Disney Channel (Russian TV channel)

Disney Channel (Канал Disney) was a Russian free-to-air family channel. It was launched on 10 August 2010, and was a local version of the Disney Channel. On 14 December 2022, the channel stopped broadcasting due to problems with content licensing.

The channel was aimed at an audience between the ages of 10 and 45. In 2021, the coverage of the Disney Channel amounted to 26 million people. On average, 1.3 million people watched the channel daily.

Broadcast of Disney products in Russia
Prior to the creation of a separate TV channel in Russia, premieres of animated series, TV series and films produced by Disney were released as part of television blocks on the «first TV button» (Programme One CT, 1st Ostankino Channel, ORT/Channel One) — "Walt Disney Presents" (1991-1992), "Disney Club" (1998-2014), "Walt Disney Classics" (2004-2007) and "The Magical World of Disney" (2007-2013), as well as on other channels RTR (1992-1998), STS (1997-2015),          REN TV (2003-2006), TV-3 (2005-2008) and Jetix (2010). Some time after the launch of the Disney channel, these blocks were closed due to the lack of need for their broadcast.

Despite the presence of its own TV channel, the All-Russian TV premieres of motion picture cartoons and Disney films are still broadcast on larger federal channels. So, in 2013-2015, the right to premiere screenings still remained with Channel One (until January 2017, the films were shown in reruns), subsequently, the STS channel became Disney's main partner in this regard. Since the fall of 2016, some action and horror films owned by Disney have been released on REN TV

Unsuccessful attempts to launch the Disney Channel
In January 2007, the idea of launching the Disney channel in Russia was hatched. It was planned to launch it in the autumn of the same year, but the launch did not take place. The second launch attempt was scheduled for early 2009, but a month later, the Federal Antimonopoly Service rejected the Walt Disney company's request to acquire 49% of the joint venture with the Russian media group Media One, created to launch the Disney channel in Russia.

1999—2004. The launch of Fox Kids and the change of ownership
In mid-February 1999, Fox Kids Europe began test broadcasting of the pan-European channel Fox Kids CEE. On 1 April 1999, Fox Kids was fully launched in Russia, the CIS and the Baltic states, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. The Russian-language dubbing was produced by Intra Communications and Cypress studios; cassettes with recordings were sent to Russia, after which the material was dubbed, and the cassettes returned back to London, broadcasting was conducted from there. During 6 months, from April to September 1999, programs were gradually translated into Russian and in a very short time, during this period some programs were released in English. Fox Kids mainly broadcast animated series, series and films from Saban Entertainment and DIC Entertainment, as well as animated series from Marvel. Until September 2009, advertisements from all countries were mixed, with a certain sound track selected, the sound of foreign advertising was played without the voice of the announcer or replaced with a melody. The TV channel held events: Fox Kids Cup and Fox Kids Planet Live, after the rebranding, were called Jetix Cup and Jetix Kids Awards, respectively.

From 2001 to March 2004 there was a joint broadcast between Fox Kids CEE and Fox Kids ME (version for Turkey and the Middle East). During this period, the block "Cinema Fox Kids" (later "Cinema Jetix") appeared, mainly the block included films from Saban Entertainment.

On 23 July 2001, The Walt Disney Company announced the acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide and Saban Entertainment. The deal was completed in October 2001, and Disney also received a controlling stake in Fox Kids Europe (75%), the remaining 25% were listed on the Amsterdam Euronext stock exchange. In 2002, Telco Media became the distributor of the TV channel in Russia and the CIS, which distributed the channel to operators and was responsible for marketing.

Since March 2004, ESPN Classic Sports began to be rebroadcast in English during off-air time (from 23:00 to 8:00) (without translation into Russian and mention in print TV programs). ESPN continued broadcasting until 2006, including when the main broadcaster had already been rebranded and changed its name.

In April 2004, the "Jetix" block appeared, which showed viewers new animated series such as Sonic X and Shaman King.

In July 2004, Fox Kids Europe was renamed Jetix Europe, earlier, in March of this year, the Fox Kids channel team moved to the office of The Walt Disney Company EMEA.

2005-2010. Rebranding to Jetix, transition period
On 1 January 2005, the channel was rebranded; Fox Kids was renamed Jetix. There were no radical changes in the broadcast schedule, programs from Fox Kids were still shown along with new ones such as: Witch, ATOM, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, etc.

On 1 January 2006, the "Jetix Max" block appeared, lasting 3 hours. The block was designed for an older audience on the Jetix and offered viewers comedies, anime, and classic Marvel shows. The Jetix Max block was designed using footage of extreme youth sports. Channel broadcast time increased to 2:00, while the rebroadcast of ESPN Classic Sport on the Jetix frequency ceased. In April 2006, the morning archive block "Jetix Play" appeared with animated series from Saban Entertainment and DIC Entertainment.

In 2007, the block "Jetix Ninja" appeared, within the framework of which animated series were broadcast, the heroes of which were ninjas.

On 1 January 2008, the channel switched to 24-hour broadcasting.

On 8 December 2008, Disney entered into an agreement to increase its stake in Jetix Europe to 96% in order to remove the company from the Euronext listing. Since 27 February 2009, Disney has owned 99.8% of the shares of Jetix Europe.

On 19 September 2009, its own version of the channel for Russia and CIS countries appeared, operating exclusively from Moscow — Jetix Russia. The owner of the channel was The Walt Disney Company CIS, technical support was provided by the distributor Telco Media.

10 days before the closure of the channel, the Disney Channel Hour block was presented, which showed the original content of The Walt Disney Company. On 10 August 2010, at 18:00, the Jetix was replaced by the Disney Channel.

2010-2011. The beginning of the broadcast of the Disney Channel
On 31 March 2010, the Russian office of Disney officially announced the receipt of a license from Roskomnadzor for the implementation of television cable broadcasting of the Disney channel in Russia (TV series No. 15922 dated 9 March 2010, term — 5 years).

Disney Channel replaced Jetix and began broadcasting on 10 August 2010 at 18:00 with the screening of the animated film "Finding Nemo". The technical support of the channel was provided by the distributor Telco Media, an English soundtrack was also available. On 20 December 2010, the Disney Channel began broadcasting with a +2 shift. This allowed viewers in Yekaterinburg, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Tyumen and other cities of Eastern Russia to watch Disney Channel programs at the same time as in Central Russia.

Initially, the channel broadcast network copied the Eastern European version of the Disney Channel. In addition to the original Disney products and several TV series left over from Jetix ("Kid vs Kat", "Jimmy Cool", "H2O: Just Add Water" and others), the channel also broadcast programs of domestic production (The Walt Disney Company CIS), which lasted 3–4 minutes and represented news about recent Disney projects, mostly released in film distribution: "Disney 365", "Film Travelers", "In touch!", "Little super Show", "Little super News". In 2010-2012, a Russian mini-series was broadcast on the channel, created with the support of Disney and also launched on Jetix — "As the Bell Rings". Until June 2014, marathons of series and films on a certain theme were practiced on weekends or holidays, including on non—governmental holidays - Valentine's Day and Halloween.

The channel used outdated "ribbon design" for program announcements, which disappeared from TV screens in the United States and European countries since 2010-2011. Although some announcements used a new design.

From the first days of broadcasting until 2020, the channel had a block "Uznavaika" for preschool children. It represented the Russian version of "Playhouse Disney", and the same font and even letter colors were selected for the logo of the word "Uznavaika" as for the logo — the words "Playhouse" in the original version (later — for Disney Junior).

2011-2016. Broadcasting on federal frequencies, experiments with programs
On 27 October 2011, following a meeting between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the management of The Walt Disney Company and the UTV media group; Disney bought a 49% stake in the channel "Seven" in order to launch a public federal TV channel of the same name. The on-air version of the Disney Channel began broadcasting on the frequencies of "Seven" and the cable version of Disney on 31 December 2011 at 12:00 with the screening of the cartoon "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas" All operations of the channel were carried out through the legal entity LLC "7TV", the founders of which were The Walt Disney Company and UTV Holding. By the existing shift of +2, shifts of +4 and +7 have appeared. In the logo with Mickey Mouse ears, the word "Channel" has been replaced with "Канал"

During 2012, ABC—produced television series were broadcast on the channel - "No Ordinary Family", "Melissa & Joey", "8 Simple Rules", "Switched at Birth" and others.

Since mid-2013, the channel's network has undergone a number of changes. Timeslots were allocated on the air for showing cartoons produced by the Soyuzmultfilm film studio (at one time, Soviet fairy tale films) and Russian animated series and cartoons (examples are "Innovators", "Jingles"). Animated feature filmsbegan to be released in prime time in the block: in 2012-2014 — "The Golden Disney Collection", since 2014 — "Big Animation" (previously — "Big Animated Story"), there were also animated series from Pixar, 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studios, Universal, Studio Ghibli and DreamWorks Animation.

Also on the air from the same time, children's programs from independent Russian producers appeared: the TV game "Through the Mouth of a Baby" (2013-2014), resumed after a 13-year break, previously broadcast on STS in the show "This is my Child!" (2013-2016)., "Mom for 5+" (2013-2016), "Style Rules" (2013-2019), "This is my Room!" (2015-2017), "Games for a big Family" (2015-2016) and "Best Friends" (2018). At the end of all the listed programs, with the exception of the "Rules of Style", the second legal entity of the channel was indicated from 31 December 2011 — LLC "7TV".

The time for feature films and TV series on the channel began to decrease significantly from the beginning of 2014, and eventually they began to be released only at night. The reasons for this, according to the management of the Walt Disney Company CIS, are their common themes, which the channel's audience may not understand, low ratings and the deteriorating economic situation in Russia. From March 2019 to January 2020, game series were completely absent from the channel's schedule, as a result of which almost the entire airwaves were now occupied by animated series from the Disney Junior and Disney XD channels.

On 1 August 2014, as part of the worldwide rebranding of the Disney Channel, the Disney channel updated the logo and design of the program announcements, similar to the foreign versions. Screenings of the "Big Animation" began to take place daily, and the "Uznavaika" block was increased to 7 hours. The Walt Disney Company CIS inter-program projects were closed and replaced with a similar program "Everything Interesting".

2016—2022. Reorganization. The channel's withdrawal from Russia and closure
Since January 2016, after the entry into force of amendments to the law on mass media, according to which the participation of foreign capital in domestic media is limited to 20%; UTV Holding became the owner of 80% of the channel, and The Walt Disney Company remained 20%, but at the same time Disney's economic share in the business remained 49% remained the same. The compilation of the broadcast grid, the purchase of content for the show, the management of program rights, as well as dubbing, production, marketing and on-air promo was on the part of The Walt Disney Company, and UTV Holding (now Media-1) were engaged in technical support for the channel.

In the fall of 2018, the Disney channel changed the design again, as well as the animation of the logo. This time, we used our own design, which was used only on the Russian channel. The channel's logo has remained the same, although it has become a little lighter. Also, the logo has moved from the lower left to the lower right corner of the screen.

At the end of January 2020, the game series returned to the night air, and the program "Rules of Style" was removed from the air. Starting on 29 June of the same year, game series for the first time in 6 years began to be broadcast in the daytime, from Monday to Thursday. However, their schedule was periodically changed. Since 23 August 2021, the series have been completely removed from the air again.

On 1 May 2020, the "Disney Junior" block was reformatted into "Good Morning with Mickey [Доброе утро с Микки]", and its time was reduced to a timeslot from 9:00 to 11:00 (from 1 January to 8 February 2021, the broadcasting time of the block was temporarily increased to a timeslot from 8:00 to 11:0000).

On 19 July 2021, the channel switched to a 16:9 widescreen format.

On 11 March 2022, Disney announced the suspension of work in Russia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the summer of 2022, Disney finally stopped dubbing films, TV series, animated films and animated series in Russian for the Disney Channel. On 30 September of the same year, the TV channel's website ceased operations - kanal.disney.ru (redirects to the site disney.com), the channel's pages in all social networks were also deleted.

On 14 December 2022, the channel stopped broadcasting due to problems with content licensing. Also, The Walt Disney Company withdrew from the founders of the legal entity LLC "7TV". A new channel "Solntse" was launched on the frequencies of the Disney Channel, to which The Walt Disney Company has nothing to do.

Programming
Unlike other regional versions, Disney Channel Russia broadcast kids-targeted content for younger audiences. Since 2014 it primarily broadcast Disney XD and Disney Junior animated series, with some rare exceptions. Starting from 12 August 2010, Disney Channel broadcast Playhouse programming. When the block used the said brand (using the localized version of the Playhouse Disney logo), it was starting early in the morning and it was staying on air until 12:00 p.m. This also applied to the block when it used the Russian localized version of the Disney Junior logo. Every year the block was airing less time than before until it ceased using said branding on 1 May 2020.

Early programming
In the past it used to copy Eastern European Disney Channel feed, with the inclusion of former Jetix programming. This means there were primarily Disney Channel and Disney XD original live action series (Jessie, Austin & Ally, Good Luck Charlie, Lab Rats, Mighty Med, etc.) and rare animation from Disney Channel and Jetix (Phineas and Ferb, Kid vs. Kat, etc.).

2014-2019
This, however, changed with the 2014 rebranding, when the channel slowly switched to kids television animation, including Disney XD and Disney Junior animated series, like Gravity Falls, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, DuckTales, Amphibia, as live action series were faded away to the point there were no any old or new shows presented on the channel due to different family and cultural values in Russia and financial problems.

Playhouse Disney was rebranded to use Disney Junior-like logo and identity. Also, starting that year, Disney Channel Russia introduced a new evening prime time block called "Большая Анимация" ("Full-length animation", literally Great/Big Animation). It consisted of Disney's theatrical movies. The block aired every day and started in 7:30 pm daily. It was intended to be a replacement to the earlier block "Your Bright Night!" (Russian: Твой Яркий Вечер!), which broadcast Disney Channel Original Movies and was shortly removed off the air after the 2014 rebranding.

2020-2022
During the COVID-19 lockdown, live-action series returned to the network's schedule, along with Gabby Duran & the Unsittables during summer 2020.

Disney Channel Russia Original Productions

 * Boljšie semejnye igry ("The Great Family Game", Большие семейные игры)
 * Èto moj rebenok?! ("Is this my child?!", Это мой ребенок?!)
 * Èto moja komnata! ("This is my room!", Это моя комната!)
 * Mama na 5+ ("Mama 5+", Мама на 5+)
 * Pravila stilja ("Style rules", Правила стиля)
 * Posle školy ("After School", После школы)
 * Prikoly na peremenke: Novaja škola ("As the Bell Rings: A New School", Приколы на переменке. Новая школа)
 * Ustami mladenca ("The mouth of the baby", Устами младенца)