Disney Channel (British and Irish TV channel): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit

Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit

Line 34:

In 1989, Disney Channel UK would have been the first international Disney Channel to launch with the help of [[Sky Television (1984–1990)|Sky Television]], and the channel featured much of the promotional material surrounding the launch of Sky Television and the Astra satellite. However, the partnership and a proposed joint venture between [[The Walt Disney Company]] and [[Sky UK|Sky]] Television went into a lawsuit after the discussion regarding the joint venture took place in November 1988, but The Walt Disney Company felt that it was no longer on equal footing on "decision-making responsibility" in a 50-50 partnership. The Walt Disney Company was supposed to launch two new channels in the UK, but when the talks broke down, Sky filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company, claiming £1.5 billion in damages. The Walt Disney Company claimed that it wanted to get more influence over decision-making in the partnership and change the terms of the partnership. The Walt Disney Company was also reluctant to provide its share of funding for The Disney Channel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/dx/text/NEWS/SCDX/scdx2043.txt|title=Number 2043|publisher=SWEDEN CALLING DXERS|date=16 May 1989}}</ref>

The lawsuit was later settled, and then The Walt Disney Company sold its joint-venture interest to Sky Television, and Sky went on to access the [[Walt Disney Pictures]]' movie library for 5 years.<ref>{{cite web|author=Richard W. Stevenson|title=Murdoch Broadcast Concern Sues Disney|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/16/business/murdoch-broadcast-concern-sues-disney.html|work=The New York Times|date=16 May 1989}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Kathyrn Harris|title=Disney Settles Fraud Suit With Murdoch's News Corp.|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1989-06-03/business/fi-953_1_disney-channel-satellite-tv-venture-sky-movies|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=3 June 1989}}</ref> However, with these 5 years having expired, The Walt Disney Company went on to launch The Disney Channel in the United Kingdom without any interest in Sky, but formed a distribution deal with [[Sky UK|Sky]], offering The Disney Channel for free to cable and satellite subscribers if they had subscribed to Sky's movie package. The Disney Channel was also available as a standalone package without having to subscribe to Sky's movie package.

=== Post-launch ===