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Disney Junior is an American digital cable and satellite television network that is owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit of the Disney–ABC Television Group, itself a unit of the Disney Media Networks division of the The Walt Disney Company. Aimed mainly at children between 2 and 7 years of age, its programming consists of original first-run television series, theatrically-released and made-for-DVD movies and select other third-party programming.
Disney Junior also lends its name to a morning and early afternoon program block seen on sister network Disney Channel, branded as "Disney Junior on Disney Channel", airing Mondays through Fridays from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (6:00 to 10:30 a.m. during the summer months and designated school break periods) and weekends from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time.
The Walt Disney Company first attempted to launch a 24-hour cable channel for preschoolers in the United States in 2001,[1] when the company announced plans to launch the Playhouse Disney Channel, a television offshoot of Disney Channel's daytime programming block Playhouse Disney, which debuted on the channel on May 8, 1997 (airing during the morning hours seven days a week, with the Monday through Friday blocks lasting until the early afternoon). Plans for the United States network were ultimately shelved, however dedicated Playhouse Disney Channels were launched in other countries internationally.[2]
The development of Disney Junior began on May 26, 2010, when Disney-ABC Television Group announced the launch of the channel as a digital cable and satellite service, which would compete with other cable channels targeted primarily at preschool-aged children such as Nick Jr., Qubo and PBS Kids Sprout; in addition, the Playhouse Disney block on Disney Channel would also be renamed under the Disney Junior banner, prior to the launch of the channel of the same name. The announcement also called for the 22 existing programming blocks and cable channels outside of the United States bearing the Playhouse Disney name being rebranded as Disney Junior.[3]
The flagship cable channel in the United States intended to replace Soapnet, a Disney-owned cable channel featuring daytime soap operas seen on the major broadcast networks (including sister network ABC) and reruns of former primetime drama series, due to the continued decline in popularity and quantity of soap operas on broadcast television, along the growth of video on demand services (including the online streaming availability for soap operas) and digital video recorders that negated the need for a linear channel devoted to the genre.[2]
Disney Junior first launched as a programming block on the Disney Channel on February 14, 2011. With the discontinuance of Playhouse Disney the day prior, the block's mascots Ooh and Aah were retired and some programs featured on the block (such as My Friends Tigger and Pooh) were dropped from Disney Channel's schedule entirely.[4]
The Disney Junior channel was originally slated to debut in January 2012, but on July 28, 2011, the Disney-ABC Television Group pushed back the launch date from January to an unspecified date in late spring 2012,[5] then setting the channel's launch date to February. On January 9, 2012, Disney-ABC Television Group announced that Soapnet's shutdown date for most providers was scheduled for March 22, 2012. Disney Junior's 24-hour cable channel counterpart officially launched the following day on March 23,[6] at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Mickey's Big Surprise" as the first program to air on the channel. Programming featured on the channel's initial lineup included Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and freshman original series Doc McStuffins; the channel also launched a new short-form series A Poem Is… as well as the weekend movie block, the Magical World of Disney Junior.[4]
Though it in effect took over the channel space held by Soapnet, an automated feed of that channel continued to exist for providers that had not yet reached agreements to carry Disney Junior (similar to other automated channel feeds that continued to operate during the transitions of Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids to TeenNick and Fox Reality Channel to Nat Geo Wild), or held out so as to not lose subscribers due to the immediate loss of that network. These included some providers such as Cox Communications, Cablevision, DirecTV and Verizon FiOS, which continued to carry Soapnet while having added the Disney Junior channel onto their channel lineups in turn.[6][7] Soapnet's operations continued sixteen months later than had been originally planned, until the network officially shut down on December 31, 2013 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time.[8]
On June 21, 2014, Disney Junior began programming the first two hours of Univision's three-hour Saturday morning children's block Planeta U, as part of a sub-block called "Disney Junior en Univision", featuring Spanish dubs of the network's original series (beginning with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny, the latter program's dub of which includes basic instruction of words and phrases in English instead of in Spanish, as with the English version).[9][10]
Since its launch, Disney Junior became initially available to subscribers of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS;[11] Other providers would sign carriage agreements to run the network following its launch:
Programming on the Disney Junior channel includes original series (such as Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First), shows formerly seen on the now-defunct Playhouse Disney block (such as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny and Special Agent Oso) – including some that also air on the companion Disney Channel morning block and short-form series, as well as reruns of some older animated series that had previously been seen on sister network ABC, CBS (made prior to 1996) and programs from Disney Channel and Toon Disney, which are aired by the channel by popular demand (especially during the overnight graveyard slots).[19]
The network also airs classic animated films that were released theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (including Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar), along with Disney's direct-to-video sequels and original preschool projects with movie-length features, under two brandings: The Magical World of Disney Junior on weekends, and the more generalized Disney Junior Movie at most other times, which features a broader selection of films.
Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Canada
Disney Junior, DHX Media, TVOKids, Canada, FremantleMedia
Babar the Elephant, Canada, France, Disney Junior, Nelvana