September 1, 2005.

The Toon Disney/Big Movie Show premiere of *The Polar Express* on December 22, 2006 was the channel's highest prime time rating with 1.35 million viewers. On January 27, 2007, Toon Disney launched its weekend afternoon programming block called "The Great Toon Weekend."

In February 2009, Toon Disney US switched over to the Disney XD format and name. Some shows that were formerly on Toon Disney US began airing on Disney XD US. Except for Toon Disney Arab, Toon Disney and Jetix were succeeded by September 2009 with Disney XD or the Disney Channel.

### Relaunch

Following the successful relaunch of Vault Disney, the Walt Disney Company announced plans of relaunching Toon Disney, with the channel launching on Jan. 1, 2016.