Disney Channel is a Germanfree-to-airtelevision channel owned by The Walt Disney Company Germany, which is a European subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company Europe, Middle East & Africa. The channel is based in Munich.
Aimed at all ages, its programming consists of original first-run television series, theatrically released and original made-for-cable movies and select other third-party programming. The original programming is mainly supplied by its U.S. counterpart.
The channel was originally launched on 16 October 1999[1] as a subscription television channel on the Sky Deutschland platform. However, it was later closed down on 30 November 2013. It was relaunched as a free-to-air channel on 17 January 2014 replacing Das Vierte.[citation needed]
Walt Disney Television International opened their German offices near Munich on 1 March 1999. Disney Channel Germany was launched on 16 October 1999 as a subscription channel.[1]
Disney purchased Das Vierte (lit. The Fourth), a free-to-air TV station, in December 2012 from Dmitry Lesnevsky, a Russian media mogul, and former owner of Russia's REN-TV. In April 2013, Disney announced that Das Vierte would become Disney Channel in January 2014 as a 24-hour family entertainment network under Disney Channel's German head Lars Wagner.[3]
Evening Logo, used from 20:15 (Primetime) daily
Initial daytime programming included standard Disney channel fare Jessie, Austin & Ally, Phineas and Ferb and Gravity Falls while prime time saw Pixar films and older drawing shows like ABC Family shows plus Hallmark Channel's Cedar Cove. Disney formed an in house ad sales company, Disney Media +, for the channel given that two competitors control most ad sales companies.[4][5] The channel will also be offered on two online platforms: live-stream and a catch-up service.[4] The channel launched over the air on 17 January 2014[5] at 6 AM with the classic animated short filmSteamboat Willie.[6] Disney reported that its launch weekend pushed them past Nick in to third place among kid broadcast channels.[2]
Via the airwaves, the station had an availability to 93% of German TV households plus on two online platforms: live-stream and a catch-up service.[4]
Reception
The free-to-air Disney Channel took over the distribution channels of Das Vierte via satellite Astra 1M and cable television and was able to reach more than 28.5 million and thus 80 percent of all German television households as well as in Austria and Switzerland right from the start. In addition, in northern Germany (Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) and in the Berlin area, DVB-T is broadcast. Furthermore, in German-speaking countries there is the possibility of reception via the Internet as live streaming and via IPTV. Since March 3, 2014, the Disney Channel has also been fed into Bavaria via Kabel Deutschland's analogue cable network. The connection to the analog cable network of Kabel Deutschland in Berlin took place on June 5, 2014. The station replaced NDR Fernsehen. In addition, the transmitter is also fed into the analogue cable networks Kabel Deutschland in some regions of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
