Disney Channel

**Disney Channel** is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of owner Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company.

Disney Channel's programming consists of original first-run television series, theatrically-released and original made-for-television movies and select other third-party programming.

## History

In 1977, Walt Disney Productions executive Jim Jimirro brought forth the idea of a cable television network that would feature television and film content sourced from the studio. Disney chairman Card Walker turned down the proposal, citing the company's focus on developing the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. The idea was revived in November 1981, when Disney entered into a partnership with Group W Satellite Communications. In September 1982, Group W rescinded its interest in the intended joint venture, due to disagreements over creative control of the channel and financial obligations that would have had Group W shoulder 50% of the service's start-up costs. Walt Disney Productions continued on with the channel's development with help from the channel's founding president Alan Wagner, and formally announced the launch of its family-oriented cable channel in early 1983.

**The Disney Channel** launched nationally as a premium channel at 7:00am Eastern Time on April 18, 1983. The channel, which initially maintained a 16-hour-per-day programming schedule from 7:00am to 11:00pm. Eastern and Pacific Time, would become available on cable providers in all 50 U.S. states by September 1983, and accrue a base of more than 611,000 subscribers by December of that year. In October 1983, the channel debuted its first made-for-cable movie, Tiger Town, which earned the channel a CableACE Award. The channel had reached profitability by January 1985, with its programming reaching 1.75 million subscribers by that point.

In September 1990, TCI's Montgomery, Alabama, system became the first cable provider to carry the channel as a basic cable service. Between 1991 and 1996, a steadily increasing number of cable providers began shifting The Disney Channel from a premium add-on offering to their basic tiers, either experimentally or on a full-time basis; however, Walt Disney Company executives denied any plans to convert the channel into an ad-supported basic service, stating that the premium-to-basic shifts on some providers was part of a five-year "hybrid" strategy that allowed providers to offer the channel in either manner.

On April 6, 1997, the channel, which was officially renamed as simply **Disney Channel** and, until September 2002, alternatively identified only as "Disney" in on-air promotions and network identifications, underwent a significant rebranding and introduced a new logo styled as a Mickey ear-shaped TV set designed by Lee Hunt Associates. Programming-wise, it maintained a format similar to that of which it carried as a full-fledged premium service; however, Disney Channel's target audience began shifting more toward a focus on kids, while continuing to serve to family audiences at night. It also began to air break interruptions within shows to promote its programming and Disney film and home video releases, decreased the number of older films that aired on its schedule, and began catering its music programming more towards acts popular with preteens and teenagers (incorporating music videos and refocusing its concert specials to feature young, up-and-coming musicians popular with that demographic). On August 23, 1997, the channel relaunched its slate of made-for-television movies, Disney Channel Original Movies, with Northern Lights, supplanting the previous Disney Channel Premiere Films banner. Disney Channel also started to increase its original programming development, launching with the 1997 debut of the sitcom Flash Forward.

The channel would eventually split its programming into three distinct blocks: Playhouse Disney (which debuted in May 1997, focusing on series aimed at pre-schoolers), Vault Disney (which began as a Sunday-only night-time block in September 1997 before expanding to seven nights a week by late 1998, featuring older Disney programs, older television specials and some of the older feature films shifted off its daytime and prime time line-up), and Zoog Disney (a weekend afternoon and evening line-up hosted by anthropomorphic robot/alien hybrid characters called "Zoogs" that was introduced in August 1998, compromising original and acquired series aimed at preteens and teens). The Zoog Disney brand would later expand to encompass most of the channel's weekend daytime and evening schedule under the "Zoog Weekendz" banner in June 2000.

In the year of 1999, Disney Channel began mandating that TV providers which continued to offer it as a premium service shift the channel to their basic channel tiers or else it would decline to renew carriage agreements with providers (such as Time Warner Cable and Comcast, the last major TV providers to carry the channel as a paid service) that chose to continue offering it as an add-on to their service. In the fall of 2002, Disney Channel discontinued the Zoog Weekendz and Vault Disney blocks, phasing out the "Zoog" brand on-air and replacing the latter block with a line-up of same-day repeats of the channel's original and acquired programming, and reduced its nightly prime time movie line-up from showcasing an average of two to three features to a single feature daily. Its original programming slate also became heavily reliant on live-action sitcoms and animated series, eschewing reality series and scripted dramas.

The channel's original programming efforts of the 2000s also led to a marketing effort to cross over the stars of its series into music through record deals with sister music label Hollywood Records, starting with Hilary Duff, who became the channel's first teen idol through the 2001–04 sitcom Lizzie McGuire. The success of the 2003 original television film The Cheetah Girls led to other music-themed original programs being developed, including 2006 hit original movie High School Musical and sitcom Hannah Montana (which launched the career of its star Miley Cyrus). The August 17, 2007 premiere of High School Musical 2 became the highest-rated non-sports program in the history of basic-tier TV and the highest-rated made-for-cable movie premiere on record (as well as the highest-rated television program, either free-to-air or subscription-based,  of Summer 2007) with 17.2 million viewers. In 2012, Disney Channel ended Nickelodeon's 17-year run as the highest-rated cable channel in the United States, placing its first-ever win in total-day viewership among all cable networks as measured by ACNielsen.

## Programming

See Also: List of Programs Broadcast by Disney Channel

### Movie Library

See Also: Disney Channel Original Movie

High School Musical 2 is currently the most successful DCOM in terms of popularity and accolades, setting a basic cable record for the single most-watched television program, as its August 2007 debut was watched by 17.2  million viewers(counting sports, this record stood until a December 3, 2007 telecast of a New England Patriots-Baltimore Ravens game on corporate sibling ESPN's Monday Night Football, which was watched by 17.5  million viewers). The Cheetah Girls films were also notably successful in terms of merchandise and sales for its concert tour and soundtrack albums. The first film in 2003 was the first made-for-TV movie musical in Disney Channel's history and had a worldwide audience of over 84  million viewers. The second movie was the most successful of the series, bringing in 8.1  a million viewers in the U.S. An 86-date concert tour featuring the group was ranked as one of the top 10 concert tours of 2006; the tour broke a record at the Houston Rodeo that was set by Elvis Presley in 1973, selling out with 73,500 tickets sold in three minutes.

In addition to its made-for-cable films, Disney Channel has rights to theatrically released feature films, with some film rights shared with sister network Freeform. Alongside films released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (mainly consisting of releases from Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar), the channel also maintains rights to films from other studios. Some films released by Bagdasarian Productions (such as The Chipmunk Adventure and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein) have also aired on Disney Channel, although most of them are not presently owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

### Programming Blocks

**Current**

* Disney Junior

**Former**

* Disney Night Time (April 18, 1983 - April 6, 1997)
* The Magical World of Disney
* The American Legacy (January 7, 1992 - August 27, 1996)
* Toonin' Tuesdays (October 5, 1993 - August 27, 1996)
* Bonus! Thursday (October 7, 1993 - August 29, 1996)
* Totally Kids Only (1993-1997)
* Triple Feature Friday (October 8, 1993 - May 30, 1997)
* Disney Drive-In (October 8, 1994 - August 31, 1996)
* Block Party (October 2, 1995 - August 28, 1996)
* Playhouse Disney
* Magical World of Animals (1997-1999)
* Vault Disney (1997-2002)
* Zoog Disney (1998-2002)
* Disney Replay (April 17, 2003 - April 28, 2016)
* Disney XD

## Sister Channels

### Current Channels

* Disney Junior
* Disney XD
* Disney+

## Other Services

* Disney Channel HD
* Disney Channel on Demand
* DisneyNow

## Criticism and Controversies

Anne Sweeney, who was president of Disney Channel from 1996 to 2014, has been the target of criticism. Some critics have disapproved of the marketing strategy that was drafted during her tenure, which has resulted in the slanting of the target audience of Disney Channel's programs toward teenyboppers, as well as a decrease in animated programming and an increase in live-action shows and television films. In 2008, Sweeney had explained that Disney Channel, resulting from its multi-platform marketing strategy using television and music, would become "the major profit driver for the Walt Disney Company."

The channel has also pulled episodes (even once having to reshoot an episode) that have featured subject matter deemed inappropriate due to its humour, the timing of the episode's airing with real-life events, or subject matter considered inappropriate for Disney Channel's target audience. In November 2008, the Hannah Montana episode "No Sugar, Sugar" was pulled before its broadcast after complaints from parents who saw the episode through video on demand services due to misconceptions regarding diabetics and sugar intake (the Mitchel Musso character of Oliver Oken is revealed in the episode to have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes). Portions of that episode were subsequently rewritten and re-filmed to become the season three episode "Uptight (Oliver's Alright)," which aired in September 2009.

In December 2011, Disney Channel pulled episodes of two of its original series from the network's broadcast cycle, the season one Shake It Up episode "Party It Up," and the So Random! episode "Colbie Caillat", after Demi Lovato (star of So Random! parent series Sonny with a Chance, who was treated for bulimia nervosa in 2010) objected on Twitter to jokes featured in both episodes (the Shake It Up episode, in particular) that made light of eating disorders. On May 17, 2013, the channel pulled "Quitting Cold Koala", a second-season episode of Jessie, prior to its scheduled premiere broadcast, due to parental concerns over a scene in which a character's gluten-free diet leads to him being ridiculed.

## International

Disney Channel has established its channels in various countries worldwide including Canada, France, Africa, India, Asia, Czech Republic, Australia & New Zealand, the Middle East, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, UK & Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Israel, Russia, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Disney Channel also licenses its programming to air on certain other broadcast and cable channels outside the United States (previously like Family Channel in Canada) regardless of whether or not an international version of Disney Channel exists in the country.