Jetix Europe
Jetix Europe N.V. (formerly known as Fox Kids Europe N.V.) was a European television broadcasting company that owned children's television channels and programming blocks across the Europe and Middle East, such as Jetix and Jetix Play. History. Fox Kids Europe. Fox Kids Europe was founded when the first International Fox Kids channel launched in the United Kingdom in October 1996. After the launch of the UK channel, five additional feeds were launched between 1997 and 1999 for the Netherlands, France, Poland, Scandinavia and Spain. On April 1, 1999, the Central & Eastern Europe feed was launched for the  CIS and Baltic countries. Fox Kids Europe became a publicly-traded company in November 1999 with Fox Family Worldwide holding a 75.7% majority stake and the other 24.3% being listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. In 2000, 5 additional Fox Kids feeds launched: Italy, Turkey, Germany, Hungary and the Middle East. These launches made Fox Kids the only children's entertainment company with a local channel in every major European market. In February 2001, a Fox Kids feed was launched in Israel, while the Hungarian feed was extended to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while launching in Russia as a  programming block on free-to-air channel Ren TV. In June 2001 Fox Kids Europe announced that the Fox Kids brand had become the most widely distributed children's channel in Europe and the Middle East, reaching 24.9 million households and broadcasting in 54 countries via 11 channel feeds in 16 languages. In October 2001, Fox Kids Europe's major owner Fox Family Worldwide was purchased by The Walt Disney Company and renamed ABC Family Worldwide Inc. Fox Kids would later launch a syndicated block for several local stations in Italy. In November 2001, a Greek service was launched with  limited 13 hours following a 2-hour block launched in October. In December 2002, the company signed with BMG Europe for two Fox Kids Hits music compilation albums per year for 10 European markets. In July 2003, Fox Kids Europe launched a VOD channel on Telewest titled Fox Kids Play. The name was eventually used for a sister channel under the same name. by 2003, Fox Kids Europe had extended to 34.8 million households in 57 countries via 12 channel feeds in 17 languages. In October 2003, it was announced that John de Mol Jr. had purchased a 5.1% stake  in Fox Kids Europe. This stake was later expanded to 10.2%. Jetix Europe. During the Jetix rebranding, Fox Kids channels across Europe started to introduce Jetix branded blocks. The UK feed added a Jetix-branded block in April. Fox Kids blocks across the worlds started to change over in April and the first channel in France was changed over in August 2004. Fox Kids Europe N.V. changed its legal name to Jetix Europe N.V. on 14 July 2004. In May 2005, Jetix Europe subsidiary Jetix Italia launched a male teen channel called GXT on Sky Italia SIP Animation co-produced  a few animated series with Jetix Europe during the 2000s. On March 23, 2006, the pre-1989 DIC Entertainment catalogue, consisting of 20 shows which had been held by Jetix Europe and Disney since 2001, was re-acquired by DIC. In December, John De Mol Jr.'s stake in Jetix Europe was increased to 17.4%. In 2008, Jetix Europe licensed out Jetix France to The Walt Disney Company France and Disney-ABC-ESPN Television became its channel distribution partner. In February 2008, Jetix Europe was in talks to join affiliated companies, Disney Channel Europe, ESPN Europe and Disney–ABC International Television  (DAIT), in their combined distribution sales unit. In June, Jetix Europe agreed to have DAIT take over distribution sales for all channels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In November, the Central and Eastern European channel team won gold in the U.K. Promax Awards for Jetix Max idents. Full purchase by The Walt Disney Company. On 8 December 2008, Disney made an agreement to increase ownership in Jetix Europe to 96%, with intentions to purchase the remainder and have Jetix Europe delisted from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. By 2009, Disney had owned 99.8% of the company. In 2009, K2  became a TV channel. With full Disney control over Jetix Europe, Disney indicated in February 2009 that Jetix blocks and channels would be switched over to Disney branding starting with the Jetix France channel with Disney XD on 1 April 2009. Jetix Italy management agreed to purchase the Jetix Italy company, renamed as Switchover Media, GXT and K2 from Jetix Europe in July 2009 while managing the Jetix Italy channel unit it re-brands as Disney XD in the fall. Disney XD was expected to be rolled out to European territories in 2009. Later, however, Disney announced that the Jetix  channel in certain countries (Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Bulgaria and Israel) will be renamed to Disney Channel, marking that channel's first introduction in these countries. The change took place on September 19, 2009 in the CEE region. On September 19, 2009, Disney Channel replaced Jetix in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. But the Russian feed was still broadcasting under the Jetix name until it was announced that a separate Disney Channel would launch. After the launch of Disney Channel in Romania and Bulgaria, the Jetix feed in Russia began to be independent and got  localized, with Russian titlecards and banners with Russian hours. The last Jetix channel to switch over to Disney XD was the Dutch version on 1 January 2010. The last Jetix channel to close was the Russian version, which was rebranded as Disney Channel on Tuesday, August 10, 2010. The Jetix Play channels soon followed suit in 2010/2011, being replaced with Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior. Remnants of Jetix Europe continued until around 2012-2014 to wind down operations and as a overhang period to fully integrate Jetix into Disney. European Disney XD co-productions such as Rekkit Rabbit and have the  Disney XD logo in the credits, but "Jetix Europe Properties SARL, Luxembourg, Zurich Branch" is credited underneath. As a legal entity, the UK subsidiary (which was mostly responsible for the operational side of Jetix) ceased to exist on 11 March 2019. However, other UK-based Jetix divisions, Jetix Entertainment Ltd and Jetix Consumer Products Ltd continued to exist until 20 April 2014, although by then Jetix's functions were already integrated into Disney. The Dutch subsidiary which mostly handled the corporate side of Jetix had its final shareholders meeting on 22 March 2012. Co-commissioned and produced shows. Licensed Shows . Other than their own co-produced shows, Jetix Europe also licensed the pay TV, free TV, home video, merchandising, and consumer product rights to other animated programs in Europe and the Middle East. Buena Vista International Television handled TV distribution to these shows.