 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English Spanish (viaSAP audio track) |
| Picture format | HDTV720p (downscaled toletterboxed480i for the SD feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Disney Entertainment (The Walt Disney Company) |
| Parent | Disney Branded Television |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched | February 14, 2011; 14 years ago (2011-02-14) (as a block on Disney Channel) March 23, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-23) (as a channel) |
| Replaced | Soapnet (as a network) Playhouse Disney (as aDisney Channel morning block) |
| Former names | Disney Junior (2011–2024) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Watch live |
| Website | www.disneynow.com |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Affiliated streaming service | Disney+ |
| Service(s) | DirecTV Stream,Fubo TV,Hulu + Live TV,Sling TV,YouTube TV |
Disney Jr. (formerlyDisney Junior) is an Americanpay televisionnetwork owned by theDisney Branded Television sub-division of theDisney Entertainment business segment ofthe Walt Disney Company.[1] Aimed mainly at children two to seven years of age,[1] itsprogramming consists of original first-runtelevision series, films, and select other third-party programming.
As of November 2023[update], Disney Jr. is available to approximately 45,000,000 pay television households in the United States—down from its 2015 peak of 74,000,000 households.[2] In recent years, Disney Jr. has lost carriage with the growth of streaming alternatives including its parent company'sDisney+, and has generally been depreciated by Disney in current retransmission consent negotiations with cable and streaming providers. Notably, the channel has recently been dropped in negotiations withCharter Spectrum in 2023 and withVerizon Fios in 2025.
The Walt Disney Company first attempted to launch a 24-hoursubscription channel forpreschoolers in the United States,[3] when the company announced plans to launch Playhouse Disney, a television offshoot ofDisney Channel's daytime programming blockof the same name, which launched on the channel on February 1, 1999 (airing during the morning hours seven days a week, with the weekday blocks lasting until the early afternoon). Plans for the United States network were ultimately shelved. However, channels using the Playhouse Disney moniker were launched in other countries internationally.[4]
The development of Disney Junior began on May 26, 2010, whenDisney-ABC Television Group announced the launch of the channel as a pay television service, which would compete with other subscription channels targeted primarily at preschool-aged children in addition to the Playhouse Disney branded blocks and channels being rebranded under Disney Junior.[5]
The flagship channel in the United States intended to replaceSoapnet, a Disney-owned channel featuring daytimesoap operas seen on themajor broadcast networks (including sister networkABC) and reruns of former primetime drama series, due to the continued decline in popularity and quantity of soap operas on broadcast television, along with the growth ofvideo on demand services (including the online streaming availability for soap operas) anddigital video recorders that negated the need for a linear channel devoted to the genre.[4]
Disney Junior first launched as aprogramming block onDisney Channel on February 14, 2011.[6] The Disney Junior channel was originally scheduled to launch in January 2012, but on July 28, 2011, the Disney-ABC Television Group pushed back the channel's launch date to an unspecified date in early 2012,[7] then on January 9, 2012, the Disney-ABC Television Group announced that Soapnet's closing date for most cable providers was scheduled for March 22, 2012. Disney Junior's 24-hour subscription channel counterpart officially launched the following day on March 23,[8] at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time.[citation needed] Programming featured on the channel's initial lineup includedJake and the Never Land Pirates,Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and freshman original seriesDoc McStuffins; the channel also had new episodes of the short-form seriesA Poem Is. as well as the weekend movie block, theMagical World of Disney Junior.[6]
Though it in effect took over the channel space held bySoapnet, an automated feed of that channel continued to exist for providers that had not yet reached agreements to carry Disney Junior, or held out to not lose subscribers due to the immediate loss of that network. These included some providers such asCox Communications,Optimum,DirecTV,Verizon FiOS, andTime Warner Cable, which continued to carry Soapnet while having added the Disney Junior channel onto their channel lineups in turn.[8][9] Soapnet's operations continued sixteen months later than had been originally planned, until the network finally ceased operations on December 31, 2013, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.[10]
In 2012, Disney Junior launched a movie night anthology as theMagical World of Disney Junior.[6] The channel also premiered its first Disney Junior Original Movie,Lucky Duck during Magical World on June 20, 2014.[11] The morning block of Disney Junior programming on Disney Channel itself is currently known asMickey Mornings.
Since its launch, Disney Junior became initially available to subscribers ofXfinity,Time Warner Cable,Cablevision,Bright House Networks, andVerizon FiOS;[12] other providers would sign carriage agreements to run the network following its launch.
Disney–ABC Television Group announced that it had reached a distribution agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative to carry Disney Junior, which negotiates carriage deals on behalf of many of America's smaller cable providers.[13]
In December 2012, Cox signed a distribution deal with Disney adding Disney Junior to its cable plans.[14]
On July 13, 2012,DirecTV announced that the Disney Junior network would be added to its lineup the following day on the 14th, a Saturday.[15] Industry observers questioned both the unexpected announcement and untraditional weekend launch of the network as being timed to a nine-day carriage dispute between DirecTV andViacom and the loss of theNick Jr. Channel four days previously as a result of the dispute.[16]
On December 31, 2012,Charter Communications (later purchasingTime Warner Cable andBright House Networks and becomingSpectrum) came to terms with Disney–ABC Television Group on a new wide-ranging multiple-year carriage agreement for ABC, all of the U.S.-based Disney Channels Worldwide and ESPN networks and ABC Family, which included the addition of Disney Junior to Charter systems throughout the first quarter of 2013.[17] The channel ended carriage on August 31, 2023 as Disney and Spectrum were in dispute for several days, before coming to agreement on September 11 to restore Disney's networks to their service while removing several others, including Disney Junior.[18][19][20]
On January 15, 2013,AT&T U-verse also reached a deal with The Walt Disney Company on a new wide-ranging multi-year agreement to carry the Disney–ABC Television Group family of networks and ESPN, which included the addition of Disney Junior.[21]
Dish Network, the last major television provider to have not signed a carriage deal for Disney Junior, added the channel on April 10, 2014; after a long period of acrimony and a six-month extension of their past carriage agreement with The Walt Disney Company for a few select networks (some of which were not available in HD, partly as a result of a 2011 dispute with the company), Dish and Disney came to full terms on carrying all of Disney-ABC's networks in both standard and high definition on March 3, 2014, with the resolution of legal issues involving Dish'sHopperDVR system, which also included streaming rights for the networks as part of Dish's IPTV streaming serviceSling TV.[22]
Disney Junior Night Light is the former name of Disney Junior channel's overnight programming block, running daily from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific. The block, which debuted on September 4, 2012, was sponsored by the Disney-owned parenting siteBabble, consisting of short-form programs intended for co-viewing among parents and their children. Features seen as part of the block includedPicture This (a drawing segment),Sesh Tales (a segment featuring costumedfinger puppets with twists on traditional fairy tales) andThat's Fresh (a segment featuring cooking tips aimed at parents, presented bycelebrity chef Helen Cavallo). Additional series under development at the block's launch included a photography series, a series that follows parents through the day their new baby comes home after being born, and a show about stay-at-home dads.[23] Since 2017, Disney Junior's overnight programming has run unbranded and without theNight Light continuity.
| Service | Description |
|---|---|
| Disney Jr. HD[24][25] | Disney Jr. HD is ahigh definition simulcast of the Disney Jr. channel that broadcasts in the720p resolution format (the recommended HD format for the Disney-ABC Television Group's free-to-air and pay-TV properties). Most providers began carrying it upon Disney Junior's launch in most areas, and use a downscaled version to provide their standard definition feeds. DirecTV began carrying Disney Junior's HD feed on August 15, 2012.[26] |
| Disney Jr. On Demand | Disney Jr. On Demand is the channel'svideo-on-demand service, offering select episodes of Disney Jr.'s original series. It is available to most subscription-based providers that carry the network. |
| DisneyNOW | On September 28, 2017, the Disney Channel app was relaunched as DisneyNOW, which combines the apps of Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Disney XD andRadio Disney into one universal app featuring access to all four services. The Disney Junior app was discontinued on February 15, 2018.[27] |
| Disney+ | Disney+ is asubscription video-on-demandstreaming service owned and operated by theDisney Streaming division ofThe Walt Disney Company which contains Disney Jr. and former Playhouse Disney content. |
| Former services | |
| Disney Junior App | Formerly known as "WATCH Disney Junior" until a June 2016 rebranding, themobile app anddigital media player viewing apps for Disney Junior offer live and on-demand streaming of Disney Junior content online. These apps require users toauthenticate with a login from a participating television service provider access to live video or the newest episodes. A limited selection of free episodes also is available without a login. The app closed on February 15, 2018, as it merged it with theDisneyNow app, along with its sister channels:Disney Channel andDisney XD. |
Disney Jr. is currently broadcast globally, but since some were closed or shut down from 2020 onwards to prioritizeDisney+, which features its current and library programming.
In 2013, since its launch, Disney Junior has experienced significant growth, while Nick Jr. saw a decline in ratings of over 50% by 2013. Despite being available in 75 million homes, Nick Jr. was surpassed by Disney Junior in several areas, including having the top three preschool cable programs. Merchandise tied to Disney Junior shows also saw growth, with sales expected to surpass $1.5 billion for the fiscal year, a 50% increase from the previous year.[28]
In the summer of 2014, Disney Junior became the No. 1 preschool-dedicated TV network for the second consecutive year, averaging 498,000 total viewers. The channel saw growth compared to the previous year, surpassing Nick Jr., which had 301,000 viewers, and nearly tripling Sprout, which had 133,000 viewers. Disney Junior also ranked first among preschool networks in key demographics, including 238,000 viewers for kids aged 2-5, 117,000 viewers for girls 2-5, and 121,000 viewers for boys 2-5.[29]
In 2024, Disney Jr. had four shows in the top 10 most-watched among preschoolers across both linear and streaming platforms:Bluey (No. 1),Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends (No. 3),Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (No. 6), andSuperKitties (No. 10). Furthermore, Disney Jr. ranked as the No. 1 cable network for kids aged 2-5 for the third consecutive year. The network also achieved significant success on YouTube, reaching 21 million subscribers and over 21 billion views, surpassing both Nick Jr. and Netflix Jr.[30]
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