Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Branded Television, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children aged 7–11, and older children and adolescents aged 8–15 during the Jetix programming block. A spin-off of Disney Channel, the channel's programming mostly included animated series, shorts, and features from Disney, as well as acquired programs.

History

Toon Disney was launched on April 18, 1998, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, in honor of Disney Channel's 15th anniversary by Disney Channel, Inc. on digital tiers of DirecTV, Marcus Cable, and EchoStar. The first program to air on the network was The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1940). At 7:00 p.m. ET that day, Toon Disney launched a block called "The Magical World of Toons". The block originally featured Disney animated features, specials, and shorts. Over 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 Disney Channel. The channel had no advertising until its viewership reached a set number. On January 31, 1999, the first annual Pumbaa Bowl marathon 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 June 2001, Toon Disney launched the "Most Animated Kid Search". 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 the "Toon Disney's Magical Adventure Sweepstakes" in which three winners along with 3 family members would win 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 Company in the summer of 2001, as well as some original programming. Some shows, like The Legend of Tarzan, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command aired under both the Toon Disney and Jetix monikers. The Toon Disney/Big Movie Show premiere of The Polar Express on December 22, 2006, was the channel's highest primetime rating with 1.35 million viewers. On January 27, 2007, Toon Disney launched its weekend afternoon programming block, "The Great Toon Weekend." On August 6, 2008, Disney-ABC Television Group announced they would rebrand Toon Disney in early 2009 as Disney XD, which would be aimed at kids from ages 6 and up. The final pre-Disney XD program to air on the channel was The Incredible Hulk episode "Doomed" at 11:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 12, 2009, as part of Jetix, while the first Disney XD program was the Phineas and Ferb episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together" on Friday, February 13, 2009, at midnight ET.

Programming

Blocks

International versions

In the fall of 2000, Disney launched its first overseas Toon Disney channel in the United Kingdom. The UK channel was later replaced by 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). In 2005, a Toon Disney channel was launched for the Nordic countries, and another one for Japan. A Hindi-language audio track was introduced on Toon Disney in India on September 1, 2005. After the shutdown of the US channel, the remaining channels & blocks with the Toon Disney name outside the US were relaunched as either Disney Cinemagic (in European countries only), Disney Channel, or Disney XD, with the last Toon Disney-branded channels to close being the 2 Italian channels on October 1, 2011.