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Disney Channel (Portugal)

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Disney Channel is the Portuguese European edition of the Disney Channel. It was launched on November 28, 2001 as a premium channel, and it was later added to basic packages across all platforms becoming a basic cable channel by the end of the 2000s.

The channel is currently available on all pay-TV operators in Portugal (NOWO, MEO, NOS, Vodafone and DIGI).

On May 4, 2021, Disney Channel in Portugal finally gained an HD feed.

History[]

Disney Channel in Portugal was launched in November 28, 2001 as a premium channel exclusive to the Portuguese TV operator TV Cabo (later known as ZON and now known as NOS) and it was available at a price of 5,60 Euros per month, although the channel would also become available in other operators in the following years, with variations in terms of its pricing. The channel's opening night was marked with Toy Story at 8pm, in conjunction with its launch, a special event was held that same day at 6:30pm at Pavilhão de Portugal with the participation of Luís de Matos, and the promotional participation of Mickey and Goofy as well as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.

It share many characteristics with other international versions of the channel, like broadcasting Disney owned animated and live action series, the Playhouse Disney morning block and The Wonderful World of Disney night time block through which movies used to aired, and also became the primary home Portuguese television premieres of Disney's theatrical features.

Unlike other versions of the channel throughout Europe, Disney Channel in Portugal never had any original productions produced and made in the actual country excluding a Portuguese version of Art Attack hosted by Pedro Penim, later hosted by Salvador Nery in its revival. In addition to this, Toon Disney, Playhouse Disney, or any time shift variants of Disney Channel were never lunched as channels in Portugal likely as a result of Portugal having a significant small population compared with those of the UK, France or Spain.

A secondary Disney television channel would finally launch in Portugal as Disney Cinemagic on October 1, 2008, a premium channel dedicated to broadcasting for the most part Disney owned movies and some older Disney shows that had been discontinued from Disney Channel. It was also the first kids channel in Portugal to be available in high definition, with the HD feed launching at the beginning of 2009. Like Disney Channel, Disney Cinemagic was initially a channel exclusive to ZON, but it was eventually added to other operators. It was also around this time that Disney Channel begun to break away from its premium status and became for the most part a basic cable channel, with most of its premium characteristics, like the Portuguese television premieres of Disney films, moving to Disney Cinemagic.

However, Disney Cinemagic failed to attract enough of an audience, which lead to the channel being discontinued at the end of October 2012 and instead being replaced with a Portuguese version of Disney Jr. as a channel, which until this point was only a morning block on Disney Channel ever since it replaced Playhouse Disney on June 1, 2011. Like its predecessors, Disney Jr. was originally exclusive to ZON, but within less than a year became available on the other Portuguese TV operators, and after completing this on June 1, 2013, the Disney Jr. block on Disney Channel was discontinued entirely, due to the existence of Disney Jr. as a channel, which like Disney Channel, was mostly a basic cable channel.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese television premiere rights to subsequent Disney films, including productions from Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, were instead transferred to ZON's own set of premium channels TVCine, previously known as Canais Lusomundo. This deal would be maintained until 2020 due to the launch of Disney+ in Portugal in September of the same year, with the final film to premiere being the 2019 remake of Aladdin on December 25, 2019, with subsequent Disney releases from Toy Story 4 going forward instead premiering directly on Disney+, although releases from 20th Century Studios would still premiere on the TVCine channels until 2021. Despite this, a select amount of movies from Touchstone Pictures and 20th Century Fox/20th Century Studios do occasionally air on the TVCine channels, albeit in a much more limited capacity.

Disney XD was also another channel that was absent in Portugal, although this was more a consequence of FOX Kids/Jetix never being launched in Portugal either. Instead, certain Disney pop up channels would occasionally appear on operator MEO during certain months, being usually themed around certain content absent from Disney Channel at the time. These would eventually be transferred to NOS starting in 2021. Due to absence of Disney XD some Disney XD original shows, such as Lab Rats, Wander Over Yonder, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil would instead just air on Disney Channel, although this lead to certain shows such as Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero never being released in Portugal.

During the early 2020s, Disney Channel Portugal began to follow a release schedule much closer to that of Disney Channel Spain, with both channels often sharing premiere dates for new episodes of Disney produced shows, and with Portugal airing Disney productions from Spain, such as Flipante Noa, Clube Houdini and Alya y los Mirror. Both channels, however, still had different schedules. It was also arround this time, Disney Channel Portugal began to air movies again, after this being absent from the channel since the Autumn of 2018, excluding Disney Channel Original Movies. While a limited selection of animated movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar aired on the channel, most movie airings around this time consisted of films from DreamWorks Animation and Ilumination, likely as a result of these being also broadasted on Star Channel Portugal (previously Fox Portugal), which Disney has owned since 2019, and thus, has shared broadcasting rights across both channels.

In the wake of the shutdown of the Spanish version of the channel in January 2025, Disney announced that it wouldn't shut down the Portuguese version due to the Portuguese market being less reliant on cord-cutting than Spain. Despite this, during the first few months of 2025, Disney Channel Portugal began to replicate for the most part the schedule of its Middle East version, in particular the subfeed used for Greece and nations of the former Yugoslavia. On March 4, 2025 at 6 AM BST, Disney Channel Portugal dropped most localized bumpers and idents and began using textless versions of these, now mirroring even more its Middle East equivelent. The channel is still an idenpendent entity, as it still broadcasts movies from the DreamWorks and Ilumination catalogues. which are replaced with reruns of shows in the regions served by the Middle East version.

Audiences[]

Ever since the channel's launch, Disney Channel has always remained a very popular channel for children in Portugal. On October 2012, Disney Channel Portugal was disputed the leadership of subscription television ratings, in terms of daily average, with Canal Hollywood, finishing second for all but one week. However, it was the channel with most shows on the top 15 along the month, ranging from five to nine shows per week. At the time Disney Channel was the most watched children's channel and the 4th most watched channel in Portugal.

Even in 2021, the channel still reaches usually, on a weekly basis, the top 15 most viewed channels in Portugal, and almost always keeps its place as the most viewed children's channel in the country. The channel ended 2021 being the 15th most watched channel in Portugal.[2] The channel, however, begun to decline in ratings in the following months being usually surpassed by Cartoon Network and even Disney Jr.

Programmes[]

Current[]

Animated[]

Live-Action[]

Acquired Programming[]

  • Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Former[]

Animated[]

Live-Action[]

Acquired Programming[]

  • Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
  • Sabrina: The Animated Series
  • O Clube das Chaves
  • Floribella
  • Kid vs. Kat
  • My Babysitter's a Vampire
  • Rated A for Awesome
  • Atomic Betty
  • Rekkit Rabbit
  • Hotel Transylvania: The Series
  • Cry Babies: Magic Tears
  • Super Cute Little Babies
  • Ghostforce
  • Sadie Sparks
  • The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti

Trivia[]

  • Until May 4, 2021, this was the only Disney Channel in Europe to lack a proper HD feed.

Gallery[]

  1. ↑ https://www.meiosepublicidade.pt/2023/02/audiencias-tv-em-janeiro-sic-amplia-lideranca-na-entrada-em-2023/
  2. ↑ https://www.meiosepublicidade.pt/2022/01/2021-termina-com-a-sic-a-liderar-pelo-3o-ano-consecutivo/
Português do Brasil
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