Timeline of children's television on other British TV channels
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- 1982
- 1 November – S4C launches and programming for children is included as part of its remit with its programming block named Clwb S4C.
- 2 November – Channel 4 launches and programming for children is included as part of its remit.
- 1984
- 1 September – The Children's Channel launches. It broadcasts during the daytime hours, timesharing its cable slot with evening-only services.
- 1985
- 20 July – Sky Channel launches a weekend morning children's programming block called Fun Factory.
- 1986
- 1 September – The DJ Kat Show launches on Sky Channel as a weekday children's programming block. It airs at breakfast and in the late afternoon.
- 1989
- 1990
- 26 March–2 December – As part of its five-channel offering, British Satellite Broadcasting operates a general entertainment channel called Galaxy and some of its output, primarily at breakfast and teatime, is given over to programmes for children.
- 17 September – S4C's children's block is renamed from Clwb S4C to Slot Meithrin.
- 1991
- Following the launch of the Astra 1B-satellite, The Children's Channel's hours expand and it is now on the air until 5 pm each day.
- 1992
- The Children's Channel launches an early evening block showing programming of greater interest to older children and teenagers. The segment, called simply TCC, airs from 5 pm to 7 pm.
- 1993
- 1 September
- The start of Sky Multichannels sees the launch of Nickelodeon. It is on air each day between 7 am and 7 pm.
- The Children's Channel hours are cut back to 6 am to 5 pm to allow The Family Channel to share its space. This day also sees it become a pay television channel.
- 17 September – Cartoon Network Europe launches, broadcasting from London. Broadcasting as a free-to-air channel, it is twinned with TNT and ran from 5 am to 7 pm.[2]
- 1 September
- 1994
- 11 September – After nine years on the air, the final edition of the children's programming block Fun Factory is broadcast.
- Live presentation launches on Nickelodeon and is branded as Nick Alive!.
- 1995
- May – Flextech completes its acquisition of The Children's Channel when it acquired the remaining 25.1% stake in Starstream for £15m.[3][4] By that time, the channel is known on air as TCC and the year also sees the launch of a block of programmes for pre-school children called Tiny TCC, which airs each day between 6 am and 9 am.
- 1 October – The Disney Channel launches. It is on the air as a premium channel as part of the Sky Movies package and airs between 6 am and 10 pm.
- 31 December – Sky One's children's programming block The DJ Kat Show is axed after almost a decade on the air due to low viewing figures.
- 1996
- August – Cartoon Network begins broadcasting for an extra two hours until 9 pm, with TNT's hours moving to 9 pm until 5 am.
- 2 October – Fox Kids launches. It broadcasts each day between 6 am and 7 pm and airs live-action and animated comedy, drama and action-adventure programmes for children of all ages, Fox Kids also broadcasts up to seven hours of advertisement-free educational series each week.
- October – Children's programming on Sky One is reduced following the launch of Fox Kids Network and most of the programmes shown on Sky One move to the new channel.
- 1997
- 3 February
- The programmes targeting older children that The Children's Channel was airing are split off into a new channel called Trouble with TCC reverting to the original name of The Children's Channel.
- Tiny TCC is transferred to UK Living and renamed Tiny Living with its airtimes changing to 7 am to 9 am on weekdays and 7 am to 10 am at the weekend.
- 31 March – The launch of Channel 5 the previous day sees children's programming forming part of the output, including a 90-minute breakfast block called Milkshake!, which runs on weekdays between 7:30 am and 9 am; this day also saw the first episode of Teletubbies airing on BBC2.
- August – Nickelodeon's start time is pulled back to 6 am, giving it one more hour of broadcasting.
- 3 February
- 1998
- 3 April – The Children's Channel closes down in the UK and Ireland whilst TCC's Nordic channels followed in October 2000.
- 17 September – S4C's children's block is renamed from Slot Meithrin to Planed Plant.
- 1 October – The launch of Sky Digital sees Nickelodeon's broadcast day ending three hours later at 10 pm.
- 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place with the launch of OnDigital and as part of the 19-channel line-up, Carlton creates three new channels for the platform, including a daytime channel for children, Carlton Kids. Cartoon Network also launches on OnDigital broadcasting as a 24-hour service.
- December – Cartoon Network launches as part of the Sky Digital satellite platform.
- 1999
- 1 September
- Nick Jr. launches on Sky, allowing the channel to broadcast all day rather than just as a daytime programming block on the main channels, which had been the case since 1995. It also airs on Sky's analogue service for the next year or so, airing between 6 am and 10 am alongside Sky Sports 3, although this schedule would sometimes be altered if sports were being covered in the early morning.
- A one-hour timeshift channel from Nickelodeon launches. It is called Nick Replay.
- 28 September – Playhouse Disney launches on The Disney Channel as a programming block aimed at the under-fives.
- 15 October – Cartoon Network officially splits from the pan-European feed.
- 1 September
2000s
- 2000
- 31 January – Carlton Kids stops broadcasting.[5]
- 1 February – Discovery Kids launches on the OnDigital platform as a direct replacement for Carlton Kids.
- 27 May – Boomerang launches to broadcast classic cartoons from the Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Warner Bros archive programme library, as well as freeing up its sister network of many classics in the schedule.[6]
- June or July – Sesame Street was pulled from Channel 4 in the UK at the same time as when Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was axed from TV screens in the USA.
- 29 September – Playhouse Disney launches as a standalone channel alongside Toon Disney and Disney Channel +1 on the Sky Digital platform.[7]
- Channel 5 launches a new programming block for older children. The Core is aimed at children ages 8 to 15 and airs on Saturday afternoons. A number of originally commissioned programmes are created for the block, such as Harry and Cosh and Atlantis High, which are aired alongside imported teen shows.
- 2001
- 15 January – A new Jim Henson co-production called The Hoobs makes its debut on Channel 4 with early-morning repeats until 2014.
- 30 April – As Sky begins closing its analogue satellite services, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. cease broadcasting on Sky Multichannels.
- 30 June – The analogue feed on Astra 1C of Cartoon Network and TCM ceases broadcasting.
- July – Disney acquires Fox Family Worldwide from News Corporation and Haim Saban, which gave Disney 76% ownership of Fox Kids.[8]
- 2002
- January – Channel 5's older children's programming block The Core is renamed to Milkshake! FM, taking its name from the established Channel 5 pre-school age slot Milkshake!. This block airs from 9 am to 12 noon on Saturdays and Sundays, while a number of programmes aired during The Core continue to be broadcast during Saturday afternoons.
- 22 July – Nicktoons was launched, airing only cartoons.
- 16 September – Milkshake! FM is rebranded again as two separate blocks, Shake! and Milkshake! Toons as Channel 5 is rebranded Five.
- 14 October – CNX launches, targeting older children during the day and young adults during the evening. The station primarily aired anime, extreme sports and dramas, principally action/crime series such as The Shield and Birds of Prey. The channel's film telecasts predominantly consisted of martial arts films, anime films and action/drama.
- 2003
- 29 May – Toons & Tunes launches, broadcasting a mix of music videos alongside animated programming, aimed at 4 to 9-year-old children.[9]
- June – Toons & Tunes is relaunched as Pop.
- 8 September
- November – Fox Kids begins broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.[11] Fox Kids began broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week[12]
- 2004
- Due to music videos becoming more adult in their content, the music video element of Pop is reduced with the animated content increased.
- 31 May – Nick Jr launches a nighttime programming block dedicated to classic British children's programmes from the 1970s under the title Noggin [13] running every day from 8 pm to 10 pm.
- July
- September – The Jetix block on Fox Kids becomes part of the morning line-up between 7 am and 9 am.
- October – Nicktoons TV extends its broadcasting hours by another 3 hours with a new block aimed at older children. The new slot is called Toonz2Nite and has a separate, distinct presentation from the main channel.
- 2005
- 1 January – Fox Kids is fully relaunched as Jetix, a year after Fox Kids International had originally announced plans to rename its operations to Jetix, which implied action and adventure.[15]
- 5 September – Noggin is rebranded as Nick Jr. Classics.
- 30 September – Tiny Living comes to an end after 9 years as a breakfast pre-school slot on LivingTV.
- October – Toonz2Nite is extended by an hour and is now on air until 11 pm.
- 2006
- 6 March – Boomerang launches a +1 timeshift channel.
- 16 March – Changes are made to Disney services in the UK. Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney stop being premium add-on channels.[16] Disney Cinemagic is launched to take on the Disney slot in the Sky Movies premium bundle and replaces Toon Disney. Disney Channel +1 closed and was replaced with Disney Cinemagic +1.
- 24 April
- Nick Jr. 2 launches. Rather than operating as a timeshift channel, it airs the shows broadcast on the main channel but on a different schedule.
- Cartoon Network Too launches as the sister station of Cartoon Network, airing programmes a while after they are shown on the main channel. It airs from 3 am to 7 pm, sharing a broadcast frequency with TCM 2 from TCM. Initially it mainly broadcasts cartoons made by Hanna-Barbera.
- 26 June – Disney Channel +1 is relaunched.
- 4 September – Cartoonito launches as a programming block on Cartoon Network Too running from 6 am to 3 pm.
- 16 October – Channel 5 launches Five Life and its pre-school slot Milkshake! airs each day between 9 am and 1 pm, beginning transmissions when Milkshake! ends on the main channel.
- 2007
- 28 February – Discovery Kids closes as it merges with Discovery Wings to Form Discovery Turbo.
- 24 May
- BabyTV launches on Sky Digital.[17]
- Cartoonito launches as a full-time channel, running between 3 am and 7 pm in a time-sharing agreement with Turner Classic Movies 2.
- 6 August – Pop Girl launches, airing each day between 6 am and 9 pm.
- Pop stops showing music videos and adopts a full-time animated series schedule.
- Channel 5's older children's programming blocks Shake! and Milkshake! Toons end although teen programmes aired on Saturday morning are no longer under a block of any sort on Channel 5.
- 2008
- 19 May – Kix! launches. It replaces Pop +1.
- 23 June – S4C launches a daily morning children's programming block called Cyw.
- 18 August – Nicktoonsters launches as a spin-off channel of Nicktoons. Targeted to 5 to 11-year-old children and aired mainly older library content from Nicktoons, broadcasting for 12 hours a day from 7 am.
- December – Disney buys the remaining 26% share in Jetix to acquire full ownership of the company.[18][19]
- 2009
- 4 January – Classic children's TV strand Nick Jr. Classics ends on Nick Jr and on Nick Jr. 2 in 2010.
- 1 April – Trouble closes down after 12 years on the air.[20]
- 31 July – Nicktoonsters closes after less than a year on the air. It is replaced by Nicktoons +1, known as Nicktoons Replay with Disney Channel focusing more toward girls.
- 4 October – Following the entry by Channel 5 into a strategic sponsorship with Disney, Shake! returns to air.[21] Under the new arrangement, Disney sponsors the block and provides some Disney Channel programming for the slot such as Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place.[22]
2010s
- 2010
- 26 April – S4C launches Stwnsh, aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 13. It broadcasts on weekdays between 4 pm and 6 pm and on Saturdays between 9 am and 11 am. It replaces Planed Plant, which has been on the air since 1998.
- 23 August – Nick Jr. begins broadcasting for 24 hours a day.
- 5 October – Nickelodeon launches a high definition simulcast channel.
- 18 October – Disney XD begins broadcasting a high definition simulcast channel.[23]
- 2011
- Early in the year, Cartoonito’s broadcast hours are changed and it now airs between 4 am and 8 pm.
- 11 April – Pre-school programming on 5Star ends and the block is replaced by teleshopping.
- 7 May – Playhouse Disney is rebranded as Disney Junior.[24]
- September – Cartoon Network HD launches on Sky.[25]
- Channel 5 ends programming aimed at teenagers when it axes Shake!.
- 2012
- 2 October – Nick Replay and Nicktoons Replay are renamed Nick +1 and Nick Jr. +1, respectively.
- 2013
- 2014
- 20 March – Pop launches on Freeview but until April 2016 it is only available in areas that have a local television service.[28]
- 1 April – Cartoon Network Too closes and is replaced by Cartoon Network +1.[29]
- June – Kix is revamped to target 7 to 17-year-old boys with a mix of cartoons, sci-fi, and action and adventure series.
- 3 November – Nick Jr. 2 is renamed to Nick Jr. Too.
- 2015
- 1 October – Pop Girl closes and is replaced by Kix +1.
- 2016
- 7 April – Kix begins broadcasting on Freeview, transmitting on the same local-TV multiplex as Pop.
- July – Nick Jr. HD launches on Sky.
- 2017
- July – Disney XD's timeshift is rebranded for a month to "Spider-Man Channel" and in September 2017, it is temporarily rebranded as "Mickey and Pals", airing various programming from Disney Junior.[30]
- August – Kix is rebranded as Pop Max, however, none of its programming changes.[31]
- 21 August – Milkshake! returns to 5Star where it airs from 9:15 am to 11 am.[32] however, its run is short lived as it is dropped the following year.
- 2018
- 15 January – Cartoonito begins broadcasting a 24-hour service.[33]
- April – Disney XD is temporarily rebranded as Avengers channel, airing non-stop Avengers Assemble throughout the month as well as exclusive content to promote the release of Avengers: Infinity War. It reverted back on 30 April 2018.[34]
- 21 July – Canadian children's channel ZooMoo launches on Virgin Media.[35]
- 2019
- June – Pop Max moves to the G-MAN multiplex, meaning that Pop Max only broadcasts in Manchester on Freeview.[36][better source needed]