Toon Disney

Toon Disney is a former worldwide digital cable and satellite television channel 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 replaced by Disney XD, which has carried some programs previously seen on Toon Disney.

History

Toon Disney was launched 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 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. With five more cable operators and Americast following in the next few months. At its launch, the channel shared half of its assigned series with the Disney Channel. The channel had no advertising until viewership reach a set number. In January 1999, the first annual Pumbaa Bowl was broadcast.

Toon Disney (Scandinavia)

Toon Disney Scandinavia was a television channel broadcasting to the Nordic countries owned by The Walt Disney Company, available in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the Arab World.

It was launched on August 1, 2005 on the Canal Digital and Viasat satellite platforms, later on expanding into cable systems. Swedish cable network Com Hem added the channel on November 15.

Toon Disney Scandinavia broadcast between 6 am and 10 pm (CET) [7 am and 11 pm Finland] and featured audio tracks in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, and English. It was advertising-free and was funded mainly by subscriptions.

The Scandinavian version of Toon Disney, and its sister channel Jetix, were replaced by Disney XD on September 11, 2009.

References

Disney XD

Disney XD is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit of the Disney–ABC Television Group, itself a unit of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, its programming consists of original first-run television series, current and former original series and made-for-cable films from sister network Disney Channel, theatrically-released movies, and some live-action and animated programs from other distributors.

The channel offers an alternate Spanish language audio feed, either via a separate channel as part of a package of Spanish television networks sold by cable and satellite providers or a separate audio track accessible through the SAP option, depending on the provider.

As of February 2015, Disney XD is available to approximately 80,120,000 pay television households (68.8% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.

History

Launching

Disney XD was launched on February 13, 2009 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with the Phineas and Ferb episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together!" as its first program. The channel debuted its first original series, Aaron Stone, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time that day; the first part of the two-part premiere episode aired simultaneously on Disney XD and Disney Channel. New animated series included in the channel's initial lineup were Kid vs. Kat and Jimmy Two Shoes.