 | |
| Country | UK,Italy |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Europe Africa Southeast Asia (previously) |
| Programming | |
| Languages | English Czech Hungarian Polish(AsPolsat JimJam) Romanian Russian Arabic Italian (formerly) Portuguese (formerly) Turkish (formerly) Hebrew (formerly) Lithuanian Dutch (formerly) German |
| Timeshift service | JimJam +1 (closed in Italy) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | AMC Networks International |
| Sister channels | AMC Film Cafe CBS Reality Extreme Sports Channel HorrorXtra Legend RealityXtra Minimax |
| History | |
| Launched | 1 October 2006; 19 years ago (2006-10-01) (Italy) 3 December 2007 (2007-12-03) (Hungary, Poland (AsPolsat JimJam), Czech Republic & Slovakia) 1 January 2008; 17 years ago (2008-01-01) (Moldova & Romania) 1 April 2008; 17 years ago (2008-04-01) (The Netherlands) 14 April 2008; 17 years ago (2008-04-14) (MENA) 1 July 2008; 17 years ago (2008-07-01) (Bulgaria, Russia & CIS Nations) 15 August 2008; 17 years ago (2008-08-15) (Malta) 1 November 2008; 17 years ago (2008-11-01) (Southeast Asia) 28 November 2008; 16 years ago (2008-11-28) (Portugal) January 2010 (Israel) 27 April 2012; 13 years ago (2012-04-27) (Sub-Saharan Africa) 29 August 2012; 13 years ago (2012-08-29) (Lithuania) |
| Replaced | Cartoon Network (Israel) |
| Closed | 9 December 2014 (Asia) 30 June 2015; 10 years ago (2015-06-30) (Italy) 31 December 2017 (2017-12-31) (Switzerland) 1 March 2018; 7 years ago (2018-03-01) (Netherlands) 10 March 2022; 3 years ago (2022-03-10) (Bulgaria, Russia & CIS Nations) 1 July 2022; 3 years ago (2022-07-01) (Portugal) |
| Replaced by | DreamWorks (Asia) |
| Links | |
| Website | www.jimjam.tv |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Skylink (Czech Republic andSlovakia) | Channel 28 |
| StarTimes (Sub-Saharan Africa) | Channel 303 |
| DStv (Sub-Saharan Africa) | Channel 310 (English) Channel 641 (Portuguese) |
| GOtv (Sub-Saharan Africa) | Channel 80 |
| Polsat Box asPolsat JimJam | Channel 87 |
| Zuku TV (East Africa) | Channel 620 |
JimJam is an international children's preschooltelevision channel operated byAMC Networks International Central and Northern Europe, which originally launched inItaly onSky in 2006.[1][2]
JimJam is available across Europe and Africa.[3]
JimJam was launched on 1 October 2006. In September 2007,HIT Entertainment andChellomedia (European content division ofLiberty Global, currentlyAMC Networks International) formed a joint venture to run a children's channel. The channel was advertised as international, with plans to start cable and satellite broadcast in Western and Eastern Europe and then expand broadcasting worldwide (outside the UK, Ireland, US and Canada).[4]
The channel was expanded to Central and Eastern Europe in November 2007 onUPC Broadband.[5][6][7] By March 2008, JimJam launched in the Netherlands and Switzerland,[1] and continued expansion through MENA onShowtime Arabia[8] and Russia and Bulgaria in July.[9][10] In November 2008, it launched in Southeast Asia.[11] On 28 November 2008, it launched in Portugal.[12] In January 2010, the channel launched in Israel onYes,[13] and in 2012,Hot launched the Russian-language version in the country.[14] By 2010, the channel had been broadcast in over 50 territories in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In August 2010, HIT Entertainment withdrew from the JimJam joint venture, leaving JimJam wholly owned by Chello Zone. HIT Entertainment was supposed to keep providing content for JimJam.[2]By 2013, JimJam was available to an audience of 17 million subscribers in 13 languages. The channel has been broadcast in over 60 territories in Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and Africa, with seven feeds and four localized versions.[3][15]
In Poland, JimJam CEE andPolsat formed a joint-venture in 2009 and progressively replaced JimJam by Polsat JimJam across providers in the country,[16][17] which used to have the same schedule until it progressively became localized. On 13 February 2023, Polsat sold its shares in Polsat JimJam Limited to AMCNI. Stanisław Janowski, President of Polsat's Management Board, explained the decision by the wear and tear of the formula.[18] The channel, however, continues to operate under the name Polsat JimJam and the Polsat Media office is still responsible for advertising sales.[19]
It expanded to Africa in April 2012 in English[20] and in November 2012 in Portuguese.[21] On 1 August 2016, it relaunched across the MENA region as aBeIN exclusive.[22][23]
JimJam closed inAsia-Pacific on 9 December 2014, Italy on 30 June 2015, in Switzerland and Austria on 31 December 2017,[24] Belgium and the Netherlands on 1 March 2018,[25] in theCIS Nations on 10 March 2022, and in Portugal on 1 July 2022. However, the Portuguese language feed is still available for Angola and Mozambique onDStv which also have the English language channel.
A dedicated Lithuanian version was launched on 29 August 2012.[26]
In 2018, JimJam was rebranded with a new logo and three mascots, Jim, Jam and Star.[27]
A dedicated Hungarian version was launched on 1 January 2020.[28]
A dedicated Romanian version was launched on 1 March 2020.[29]