Toon Disney (2009 Reboot)

Toon Disney is a former American multinational pay television channel which was owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. A spin-off of the Disney Channel, the channel mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, and Nicktoons. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–Older, and children ages 6–Older during its evening block called Jetix, & 10-Older For Its's Overnight Classic Block XYZ

History
Toon Disney was launched at noon Eastern Time on April 18, 1998, in honor of Disney Channel's 15th anniversary by Disney/ABC Networks on digital tiers of DirecTV, Marcus Cable and EchoStar. The first program aired on the network was The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1940) and other Mickey Mouse shorts. At 7 PM that day, its nighttime block, "The Magical World of Toons", was launched. In the next five months, Toon Disney furthered its programming to cable subscribers such as Americast. At its launch, the channel shared half of its assigned series with the Disney Channel. The channel had no advertising until its viewership reached a set number. On January 31, 1999, the first annual Pumbaa Bowl was broadcast.

By September 2000, the channel was expected to reach 20 million subscribers, and thus, would start showing advertising. Ad sales would be handled by Disney Kids Network. In the Fall of 2000, Disney launched its first overseas Toon Disney channel in the United Kingdom.

In June 2001, Toon Disney US launched its "Most Animated Kid Search". The Santa Claus Brothers had its world premiere on the channel in December. In September 2002, eight new shows joined the line-up as part of Toon Disney's fall schedule. In commemoration of the network's fifth anniversary in April 2003, the channel held a "Toon Disney's Magical Adventure Sweepstakes" in which three winners along with 3 family members each won a trip to Disneyland Resort to see Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular.

On February 14, 2004, the Jetix programming block began on Toon Disney and ABC Family as a part of the Jetix programming alliance of ABC Networks Group, Fox Kids Europe and Fox Kids Latin America. The block consisted of the entire acquired Fox Kids/Saban Entertainment action library as the result of a bulk buy-out by The Walt Disney Company in summer 2001, as well as some original programming. Some shows, like The Legend of Tarzan, aired under both the Toon Disney and Jetix monikers. The UK channel switched over to Disney Cinemagic in March 2006.

In 2004, 4 new markets added a Toon Disney channel with three in Europe with Germany also adding a time shift channel. In December, Walt Disney Television International India launched a Toon Disney channel with three language audio tracks (English, Tamil and Telugu) at the same time as it debuted along with Disney Channel on Star TV. In 2005, a Toon Disney channel was launched for the Nordic countries, as well as another one for Japan. A Hindi-language audio track was introduced on Toon Disney in India on September 1, 2005.

The Toon Disney/Big Movie Show premiere of The Polar Express on December 22, 2006 was the channel's highest prime time rating with 1.35 million viewers. On January 27, 2007, Toon Disney launched its weekend afternoon programming block called "The Great Toon Weekend."

On August 6, 2008, Disney-ABC Television Group announced they would rebrand Toon Disney in early 2009 as Disney XD, which would be aimed at kids from ages 6 and up. Toon Disney ceased US broadcasting on February 13, 2009 (two months and five days shy of eleven years since it first started broadcasting), and was rebranded as Disney XD. Toon Disney/Jetix ran a preview night starting at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 12, 2009, the day before the network launched, the preview night included more promos about the new Disney XD shows. The final program on the channel was The Incredible Hulk, as part of Jetix. The first program to air on Disney XD was Phineas and Ferb episode ‘Dude, Were Getting The Band Back Together’ on Friday, February 13, 2009 at Midnight. After the shutdown of the US channel, the remaining channels & blocks with the Toon Disney name outside the US were relaunched as either Disney Cinemagic (in European Countries only), Disney Channel, or Disney XD over the next 2 years, 7 months, & 18 days, with the last channels with the Toon Disney name to close being the 2 Italy Channels on Saturday, October 1st, 2011, thus bringing an end to the Toon Disney era as a whole after 13 years, 5 months, & 13 days,

From February 20, 2009. The Disney/ABC Networks Agreed to Bring Back Toon Disney & Jetix In March 2009.

Toon Disney Was Launched In Canada on March 14, 2009.