Spark Animation

Spark Animation is a television channel in the Euro Republics which focuses on animated shows, usually broadcasting adult animation, anime, animated movies & world animation. It was primarily aimed at a 16-34 age demographic.

History
On 31st December 1999, Spark launched S2000, a spinoff to Spark, launched in 1990 and Spark2, another offshoot channel started in 1996.

S2000 mainly focused on men with sports, documentaries, comedy and motoring in the evenings, while daytime offered shows for female audiences with lifestyle shows, reality, drama, shopping, nature, home renevation and wellbeing programmes among the lineup.

As 2001 dawned, the channel was rebranded as Spark 3, mirroring it’s other sister network Spark 2, the channel. Spark 3 originally took a catch-up focus, allowing viewers to see the best of Spark, Spark 2 & TV3 at different times. Later on in the channel's life, a greater emphasis was put on younger audiences, which led to a new look for the channel in 2005.

On 1st February, 2011, to coincide with ET1 reshuffling their channel lineup, Spark3, despite staying on 108 rebranded as TripleSpark. The channel would now skew older, with drama (mostly from the BBC/ITV archives), documentaries & classic comedy,

In 2018, it was announced TripleSpark would be replaced in December 2018 by Spark Animation, with 24/7 animated TV shows, including the arsenal of animated shows aired on other EuroMedia networks, in addition to new original series. The network would be based on TV4’s animated block, Animation Domination which had ran since the start of 2018. All live-action programmes would be moved to the main channel and Spark 2.

Friday night 3C strand Toonattik would also air on weekday afternoons as 'Toonattik After School'.

The launch took full shape at 12am on 1st December, 2018. The final show on TripleSpark was Downton Abbey.

This gave them access to the vast variety of animated TV shows. Animation Domination Wednesday moved from Spark 2 to Spark Animation in January 2019, but went back to Spark2 in June of that year to make way for Globetoons. In March 2020, Spark Animation was rebranded with a new logo, mirroring that of it’s parent network, although the blue remained.

Spark Animation was closed on 31st December, 2021, citing low ratings and viewer interest. Most of it's programmes continued to air on FOX.

Programming
Main article: Spark Animation/Shows

Programming blocks

 * Globetoons: Launched in June 2019, Globetoons presented international animation in it's native languages.
 * The Early Years: Launched in January 2021, The Early Years launched to fill the void left by Nick Jr. Classics, taking over many of it's former programmes as EuroMedia continued to hold the rights to them following the transfer in Nick Jr's ownership to ETV. It ran from 11pm to 4am on Friday nights.