Jetix

Jetix Europe

Jetix Europe N.V. (JE), formerly Fox Kids Europe (FKE), was a television broadcasting company operating children's oriented channels and programming blocks across the European and Middle East markets.

Fox Kids Europe

The first Fox Kids channel in the UK was launched in October 1996 and the Fox Kids Europe (FKE) was incorporated in November 1999 with 75.7% being held by Fox Family Worldwide (FFW) with the balance of ownership listed on Euronext. FFW was acquired in October 2001 by The Walt Disney Company and renamed ABC Family Worldwide Inc. K2 started out as a syndicated block for several local stations in Italy.

In December 2002, FKE signed with BMG Europe for two Fox Kids Hits music compilation albums per year for 10 European markets.

In July 2003, Fox Kids Europe relaunched Fox Kids Play interactive channel on Telewest.

Jetix alliance

In January 2004, Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America and ABC Cable Networks Group agreed to rename its then current operations under a single umbrella name Jetix, which helped strengthen its then operations into a single force. The Jetix name was applied to its programming blocks which aired on ABC Family and Toon Disney, its television channels in Europe and Latin America, along with its programme library and merchandising.

The Jetix name was chosen after the company conducted international research specifically with a number of children focus groups. Many of the children picked the name as it implied action and adventure, and the company was able to use the name internationally due to its ambiguity. Bruce Steinberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Kids Europe, said that Jetix would help strengthen Fox Kids Europe's partnership with Disney while building new alliances to continue to successfully leverage its programming library and distribution.

On February 14, 2004, Toon Disney and ABC Family launched their Jetix blocks with Jetix Cards Live, the world's first concurrently online and television trading card game, with Toon Disney having 12 hours of weekly prime time programming to start and ABC Family with 2 hours weekday and 4 hour on weekends all in the morning. Fox Kids UK channel added a Jetix block in April. Fox Kids blocks started to change over in April and the first channel in France was changed over in August 2004. In fall 2004 with the addition of three new shows, Toon Disney's US block was expanded to 16 hours.

SIP Animation co-produced a few animated series with Jetix Europe during the 2000s.

Jetix Europe launched GXT as a male teen channel in May 2005 on Sky Italia in Italy.

After Jetix Europe picked up Iron Kid for its France and Spain channels, Jetix Latin America picked it up in January 2007 from BRB International.

In 2008, Jetix Europe licensed out Jetix France to The Walt Disney Company France and Disney-ABC-ESPN Television became its channel distribution partner. In February 2008, Jetix Europe was in talks to join affiliated companies, Disney Channel Europe, ESPN Europe and Disney–ABC International Television (DAIT), in their combined distribution sales unit. In June, Jetix Europe agreed to have DAIT take over distribution sales for all channels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In November, the Central and Eastern European channel team won gold in the UK Promax Awards for Jetix Max idents.

On December 8, 2008, Disney made an agreement to increase ownership in Jetix Europe to 96%, with intentions to purchase the remainder and have Jetix Europe delisted from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. In 2009, K2 became a TV channel. With full Disney control over Jetix Europe, Disney indicated in February 2009 that Jetix blocks and channels would be switched over to Disney branding starting with the Jetix France channel with Disney XD on April 1, 2009. Jetix Italy management agreed to purchase the Jetix Italy company, renamed as Switchover Media, GXT and K2 from Jetix Europe in July 2009 while managing the Jetix Italy channel unit it re-brands as Disney XD in the fall. Toon Disney were replaced by September 2009 with Disney XD or the Disney Channel, except for the Arabian version. The final Jetix channel to switch over to Disney XD was the Dutch version on January 1, 2010, while the last Jetix channel to close was the Russian version.

Jetix Play

Jetix Play (formerly Fox Kids Play) was a sister channel to Jetix, showing classic animated cartoons and animated television series.

In July 2003, Fox Kids Europe relaunched Fox Kids Play interactive channel on Telewest.

Jetix Play was closed on August 1, 2010 in most countries, on September 1, 2010 in Turkey, and in Romania it closed on March 12, 2011. In most countries it was replaced with Playhouse Disney.

Programming

Jetix owned the Saban Entertainment library which included shows from Marvel Productions.

Jetix Animation Concepts, also Jetix Concepts Animation, was a brand used for animation co-produced by and for the Jetix global group by the American partner, ABC Cable Networks Group.

Magazine

In the UK, Future plc published the official Jetix Magazine. Published every four weeks, it featured puzzles and features based on the channel's shows. The magazine also came with a free DVD featuring shows from the channel.

In other countries, including Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Romania, similar Jetix magazines were also produced.

Jetix Magazine was launched in early September 2004 by Jetix Consumer Products and Future Publishing. Cavan Scott was the magazine's initial editor.

With the purchase of the remaining Jetix Europe shares by The Walt Disney Company and the change over of the channels to a Disney branded channel, Future renamed the magazine to Nitro!, to become an independent magazine with the same general focus.

Monster truck

In 2007, the Monster Jam monster truck series had a truck with the Jetix name and some characters on it. The truck was driven by Dan Evans, who normally drives The Destroyer, and toured in the Monster Jam European tour until December. The truck has not been seen since then.

Kids Cup

The Jetix Kids Cup was an association football tournament in which kids from 16 countries competed to "promote fair play, sportsmanship and cultural exchange".