History of Disney Channel facts for kids

This is the story of Disney Channel, a popular TV network that's part of The Walt Disney Company. It's been around for a long time, bringing fun shows and movies to families and kids all over the world!

How Disney Channel Started (1977–1983)

The idea for a Disney TV channel first came up in 1977. An executive named Jim Jimirro thought it would be great to have a cable network showing Disney movies and shows. However, at the time, Disney was busy building Epcot Center at Walt Disney World, so the idea was put on hold. Instead, Disney made a deal with HBO to show some of their films and cartoons.

But the idea for a Disney channel came back in 1981. Disney almost teamed up with another company called Group W, but they couldn't agree on how the channel would be run. So, Disney decided to create the channel all by itself!

Under the leadership of its first president, Alan Wagner, Disney officially announced their new family-friendly cable channel in early 1983. They spent money to get space on a satellite and create new shows. The goal was to make a special TV service just for families.

Early Years as a Premium Channel (1983–1990)

The first Disney Channel logo from 1983-1997

Disney Channel officially launched on April 18, 1983, at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The very first show was Good Morning, Mickey!, which featured classic Disney cartoons. When it first started, the channel aired for 16 hours a day. By the end of 1983, over 600,000 homes in the United States could watch it!

Subscribers to the channel received a magazine called The Disney Channel Magazine. It listed all the shows and movies coming up and had fun stories about them. This magazine was later replaced in 1997.

Disney Channel often offered free previews so people could try it out. In April 1984, the channel started airing for 18 hours a day, and by December 1, 1986, it was broadcasting 24 hours a day!

By September 1983, Disney Channel was available across all 50 U.S. states. In October 1983, it showed its first movie made just for cable, Tiger Town, which even won an award! The classic animated film Alice in Wonderland premiered on the channel in January 1984. By 1985, the channel had 1.75 million subscribers and was making a profit.

In August 1989, the channel started a special series called The Disney Channel Salutes The American Teacher, which later led to the American Teacher Awards. By January 1990, Disney Channel had about five million subscribers. That same year, it won its first Daytime Emmy Awards for movies and specials like Looking for Miracles and Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme.

Becoming a Hybrid Channel (1990–1997)

In 1990, some cable companies started offering Disney Channel as a basic cable service, meaning more people could watch it without paying an extra fee. This was a test, and more companies followed. Even though it was becoming more widely available, Disney said the channel wasn't planning to show commercials yet. It was part of a "hybrid" plan, allowing cable providers to offer it as either a premium or basic channel.

By 1992, about a third of the channel's viewers were adults without children. By 1995, 15 million homes could watch Disney Channel. In March 1995, the first international Disney Channel launched in Taiwan.

In 1996, Anne Sweeney became the president of Disney Channel. That September, the channel started showing a movie every night in primetime, including the cable premiere of The Lion King.

The Big Relaunch (1997–2002)

On April 6, 1997, Disney Channel changed its look and shortened its name to just "Disney Channel." It also got a new logo that looked like a Mickey ear-shaped TV set. This new look came out with the cable premiere of Pocahontas.

The channel continued to move from being a premium service to a basic cable channel. It started focusing more on kids, showing fewer older films and more music programming for pre-teens and teenagers.

Even though it was becoming a basic channel, Disney Channel still offered free previews for a few years. It also started airing short promotions for its own shows and Disney movies. By March 1998, 35 million homes could watch the channel.

Disney Channel created three special programming blocks:

• Playhouse Disney (started May 1997): This block was for preschoolers, with popular shows like Bear in the Big Blue House.
• Vault Disney (started September 1997): This block, shown on Sundays, featured older Disney shows like Zorro and The Mickey Mouse Club, plus classic movies.
• Zoog Disney (started August 1998): This was for pre-teens and teens, featuring original shows. It had cool robot-alien characters called "Zoogs" that encouraged viewers to interact online.

More original shows started appearing, like Flash Forward, The Famous Jett Jackson (1998), and So Weird (1999). In the early 2000s, hits like Lizzie McGuire (which helped Hilary Duff become a music star) and Even Stevens (which launched Shia LaBeouf's career) premiered.

By 2001, about 70 million homes could watch Disney Channel. The channel stopped showing music videos from outside artists and instead featured music from Disney's own record labels. In 2001, its first original animated series, The Proud Family, debuted. The next year, Kim Possible became a big animated hit.

The Peak Years (2002–2007)

Disney Channel's headquarters in Burbank, California, in the 2000s

By 2002, Disney Channel was available in 80 million homes. In September 2002, the "Zoog" brand was removed from the channel, and the "Vault Disney" block was replaced with repeats of current shows. This meant Disney Channel focused almost entirely on kids' programming, with movies in primetime being the main exception for families.

On October 7, 2002, Disney Channel introduced a new logo with an outline of Mickey Mouse's head. They also started using special on-screen "bumpers" where actors from their shows would draw the logo with a magic wand. Playhouse Disney was the only original block that remained (it later became Disney Junior in 2011). Around this time, many Disney Channel shows also started airing on ABC's Saturday morning block.

In 2004, Anne Sweeney became president of Disney–ABC Television Group. She helped make Disney Channel a huge success by finding and promoting young music stars, like those who became popular through the channel's shows and movies.

In 2003, Disney Channel premiered its first-ever musical movie, The Cheetah Girls, which was watched by 84 million people worldwide! In 2005, That's So Raven (which started in 2003) became the channel's most popular series. It was the first original show to run for more than 65 episodes, breaking an old rule. That's So Raven eventually reached 100 episodes and even got a spin-off show called Cory in the House. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody also became a big hit in March 2005.

The success of The Cheetah Girls led to more music-themed shows and movies. In 2006, the hit movie High School Musical premiered, and the series Hannah Montana launched, making Miley Cyrus a huge star. That year also saw the first big crossover event, That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, combining characters from That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and Hannah Montana.

Focus on Original Series (2007–2013)

In 2007, Disney Channel started focusing even more on its own original shows, especially live-action sitcoms for teens. They moved new episodes of popular shows to primetime on weekends. Despite this, the animated series Phineas and Ferb debuted in 2007 and was the first original animated show to be broadcast in high-definition. In March 2008, Disney Channel launched a high-definition version of the network.

Other popular shows that premiered were Cory in the House and Wizards of Waverly Place (2007), which became Disney Channel's longest-running original series with 106 episodes. High School Musical 2 premiered in August 2007 and became the highest-rated non-sports program in basic cable history, with 17.2 million viewers!

In 2008, The Suite Life on Deck (a spin-off of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) premiered and became the #1 show for kids aged 6-12. Two more music-based movies, Camp Rock and The Cheetah Girls: One World, also came out.

Building on the popularity of the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato from Camp Rock, two new series starring them premiered in 2009: Jonas and Sonny with a Chance. The movie Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie also debuted in August 2009, becoming the second highest-rated original movie premiere in Disney Channel's history with 11.4 million viewers. A big crossover special called Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana also brought in 9.1 million viewers.

In 2010, Good Luck Charlie debuted as Disney Channel's first original sitcom aimed at family audiences. Fish Hooks and Shake It Up also premiered. That year also saw the movie Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. In November 2010, Disney Channel began offering a Spanish-language audio option.

Hannah Montana and The Suite Life on Deck both ended in 2011. Sonny with a Chance was changed to So Random! after Demi Lovato decided to focus on her music. Other new series in 2011 included A.N.T. Farm, Jessie, and Austin & Ally, along with popular movies like Lemonade Mouth.

In 2012, Disney Channel became the highest-rated cable channel in the U.S., ending Nickelodeon's 17-year run at the top! Disney also announced that by 2015, it would stop advertising unhealthy food and drink products to children on its channels. New movies like Frenemies (film), Radio Rebel, and Let It Shine premiered. The animated series Gravity Falls and the sitcom Dog with a Blog also debuted.

In July 2012, Disney Channel started providing audio descriptions for visually impaired viewers, making shows more accessible. In 2013, Disney Channel announced a special crossover with Marvel Entertainment (which Disney bought in 2009) called Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, featuring characters from both worlds. A new animated series, Wander Over Yonder, also premiered.

New Shows and Movies (2014–2016)

In 2014, Disney Channel announced that Gravity Falls and Wander Over Yonder would also air on Disney XD. The channel also stopped showing older Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts, replacing them with the newer Mickey Mouse short series.

New series in 2014 included I Didn't Do It and the Boy Meets World spin-off Girl Meets World. Popular movies like Cloud 9, Zapped, and How to Build a Better Boy also premiered. Zapped was the highest-rated movie that year.

In 2015, four new movies premiered: Bad Hair Day, Teen Beach 2, Descendants, and Invisible Sister. Descendants was a huge hit, watched by 6.6 million people on its first night! Several series also ended in 2015, including A.N.T. Farm, Phineas and Ferb, Dog with a Blog, I Didn't Do It, and Jessie. New series that started in 2015 were K.C. Undercover, Best Friends Whenever, and the Jessie spin-off Bunk'd.

In January 2016, Austin and Ally aired its final episodes. Disney Channel also acquired new shows like Mako Mermaids and Backstage.

On February 14, 2016, during the premiere of the movie Frozen, Disney Channel showed a preview of Stuck in the Middle. This was the first Disney Channel series where all the main characters were Hispanic.

On June 24, 2016, Disney Channel premiered its 100th Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), Adventures in Babysitting. Before this, the channel celebrated with a big marathon of 51 popular DCOMs! A new series called Bizaardvark also premiered.

Return of Animated Series (2016–2019)

On July 22, 2016, Disney premiered the animated series Elena of Avalor, a spin-off of the Disney Junior series Sofia the First. This was the first long-form original cartoon on the network since 2013. A new live-action series called Andi Mack was announced, which would be the first on the network to focus on Asian American characters. Disney Channel also acquired the TV rights to The ZhuZhus.

The Lodge premiered on Disney Channel UK and Ireland in September 2016 and became their highest-rated series premiere in four years.

2017 saw several series finales, including Girl Meets World, Best Friends Whenever, and Liv and Maddie. New animated shows like Tangled: The Series (based on the movie Tangled) and Hotel Transylvania: The Series (based on the movie Hotel Transylvania) premiered. The That's So Raven spin-off Raven's Home also debuted in July 2017.

2018 marked a big return for animated programming on Disney Channel. The network ordered new shows like Amphibia and The Owl House. Also, shows from Disney XD like DuckTales, Big Hero 6: The Series, and Big City Greens started airing on Disney Channel. The channel also brought back a revival of Bug Juice called Bug Juice: My Adventures at Camp.

More new shows and renewals continued into 2019, including Star Wars Resistance, Coop & Cami Ask the World, a fourth season of Bunk'd, Sydney to the Max, Fast Layne, and Just Roll with It. Animated series like Go Away, Unicorn!, Sadie Sparks, and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir also joined the lineup.

Back to Commercial-Free (2020-Present)

Starting January 6, 2020, Disney Channel went completely commercial-free on weeknights and weekend mornings. This meant fewer ads and more continuous programming.

In 2020, Disney Channel saw a decrease in viewers because of the success of Disney+, the streaming service. This led to some Disney Channels closing down in other parts of the world, but the U.S. channel remained.

January 15, 2021, was a special day as Bunk'd became the first Disney Channel Original Series to reach a fifth season. It also marked the premiere of Disney Channel's first horror series, Secrets of Sulphur Springs.