Jetix Europe N.V. (formerly known as Fox Kids Europe N.V.) was a European television broadcasting company that owned children's television channels and programming blocks across the Europe and Middle East, such as Jetix and Jetix Play.[6]
In September 1995, Fox Broadcasting Company and Saban Entertainment announced they had formed a strategic partnership in the creation of children's programming networks worldwide under the Fox Kids umberella. The networks would capitalize on Saban's library and Fox-parent News Corp.’s distribution strength.[7] The venture launched their first international Fox Kids Network branded channel in the United Kingdom on October 19, 1996.[8]
After the successful launch of Fox Kids UK, five additional Fox Kids networks were launched between 1997 and 1999 for the Netherlands, France, Poland, Scandinavia and Spain.
On April 1, 1999, the Central & Eastern Europe feed was launched for the CIS and Baltic countries.[9]
Fox Kids Europe became a publicly traded company in November 1999 with Fox Family Worldwide holding a 75.7% majority stake and the other 24.3% being listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
In 2000, five additional Fox Kids feeds launched: Italy, Turkey, Germany, Hungary and the Middle East. These launches made Fox Kids the only children's entertainment company with a local channel in every major European market.
In late 2000, Saban Entertainment reconsolidated their European licensing subsidiary based in the United Kingdom, Saban Consumer Products Europe, as a subsidiary of Fox Kids Europe.[10]
In February 2001, a Fox Kids feed was launched in Israel, while the Hungarian feed was extended to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while launching in Russia as a programming block on free-to-air channel Ren TV. In June 2001 Fox Kids Europe announced that the Fox Kids brand had become the most widely distributed children's channel in Europe and the Middle East, reaching 24.9 million households and broadcasting in 54 countries via 11 channel feeds in 16 languages.
In the summer of 2001, the Italian Fox Kids channel launched a syndicated block for several local stations in Italy.[11]
On July 23, 2001, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company would purchase Fox Family Worldwide for $2.9 billion, which included FFW's majority stake in Fox Kids Europe, which was completed on October 24, 2001[12][13][14][15] The original intention of The Walt Disney Company for the Fox Kids Europe networks after the acquisition was to rebrand all operations as Toon Disney, a channel that had very little distribution internationally[16] but this was scrapped, and the company was instead granted a non-fixed term license with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation to continue using the "Fox Kids" brand at no charge.[17]
In November 2001, a Greek service was launched with limited 13 hours following a 2-hour block launched in October.[18]
On March 21, 2002, it was announced that Buena Vista International Television would take over television servicing from Saban International for the 6,300 episode Saban catalogue in Europe and the Middle East beginning in May.[19] FKE would continuing to hold holding all television rights in Europe and the Middle East with Buena Vista servicing FKE's program distribution activities to third-party broadcasters, while Buena Vista would handle all rights to Saban's catalogue not under Fox Kids Europe including rights outside of Europe and the Middle East.[20]
In December 2002, the company signed with BMG Europe for two Fox Kids Hits music compilation albums per year for 10 European markets.[21]
In January 2003, Fox Kids Europe launched their first sister network, Fox Kids Play, in Poland.[22] The channel later extended to CEE and MENA regions, and the brand was also used for other usages, such as a VOD channel on UK cable provider Telewest.[23]
In April 2003, Saban Consumer Products Europe was renamed as Active Licensing Europe.[24]
On 11 June 2003, Fox Kids Europe announced that due to the low amount of original content being supplied following the October 2001 purchase of FFW, the company would increase the level of coproduction work with Disney to produce new programmes aimed at a young male audience that would air on Fox Kids networks in Europe and the Middle East and Disney networks in all other territories; alongside the increase of third-party acquisitions. The first agreement made out of the new strategy was a three-year deal with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment to release Power Rangers and select Marvel shows in English-speaking territories. The company's CEO Bruce Steinberg also denied that the company would be rebranded under the Disney umbrella, by saying "Fox Kids Europe won't rebrand with Disney in its name. We're very different channel and that's why Disney bought us. We'll exploit other synergies, such as coproductions, consumer products and home video." The company also announced they had purchased out Fox Kids Israel to become fully owned and purchased back Israeli rights to Saban's library, both for $20.5 million.[25]
By 2003, Fox Kids Europe had extended to 34.8 million households in 57 countries via 12 channel feeds in 17 languages. In October 2003, it was announced that John de Mol Jr. had purchased a 5.1% stake in Fox Kids Europe.[26] This stake was later expanded to 10.2%.
In January 2004, Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America and the ABC Cable Networks Group agreed to rename its then current operations under a single brand, called Jetix,[27][28] which helped strengthen its then operations into a single force. The Jetix name was chosen after the company conducted international research specifically with a number of children's focus groups. Many of the children picked the name as it implied action and adventure, and the company was able to use the name internationally due to its ambiguity. Bruce Steinberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Kids Europe, explained that Jetix would help strengthen Fox Kids Europe's partnership with Disney while building new alliances to continue to successfully leverage its programming library and distribution.[29]
The pre-launch period began with the launch of Jetix branded blocks on the Fox Kids networks which would transition to the rebrand once the name would become more familiar. The UK feed added the Jetix-branded block in April.[29] The following month saw the subsidiaries begin to adopt the Jetix brand, with Active Licensing Europe becoming Jetix Consumer Products on 4 May 2004.[30] following suit with Fox Kids Europe changing to Jetix Europe on 14 July 2004.[31]
The rebranding of the Fox Kids channels to Jetix began with the France channel's rebranding on 28 August 2004[32] and ending with the German channel's rebranding on 10 June 2005.[33]
In May 2005, Jetix Europe subsidiary Jetix Italia launched GXT on Sky Italia, targeted towards male teens.[34]
SIP Animation co-produced a few animated series with Jetix Europe during the 2000s.[35][36] On March 23, 2006, the pre-1989 DIC Entertainment catalogue, consisting of 20 shows which had been held by Jetix Europe and Disney since 2001, was re-acquired by DIC.[37] In December, John De Mol Jr.'s stake in Jetix Europe was increased to 17.4%.[38]
In 2008, Jetix Europe licensed out Jetix France to The Walt Disney Company France and Disney-ABC-ESPN Television became its channel distribution partner.[6] In February 2008, Jetix Europe was in talks to join affiliated companies, Disney Channel Europe, ESPN Europe and Disney–ABC International Television (DAIT), in their combined distribution sales unit.[39] In June, Jetix Europe agreed to have DAIT take over distribution sales for all channels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[40] In November, the Central and Eastern European channel team won gold in the U.K. Promax Awards for Jetix Max idents.[41]
On December 8, 2008, Disney made an agreement to increase ownership in Jetix Europe to 96%, with intentions to purchase the remainder and have Jetix Europe delisted from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange.[42] By 2009, Disney had owned 99.8% of the company.[43]
On 15 July 2009, Jetix Europe subsidiary Jetix Italy S.r.l. announced that they would undergo a management buyout and rebrand as Switchover Media, and announced that they would purchase the GXT and K2 networks and blocks from The Walt Disney Company. The company also agreed to operate Jetix Italy for Disney until its rebranding as Disney XD Italy.[44][45]
Disney XD was expected to be rolled out to European territories in 2009. Later, however, Disney announced that the Jetix channel in certain countries (Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Bulgaria and Israel) will be renamed to Disney Channel, marking that channel's first introduction in these countries. The change took place on September 19, 2009, in the CEE region.
On September 19, 2009, Disney Channel replaced Jetix in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. But the Russian feed was still broadcasting under the Jetix name until it was announced that a separate Disney Channel would launch. After the launch of Disney Channel in Romania and Bulgaria, the Jetix feed in Russia began to be independent and got localized, with Russian titlecards and banners with Russian hours.[18]
The last Jetix channel to switch over to Disney XD was the Dutch version on January 1, 2010.[46] The last Jetix channel to close was the Russian version, which was rebranded as Disney Channel on Tuesday, August 10, 2010. The Jetix Play channels soon followed suit in 2010/2011, being replaced with Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior.[47]
Remnants of Jetix Europe continued until around 2012 to 2014 to wind down operations and as an overhang period to fully integrate Jetix into Disney. European Disney XD co-productions such as Rekkit Rabbit contained the Disney XD logo in the credits, with "Jetix Europe Properties SARL, Luxembourg, Zurich Branch" credited underneath.[48]
As a legal entity, the UK subsidiary (which was mostly responsible for the operational side of Jetix) ceased to exist on March 11, 2019.[49] However, other UK-based Jetix divisions, Jetix Entertainment Limited and Jetix Consumer Products UK Limited existed until April 20, 2014,[50][51] although by then Jetix's functions were already integrated into Disney. The Dutch subsidiary which mostly handled the corporate side of Jetix had its final shareholders meeting on March 22, 2012.[52]
Buena Vista International Television serviced the television distribution of Jetix Europe's programmes, while the company itself handled all other rights, except for W.I.T.C.H., which was entirely handled by Disney.
These programmes are co-productions with Walt Disney Television Animation.
Other than their own co-produced shows, Jetix Europe also licensed the pay TV, free TV, home video, merchandising, and consumer product rights to other animated programs in Europe and the Middle East.