International Disney Networks Thread Part 16

[Francisque]

It's true that "new = bad, old = good" is a wrong mentality, but there definitely were times when the Disney channels (Not just the Disney channels, to be honest) had a greater variety and general quality, especially before the rise of the Internet, although with many general exceptions in both ways.

For those who watched the channel in the early 2000s in EMEA, 2006 was definitely a turning point for the general tweenisation of the channel: drop of live presentation, a growing dependence on sitcoms, less animation, more focus on creating stars than anything else.
Of course, some things were inevitable, other left a lot to be discussed

This is not to say productions like Hannah Montana were bad per se, but people only look at everything with rose-tinted glasses

Of course you can like new shows, Phineas and Ferb is one of my favorite shows ever, it's just that most of the old stuff is just as good.

Yeah, Phineas and Ferb was definitely a "good exceptions".
Even the likes of Wizards of Waverly Place weren't "bad", but I just felt like everything after 2006-7 was starting to look sameish.

Scandinavia-EMEA did that BTW because it replaced Toon Disney in both markets (although in Scandinavia it merged with Jetix)

By 2007 I was tired of Toon Disney, and had wished Cinemagic would arrive in Italy &c

 

[RandomMe]

It's true that "new = bad, old = good" is a wrong mentality, but there definitely were times when the Disney channels (Not just the Disney channels, to be honest) had a greater variety and general quality, especially before the rise of the Internet, although with many general exceptions in both ways.

For those who watched the channel in the early 2000s in EMEA, 2006 was definitely a turning point for the general tweenisation of the channel: drop of live presentation, a growing dependence on sitcoms, less animation, more focus on creating stars than anything else.
Of course, some things were inevitable, other left a lot to be discussed

This is not to say productions like Hannah Montana were bad per se, but people only look at everything with rose-tinted glasses

I will admit that by the mid-2010s I was noticing the decay of the linear channels because they had less and less variety. Little did I know that I was experiencing an industry change in the making.

 

[Markus]

We gotta look at generations though. I personally think Disney's peak was mid 10s and that's because I grew up with Jessie, Raven's Home and Bunk'd. If you watch these shows, you would probably call them at least decent. Generally most people would call the mid 2000s Disney peak.

I will say though, right now Disney Channel doen't feel as exciting as a decade ago. No one ever asked for them to remove sitcoms. It would be so much better if they would still have the sitcoms and cartoons together. But they decide to show them less than 2 hours a day. Mainly because they now target a younger demo. Only the preschool side of things look stronger. They barely have cartoon originals as well which is a problem.

I would even argue that the content in quality hasn't dropped much. If you watch Wizards Beyond, Greens and Bluey. They are some of the best shows they have.

 

[RandomMe]

Depends on what you mean by when the peak was. I mean, even older people in the USA think the peak was in the 90s

That to me is a generation gap in the making

 

[Markus]

That's because cable was still new. I'm sure in terms of shows older people would prefer much older content. Not fair to do these comparisons. What matters is that they still have good quality content. The current generation of kids will call the modern shows good and it will continue on. There is no wrong answer but people can't confidently be right as well.

 

[RegularMan]

Nobody’s watching anymore. It’s all about TikTok and Netflix. Tweens are watching stuff they have no business watching and that’s why no new content is being made. It’s a crying shame.

 

[RandomMe]

Nobody’s watching anymore. It’s all about TikTok and Netflix. Tweens are watching stuff they have no business watching and that’s why no new content is being made. It’s a crying shame.

And this inevitably causes a content crisis. An expensive tween show for linear TV would become a white elephant overnight.

 

[Markus]

A part of that has to do with TikTok but they decided to change the demo so of course you can't expect the tween audience to stay if you don't offer anything.

 

[RandomMe]

That's why kids channels don't cater tweens nowadays

 

[Markus]

But it's not entirely social media's fault. The tween ratings went down right when they suddenly decided fo go younger a few years ago.

 

[RandomMe]

Yeah, that drove in a serious demographic change.

 

[Aaron K]

Yeah, that drove in a serious demographic change.

What reason would Disney have to skew towards younger audiences if not losing their target demo? Also, with increased awareness of the...unfortunate cost of child stardom, it's kinda hard to make another Hannah Montana.

 

[Aaron K]

Scandinavia-EMEA did that BTW because it replaced Toon Disney in both markets (although in Scandinavia it merged with Jetix)

Too bad Cinemagic was never a 24/7 channel there.

 

[Aaron K]

For those who watched the channel in the early 2000s in EMEA, 2006 was definitely a turning point for the general tweenisation of the channel: drop of live presentation, a growing dependence on sitcoms, less animation, more focus on creating stars than anything else.

Yeah the decreased focus on animation is what ultimately killed TD. That channel is my version of "the thing that only existed before you were born but you wish you had growing up". Would be glad for today's kids having a Disney XD that's all animation if it weren't for the fact cable TV is dead.

 

[RandomMe]

I never knew why did Scandinavia dodge Cinemagic. Same for Italy, SKY Cinema spoke higher.

 

[Markus]

What reason would Disney have to skew towards younger audiences if not losing their target demo?

Because younger demo's viewership was getting high so they decided to switch the main demo. However tween audience would do this day still be pretty high if they at least would give some hours of sitcom programming to viewers.

Actually that's not only Disney. There are barely shows these days for tweens and teens. The only network that at least has something is AS. And necessarily doesn't have to be about sitcoms. You can even have MAWS type of shows but I also get that this particular demo is much harder to market. But they did so well in the 2010s.

I feel like just because the tween audience is going away, they shouldn't have given up too quickly. There will always be some viewers.

 

[MagiaDiWinx]

Playhouse Disney Netherlands with the US DOG.
This is a bit weird cuz I have also seen the coloured translucent one in use.

(btw that LazyTown dub was a verrrryyyyy cheap and poorly made one they just took from Ketnet - the whole show was redubbed by Boomerang later on)

What I think was the case was the coloured DOG was standard European assets, but they still needed a widescreen one and what they had to do was reach out to DC US and take the American HD feed's Playhouse DOG, hence the mismatch. Does that make sense?

And as discussed, PHD Netherlands in 2009-10 was weird because the actual Disney shows either were rights-restricted or not dubbed yet, so they aired random third-party stuff from the Jetix (which had Jetix Play as a small-kids block) archives instead.

 

[Moleoman]

What I think was the case was the coloured DOG was standard European assets, but they still needed a widescreen one and what they had to do was reach out to DC US and take the American HD feed's Playhouse DOG, hence the mismatch. Does that make sense?

The mismatch also came from the fact, that since the launch in Dutch-speaking Benelux, this region shared the same Playhouse Disney channel feed with Scandinavia.

 

[RegularMan]

The mismatch also came from the fact, that since the launch in Dutch-speaking Benelux, this region shared the same Playhouse Disney channel feed with Scandinavia.

Upto when Disney Junior was withdrawn from Scandinavia, right?

 

[MagiaDiWinx]

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