Kids TV on multichannel TV over the years

[OldSkoollCITV]

During the 90s on analogue satellite and then cable my family were overdosed with kids TV strands and channels. There just three kids channels to start with, TCC (The Children’s Channel), Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Disney Channel came later. There was also the strand on Sky One called The DJ Kat Show which gave way to the shortlived Sky One Undun block. In autumn 1997 on my North London cable operator Cable London, Challenge TV appeared on channel 28 but TCC on the same channel went the next day and the replacement kids channel on Cable London was Fox Kids.

These kids channels had pre-school programming (under 5s) on the main kids channels during day, Nickelodeon had Nick Jr, TCC had Tiny TCC which was moved to UK Living and renamed Tiny Living, Disney Channel had pre-school output that got the own branding Playhouse Disney. It was surprising that Sky One which show a lot of kids programming during the most of the 90s never dabbed into under 5s programming.

A lot of kids TV strands and channels like TCC, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Fox Kids and Sky One’s DJ Kat had in vision continuity. Only Cartoon Network didn’t have IVC.

It was the shame the Sky One Undun block which replaced DJ Kat wasn’t given the time to develop, I've would've make it into a kids/young teen version of T4 with more fun, camp shows like live action teen dramas, comedies and some Sky One shows like The Simpsons, Games World and Beverly Hills 90210 and slick live links to sit alongside the action stuff Undun had like Power Rangers.

[JAS84]

Undun was destroyed as a direct result of Fox Kids Network launching. It took the vast majority of the lineup away, including Power Rangers. As a result, from October 19th 1996, the day Fox Kids launched, the Undun branding was dropped. TCC closed down in 1997, with a few of their shows (notably the 1996 version of Dennis and Gnasher) ending up on Fox Kids as well. It was a logical replacement.

I don't think T4 existed yet - wouldn't Trouble be a better comparison?

[MatijaTelevizija]

I remember when having Disney Channel meant you were posh ? Indeed we actually were ?

[JetixFann450]

Undun was pretty interesting to me, being someone who had acquired a whole ton of Fox Kids/Jetix content, as Sky One was essentially the British Fox in format but name.

Interestingly, there was plans for TCC to turn into Fox Kids as News Corp started to take interest in taking shares (49%) but it fell through and with Sky being 40% owned by News Corp at the time, they were able to launch Fox Kids due to the close Fox relationship. Watching clips of Undun, you can see strong Fox Kids influence in it's branding.

RegularCapital's wiki actually has a bit of info as to why the 49% share fell through. Had Flextech turned TCC into Fox Kids, it would've been a different story.

[MatijaTelevizija]

Does Sky still have a 40 % share in Nickelodeon ?

[JasonB]

I remember when having Disney Channel meant you were posh ? Indeed we actually were ?

The only time I got to see the Disney Channel was when they went unscrambled during their freebie weekends.

[OldSkoollCITV]

I don't think T4 existed yet - wouldn't Trouble be a better comparison?

I get it now, what I would've done Sky One Undun had it given more time to develop is made into kids/young teen version of what Trouble and later T4 was know for.

[IdentFan101]

Remember Nickelodeon did CBBC on Nickelodeon before the CBBC Channel became the thing?

[RegularCapital]

Does Sky still have a 40 % share in Nickelodeon ?

Yes, Sky still owns 40% of Nickelodeon UK Ltd. and 25% of the Paramount UK Partnership (Comedy Central).

https://static.skyassets.com/contentstac...o,-245,382

https://find-and-update.company-informat...ng-history

Undun was pretty interesting to me, being someone who had acquired a whole ton of Fox Kids/Jetix content, as Sky One was essentially the British Fox in format but name.

Interestingly, there was plans for TCC to turn into Fox Kids as News Corp started to take interest in taking shares (49%) but it fell through and with Sky being 40% owned by News Corp at the time, they were able to launch Fox Kids due to the close Fox relationship. Watching clips of Undun, you can see strong Fox Kids influence in it's branding.

RegularCapital's wiki actually has a bit of info as to why the 49% share fell through. Had Flextech turned TCC into Fox Kids, it would've been a different story.

Sky One still aired some kids shows later on (they were lucky with some of their acquisitions such as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!), but nothing on the scale of Undun. As for Fox Kids trying to buy TCC or buying a stake in the channel, Fox Kids also bought Minimax in Spain around that time. TCC had such a strange death (especially considering it lasted longer in Scandinavia and Cable and Wireless continued carriage for a short while), that was another thing I've wrote about on the wiki, as I've unearthed a few things about was going on back then. https://regularcapital-audiovisual-resea...ed_in_1998

I remember when having Disney Channel meant you were posh ? Indeed we actually were ?

Yeah, you either had to have Sky's Movie package or pay for Disney Channel as a standalone package, although the standalone option came later after several complaints were made to the ITC (now Ofcom). Everyone else had to settle with Diggit (or before Diggit existed, Wake Up in the Wild Room and The Disney Club) on GMTV. https://www.telecompaper.com/news/itc-su...el--113779

I had Disney Channel on a few occasions during its premium era, that was either when we had Sky Movies or those free weekends Disney used to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHfAGTHGR5M

I just see Disney+ as Disney's pay-TV offering becoming fully premium again. In 2006, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney became basic channels, but the movies (and some cartoons as Toon Disney also closed) moved to Disney Cinemagic which was premium, then Cinemagic closed and Sky Movies Disney launched. One way or the other, you still had to pay extra to see all of Disney's offering on TV.

[MatijaTelevizija]

Does Sky still have a 40 % share in Nickelodeon ?

Yes, Sky still owns 40% of Nickelodeon UK Ltd. and 25% of the Paramount UK Partnership (Comedy Central).

https://static.skyassets.com/contentstac...o,-245,382

https://find-and-update.company-informat...ng-history

Undun was pretty interesting to me, being someone who had acquired a whole ton of Fox Kids/Jetix content, as Sky One was essentially the British Fox in format but name.

Interestingly, there was plans for TCC to turn into Fox Kids as News Corp started to take interest in taking shares (49%) but it fell through and with Sky being 40% owned by News Corp at the time, they were able to launch Fox Kids due to the close Fox relationship. Watching clips of Undun, you can see strong Fox Kids influence in it's branding.

RegularCapital's wiki actually has a bit of info as to why the 49% share fell through. Had Flextech turned TCC into Fox Kids, it would've been a different story.

Sky One still aired some kids shows later on (they were lucky with some of their acquisitions such as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!), but nothing on the scale of Undun. As for Fox Kids trying to buy TCC or buying a stake in the channel, Fox Kids also bought Minimax in Spain around that time. TCC had such a strange death (especially considering it lasted longer in Scandinavia and Cable and Wireless continued carriage for a short while), that was another thing I've wrote about on the wiki, as I've unearthed a few things about was going on back then. https://regularcapital-audiovisual-resea...ed_in_1998

I remember when having Disney Channel meant you were posh ? Indeed we actually were ?

Yeah, you either had to have Sky's Movie package or pay for Disney Channel as a standalone package, although the standalone option came later after several complaints were made to the ITC (now Ofcom). Everyone else had to settle with Diggit (or before Diggit existed, Wake Up in the Wild Room and The Disney Club) on GMTV. https://www.telecompaper.com/news/itc-su...el--113779

I had Disney Channel on a few occasions during its premium era, that was either when we had Sky Movies or those free weekends Disney used to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHfAGTHGR5M

I just see Disney+ as Disney's pay-TV offering becoming fully premium again. In 2006, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney became basic channels, but the movies (and some cartoons as Toon Disney also closed) moved to Disney Cinemagic which was premium, then Cinemagic closed and Sky Movies Disney launched. One way or the other, you still had to pay extra to see all of Disney's offering on TV.

Ah , I remember Disney went to the normal childrens package on my son’s 3rd birthday , when I forgot to get him a present for , so we just watched Cinemagic all day ?

[DJ Dave]

Didn't TCC become Trouble? I remember Tiny TCC with Tiny and Crew who then went off to UK Living for a bit was it was called back then. In our house we only get the Disney Channel when you had the free weekends.

I remember Nick doing Watch your own week or watch your own Wednesday and my mate use to get fed up as Sabrina would always win if she was in the vote also Nick AM with Rick Adams and later Mike McClean.

[JAS84]

No, it didn't. Trouble actually launched on Bravo's frequency a few months before TCC closed down.

[samfox]

I remember Nick doing Watch your own week or watch your own Wednesday and my mate use to get fed up as Sabrina would always win if she was in the vote also Nick AM with Rick Adams and later Mike McClean.

Ah yes I remember Cartoon Network doing similar things with “Flintstone Week” and “Scooby Doo Week” during the summer holidays. I actually found it really annoying back then limiting the schedule to just one show, I presume they had their reasons, but part of me feels it was just lazy programming or a way to delay their license start date on new programmes and acquisitions to the “back to school” / autumn half term periods.

[IdentFan101]

I remember Nick doing Watch your own week or watch your own Wednesday and my mate use to get fed up as Sabrina would always win if she was in the vote also Nick AM with Rick Adams and later Mike McClean.

Ah yes I remember Cartoon Network doing similar things with “Flintstone Week” and “Scooby Doo Week” during the summer holidays. I actually found it really annoying back then limiting the schedule to just one show, I presume they had their reasons, but part of me feels it was just lazy programming or a way to delay their license start date on new programmes and acquisitions to the “back to school” / autumn half term periods.

Boomerang Europe did something similar called "History Or Mystery".
https://youtu.be/3YduXLeoBqw

[Kunst]

Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney, went to basic packages (even in most of Western Europe) in 2006, on the same week Toon Disney was shut down, and all the premium content went to a relaunched Disney Cinemagic.

Inevitable, Disney needed to be a more general channel, too bad Disney Channel was a quite bare-boned channel by back then (it actually improved in the later years, although it also went down before shutting down), repeating the same tween content almost all the time (including popular Recess, which was also on Cinemagic), with only some two classic programs at around 1pm weekdays, mainly Smart Guy and the less popular and short Teen Angel! The very popular Boy Meets World was dropped..

But there also was a quality problem, the tween programmes were mainly sitcoms by back then, and the quality wasn't great either: things like Suite Life and Hannah Montana were decent at best
They proved to be popular though, but the worst thing is that everything on Disney Channel was about celebrities or people about trying to be famous (including promotions), as it was the only thing worth in people's lives