Disney Channel (Pacifican TV channel)

Disney Channel is a Pacifican television channel that is directed to kids. It is currently owned by The Walt Disney Company Pacifica, and a part of a group of channels under the company known as Disney Branded Television.

History
Before 2003, most programming from Disney Channel were on various channels depending on the language that one wanted to watch it in. The most recent English block that was available at the time was The Disney Afternoon on NTN, though it aired on Pacifvision during the 1990s. It was rebranded as Disney Club in French and Aurentian and aired on Radiodiffusion-Pacifique Télé and ATV Kids respectively. However, for English audiences, there was another option of getting the American version of Disney Channel via. cable and satellite providers across the country.

The channel launched in 2003 with English, Aurentian and French audio tracks and thus replacing Discovery Kids, which filled in the gap that The Disney Afternoon left. It would later become its own channel on Satellicom and several other pay television providers until it was once again replaced, this time by La Chaîne Disney. An unnamed programming block (later called Disney Cinemagic until its closure in 2012) took over from 9:00pm PT/8:00pm APT (though this was moved an hour later except on Friday and Saturday after 2005). A few other blocks it had at its launch include Playhouse Disney, a preschool block that aired on weekday mornings from 5:45am to 3:00pm PT (11:15am to 2:15 pm PT on weekends), Zoog Disney on Friday and Saturday nights (this would be removed after 2006), and Toon Disney on weekend mornings. The former became its own channel in 2007, while the latter two remained blocks (though Jetix aired Toon Disney programming until Disney XD was launched in the country in 2009).

To test the waters for the launch of an Ektæó specialty channel, a separate channel was launched in 2007 as Disney Channel Ektæóspretjkú. It ended up being a failure and was replaced with Playhouse Disney, but an Ektæó audio track became optional for certain audiences. On the same year, a French version launched for French-speaking audiences in Pacifica; this only applied to Disney Channel, as Playhouse Disney launched and Jetix provided French audiotracks to those regions. Once they switched to Disney Junior and Disney XD respectively, that was practiced on the former two's successors as well.

After 2008, Disney Channel began to make co-productions based off of certain programmes from other areas, including As the Bell Rings, Mère et Fille, plus a number of other shows. The French version of the channel did air and produce co-productions, albeit rarely since there was still a French audio track. Most of the time, they would simply dub it in said language.

In 2009, Disney Channel became the first childrens' network in Pacifica to be available in HD. It initially aired in 720p before it switched to 1080i or 1080p depending on the service provider.

Programming
See List of Disney Channel (Pacifica) programs for more information.

Availability
DirecTV and Télécâble Ménard were initially the sole providers of the channel until 17 December 2003, when Satellicom would later launch the channel on a premium package in Pacifica. Several other regional and national services began to launch Disney Channel between 2004 and 2008. In addition, Disney Channel was available on the Canadian version of Satellicom (this was restricted to an area as far north as Rainbow Lake, AB and as far east as Portage la Prairie, MB) from 2006 to 2011.

Disney Junior
The block was launched on the same day as Disney Channel, having inherited the same audio tracks. It aired from 5:45am to 3:00pm PT/HAT (4:45am to 2:00pm AKT/BT). The channel generally aired programmes from their American equivalent, though certain original and acquired programmes aired here as well. It rebranded itself to Disney Junior some time in 2011.