Old International Fox Kids/Jetix Channels Memorial Thread

[Francisque]

It's not like we liked it here either I came home from school most days at 16:05 so I had to hope that my favorite cartoons aired in the final two broadcasting hours (and they did, mostly).

Surely Italy also has some general TV channels that air cartoons for children before 18:00 but never after?

Nowadays?

Kids content on general entertainment channels has pretty much disappeared: but you can easily say that we have had huge similar examples in the past, especially younger skewed (or how it used to be) Italia 1, which, until 2006 (the launch of Boing would gradually move cartoons there, giving more space for more general entertainment content) had a very strong and successful children's TV block from around 15:00-16:00 to 18:00, and also in the morning: also Bim Bum Bam, as it was especially referred to until the very early 2000s

RAI2 also had similar stuff

So, yeah, thinking about it, it wasn't THAT different: however, with the launch of kids channels, companies prefer to premiere new content for children at around 6-7, even 8 at times!

Plus, weekend mornings (especially Sundays) as big highlights for kids have disappeared, just as they have in the US and the West in general

Non-PSB commercial channels are allowed an average of nine minutes of advertising per hour throughout a broadcast day (and never exceed 12 minutes in any hour), these rules have existed pre-Ofcom, since 1991 in fact, as a result of the Broadcasting Act (1990) and the European Television without Frontiers Directive (1989), and the establishment of Ofcom's predecessor, the ITC (Independent Television Commission). However, Ofcom (established in December 2003, with the Communications Act that year) allowed the newly combined regulators to be more organised, which is probably why Fox Kids became more careful.

As for Fox Kids/Jetix Greece, its likely that their broadcasting hours were short due to capacity reasons, looking at old Nova satellite records suggest that Travel Channel took the evening capacity. Nova/MultiChoice themselves distributed the channel, so I think it's more of their decision.

Yeah, I believe ITC was probably laxer at implementing the laws

I had forgotten OFCOM was only established in December 2003

However, the "30 minute law" was still there, even within ITC laws

 

[Two Two's]

For me it was also weird that Jetix Play closed down at 6pm for most of its life, while other kids channels in Poland closed at 8pm at the earliest.

By the way, here are Jetix Poland continuities from March 2008 during Jetix Max - interestingly the "Captain Flamingo" at 4:44 at the end displays a banner rather than a full-screen endpage:

Jetix Play itself couldn't sustain itself as a schedule until November 2008, when bigger changes occured to the network. I can see why they ended at 6PM

 

[Red Arrow]

So, yeah, thinking about it, it wasn't THAT different: however, with the launch of kids channels, companies prefer to premiere new content for children at around 6-7, even 8 at times!

This is quite rare here. Nearly all cartoons premiere between 15:30 and 18:00 or on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Cartoon Network EMEA/NL tried this in 2010-2013 with some more "mature" cartoons: season 1 of Adventure Time (20:45), Total Drama (often at 19:40) and season 2 of Redakai (22:15). The latter was basically a death slot. Johnny Bravo and Space Ghost Coast to Coast also had new episodes late at night on the old CN NL.

 

[Two Two's]

That reminds me of when CN UK picked up the classic Cartoon Cartoons all those years back (And Samurai Jack), they picked the more "mature" ones like Courage and Johnny Bravo.

 

[Zzman]

One question that's always in my mind is that could Jetix come back/work in the modern day? I don't mean in the US but international

 

[RegularCapital]

One question that's always in my mind is that could Jetix come back/work in the modern day? I don't mean in the US but international

I think the days of major brands launching new kids channels are over, the most to expect would be a hub or throwback FAST channel on Disney+, but so much time has passed that the Jetix brand doesn't resonate with the current generation of kids, and would practically be marketed as a new brand launch.

 

[Francisque]

Jetix is well buried, indeed, and you don't see the resurrection of past brands very often, if at all

The main children's TV brands are struggling as it is

 

[Two Two's]

Most of what you saw on international Fox Kids/Jetix isn't in circulation anymore, aside from the Marvel stuff... I think if they'd to bring back Jetix, they're gonna have to bring back the shows that MADE Jetix.

 

[Tacomaster]

Jetix Play itself couldn't sustain itself as a schedule until November 2008, when bigger changes occured to the network. I can see why they ended at 6PM

What were the changes?

 

[Two Two's]

What were the changes?

Scheduling changes including...

DIC shows removed, They lost the license and well.... They were replaced with more Fox Kids/BVS shows (i.e. Spydogs, Walter Melon, Life with Louie, Tofus and MOVIES.)

Movies was a really good addition to the network and were a welcome addition to what was a stale lineup of mostly filler of shows that had ended 10 years ago.

Jetix Play was given it's own dedicated site (probably to make space for what would become a hypothetical Disney Channel/XD site)

The hours changed and therefore, the closedown screen also changed (I remember seeing the original closedown screen of 06:00-18:00 but that's long lost now.)

 

[Moleoman]

Actually, most of shows were removed in December 2008. Meanwhile, the last old DIC shows on the channel "Dennis the Menace" and "Heathcliff" left in early April 2009, due to channel's rights to these shows expiring on April 20, 2009: ABC FAMILY WORLDWIDE INC - Securities Registration Statement (S-1/A) EXHIBIT 10.19

When DIC re-acquired non-US rights to their older series in early 2006, they allowed Jetix channels to continue broadcasts of these shows on non-exclusive basis until their original expiry dates.

 

[Two Two's]

Actually, most of shows were removed in December 2008. Meanwhile, the last old DIC shows on the channel "Dennis the Menace" and "Heathcliff" left in early April 2009, due to channel's rights to these shows expiring on April 20, 2009: ABC FAMILY WORLDWIDE INC - Securities Registration Statement (S-1/A) EXHIBIT 10.19

When DIC re-acquired non-US rights to their older series in early 2006, they allowed Jetix channels to continue broadcasts of these shows on non-exclusive basis until their original expiry dates.

Oh yes I forgot about this document, i wonder if there's one for the other BVS shows, this only lists the earlier stuff

 

[Otakuninja2006]

Jetix Europe was the place for European cartoons, I think it was very good at that job. There was a planned DC Thomson cartoon (which probably got reworked into Dennis and Gnasher 2009).

Over here in the UK, alot of Jetix Europe shows got decent ish treatment, Kid vs Kat and Jimmy Two Shoes I remember seeing all the time on the night lineup for Disney XD. The funding did help out these shows budget a bit too, a bunch of other European cartoons at that time suffered from the switch to flash animation or studios became fully preschool, so it was cool to see a channel that hosted European cartoons in their best form



Over here it aired on Toonattik and Jetix, no clue if it made the cut to DXD..


Definitely, though European animation studios are mostly preschool now so the chances of that happening is low.


Encodes don't amount to how popular a show is, case in point, pretty much every show that aired on Jetix Play. Alot of those shows aren't popular at all (Besides maybe The Kids from Room 402, I still see that show get mentioned alot of times in discourse surronding late 90s/early 2000s cartoons)

Wait, Jetix was going to make a DC Thomson cartoon? So the 2009 incarnation of Dennis and Gnasher was....supposed to be a Jetix show?

Can you show me some information?

 

[Two Two's]

Wait, Jetix was going to make a DC Thomson cartoon? So the 2009 incarnation of Dennis and Gnasher was....supposed to be a Jetix show?

Can you show me some information?

Red Kite Animation (the same studio behind Dennis and Gnasher) had worked on Marvo the Wonder Chicken for Jetix Europe, Jetix Europe was known to comission 52 shorts for shows, it wouldn't make sense to give a show a short without something....

 

[E-Scope]

The 2009 Dennis and Gnasher cartoon ended up being funded solely by the BBC and Nine Network, rather than Jetix Europe (since most of the European feeds were becoming either Disney XD or Disney Channel).

 

[Two Two's]

Alot of the Jetix Europe originally produced shows either transitioned into Disney XD shows (ergo Kid vs Kat, K-9 and Jimmy Two-Shoes) or outright scrapped... It was a matter of Disney realising "HEY! WE CAN MAKE SHOWS OURSELVES!"

 

[harry580]

I guess because jetix Europe was separate from the fox/disney thing but once disney bought the stakes in jetix Europe, disney sold the rights to the jetix Europe co produced shows back to its creators

 

[Two Two's]

I guess because jetix Europe was separate from the fox/disney thing but once disney bought the stakes in jetix Europe, disney sold the rights to the jetix Europe co produced shows back to its creators

The shows were merely funded by Jetix Europe, Pucca was tied Jetix Europe but they lost the license in the early 2010s

 

[Two Two's]

When Fox Kids UK rebranded in 1999, they actually didn't switch to Foxriders immediately. They instead used the graphics that was on the US' block around then, switching from the "klunder script era" as I call it to "fox2000"

 

[Walker]

Jetix Play continuity from 2009, featuring never before seen bumpers.

While it's perfectly normal to see a Turkish test card in Türkiye, I think it's absurd to see it in other countries. I think it could have been a screen with the Jetix Play logo directly on it. Also, does the presence of this Turkish graphics card mean that Jetix Play's broadcast center is Türkiye, and do the countries with Jetix Play receive broadcasts from Türkiye? (Apart from its headquarters being in the UK)