Disney Channel (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)

Disney Channel is a European-managed pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a unit of the Direct-to-Consumer & International division of The Walt Disney Company. It currently broadcasts in all ex-Yugoslav countries (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo), Albania, Greece, the Middle East and Africa.

Disney Channel
(Southeast Europe, Middle East and Africa)
Launched2 April 1997 (1997-04-02)
Owned byDisney Channels Worldwide
(Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International) The Walt Disney Company Africa
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
SloganThe best place to be
Find your story!
Countryex-Yugoslav countries
Greece
Middle East
Africa
LanguageEnglish
Greek
Arabic
(animated series dubbed, live-action programming subtitled in HD feed only)
Serbo-Croatian
(live-action programming subtitled only)
Slovenian
(live-action programming subtitled only)
Albanian
(live-action programming subtitled only)
HeadquartersChiswick, London Johannesburg, South Africa
Sister channel(s)Disney Junior
Disney XD
Websitewww.disney.gr
www.disneychannel.co.za
www.disneychannelme.com
Availability
Satellite
DStv (Sub-Saharan Africa)Channel 303
OSN (Middle East and North Africa)Channel 350 (HD)

It originally launched on 2 April 1997 as a Middle Eastern-only channel, but began to roll out in other countries beginning in 2005. It previously used to cover Poland and Turkey with their respective audio tracks until 2010 and 2012 respectively, when two localised feeds were launched for those countries.

History

The channel was launched on 2 April 1997 on satellite provider Orbit. At first, it was available only in English, but on 1 April 1998, a separate Arabic feed was added. Cartoons were dubbed in Arabic, while the live-action shows and most of live-action movies were subtitled. Disney Channel Middle East was then picked up by satellite provider Showtime in fall 2001. The channel featured the logos (resembling Mickey Mouse head) in two versions (the one with the channel's name written in English and the other in Arabic for each feed) until June 2003 when it adopted the 2002 US Disney Channel logo.

The channel was managed by Disney Channel Asia in Singapore until December 2004, when due to a new marketing strategy, it started to be managed from the United Kingdom. Somewhere at that time, both the Arabic and the English feed of the channel were merged. In consequence, on 3 January 2005 Disney Channel Middle East started to simulcast Disney Channel Scandinavia, including its schedule and the prints of the series and movies for this feed (modified to feature also Arabic dub credits). Then on November/December 2005 Disney Channel Scandinavia and Middle East started to add dub credits to the series and movies through subtitles.

Disney Channel Scandinavia and Middle East started gradually becoming individual feeds in 2006 starting with different rotation of films (that gets more different as the time goes by), however it didn't stop Arab satellite provider Orbit to add a Swedish audio track to the Middle Eastern feed on 16 April 2007 (that was later removed years later). The Middle Eastern feed became a Pan-European network as the channel was launched in Sub-Saharan Africa on 25 September 2006, in Poland on 2 December 2006, on Turkey on 29 April 2007, in ex-Yugoslav countries and on Greece on 7 November 2009.

In fall 2009, when the feed separation from Disney Channel Scandinavia was complete, the Middle East feed (now broadcasting in most of the EMEA region) started to share promotions and events with Disney Channel Central and Eastern Europe.

On 1 August 2010, the channel stopped broadcasting in Poland due to the launch of a localised Polish feed of Disney Channel.

On 12 January 2012, Disney Channel EMEA stopped broadcasting in Turkey with the launch of a localised Turkish feed of the network.

The channel adopted a new logo and underwent a brand design on 21 July 2014.[1] In 2015, Disney Channel EMEA switched its aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9.

In 2017, a high-definition feed of the channel was launched. An Arabic subtitle track was added for the broadcast of English-language live-action series, including credits, which is not available in the SD feed.

Programming

Former Programming

Upcoming programming
  • Disney's Fam Jam

Disney Channel Original Movie Premieres

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Upcoming
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References
  1. "Disney Channel unveils its new logo and on-air branding across Africa". mediaupdate.co.za. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
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