Magic Kids was a well known Argentine cable channel which aired cartoons, television series and anime series programs aimed at children and teenagers. The channel was founded on January 12, 1995 and defunct on May 24, 2006, because of financial issues and low ratings.
Widely regarded as one of the harbingers of a renewed interest for Japanese animation during the late 90s, at its height the network launched a variety of merchandise including, the Magic yo-yo, a brand of soft drinks, the Magic Cube and the monthly Magic Kids Magazine.
Its story begins in 1995, with an opening ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel that served as the presentation of what would become its 11 years on screen. The executive head was producer Jorge Contreras, a man whose extensive experience laid in television documentary and journalism, not in children's entertainment.
However, this inexperience could be overcome, because in those days, thanks to programs such as Power Rangers, X-Men and Spider-Man, the network became one of the highest-rated of all of Argentina's cable TV system. The idea was to rely on so-called "canned content" (term used in the television industry to refer to pre-produced content purchased as opposed to originally produced content, because it used to come in tins similar to motion pictures).
Moreover, the fact that it was targeted to a local market enabled it to quickly adapt to the tastes of its viewers, something that pan-regional signals could not keep up with.
Eventually Magic Kids began to produce original content, starting with the interactive game show A Jugar con Hugo, which premiered the year after the debut of the channel and stayed on practically until its closing,. Afterwards cameNivel X,a weekly show base around video-game culture, hosted by Lionel Campoy and Natalia Dim and El Club del Ánime, hosted at first by Leandro Oberto and later on by Mariela Carril.
In September 2001, the outbreak of a terrible economic crisis in Argentina greatly hurt the network. However, in the same month, it started to broadcast to all of Latin America, becoming a pan-regional channel. This brought about a problem, because Magic Kids held only local broadcasting rights to many of its most successful material. It was decided then to replace many of them with older programs that were more affordable, which alienated many long time viewers. In addition, it all but stopped broadcasting Japanese anime series and lost with that any trace of advantage over other channels. Magic Kids began to lose steam slowly. In early 2006, it ceased to produce its own series, and in May, the signal finally went off the air due to low ratings.
Before Magic Kids became a pan-regional signal, the channel was only available in Argentina. Then, in some countries of Latin America (such as Peru, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador (in 1995 ), among others) opened the signal carried by satellite. In Chile, between 1995 and 1996, was in various regional cable operators like TV Cable Intercom, who led the Magic Kids sign to the small towns of Santiago and Rancagua until 1996, when the merger comes Metrópolis Intercom. In 1995, Magic Kids were in the towns of Region I to Region III by the cable operator Multivision until 1997, when you switch to VTR Cablexpress . In La Serena, was in the second half of 1995 for a month for Cablevision, replacing the sign of The Big Channel until 1996, when she returned the signal. In an interview with Jorge Contreras of a popular magazine of Argentina, he said he could issue a Latin American programs that produced the channel, but no foreign series, because they had acquired the rights only to Argentina . In addition, cable operators said that America had launched the Kids Magic signal without authorization, for which he himself had to contact all operators to withdraw the signal to avoid problems. This situation eventually led to hundreds of reviews and complaints from viewers in Latin America to the cable operators for having taken the sign of Magic Kids in their respective countries.
On January 12 of 1995, Pramer and Cablevision (which belonged to Eduardo Eurnekian)'s new project consisted of a double feature: Magic Kids and Magic Club, but the latter became extinct by having very few viewers and was replaced by The Big Channel.
In May, opens a course of the first thirteen chapters of Dragon Ball in Carl Macek's version.
In June, opened the Japanese series Saint Seiya .
In August, they aired its own block of cartoons on the air channel America 2, which also belonged to Eduardo Eurnekian. The block aired for 1 hour at 12:00 and at 17:00. It stayed until the end of 1996 .
It premiered the French animated series Cococinel, "Mr. Go", "The Trap Door" and WMAC Masters.
On March 18 of 1996, opens its first own production, "Hugo, the Troll".
In April, Sailor Moon premieres simultaneously with The Big Channel. Only Magic Kids completed the series, premiering R and S seasons in June 1997, Sailor Moon Super S in April 1998 and Sailor Stars in July 1998.
In March, opens "La Hora de la Leche" hosted by Gustavo Monje .
In April, the dubbed version of Dragon Ball is released by Intertrack .
In May, Dragon Ball Z debuts .
In June, Magic Kids presents " Goleadores ".
In August, "Captain Tsubasa J" debuts.
In September, under an agreement with the distributor TMS Entertainment, broadcasts "The Magic Knight Rayearth".
In December, opens "The Anime Club".
March: Ranma 1/2 arrives
April: Zenki premieres, but Virtua Fighter will premieres intact.
May: Pokémon debuts. Only issued the first batch of 52 episodes and in disarray.
August: Premiere of B't X.
November: Carland Cross arrives, the first traditionally animated 26 episodes/26 minutes Belgian, Canadian and French series.
June: Anime Club starts airing Detective Conan .
September: within the same block, Slayers and Dragon Ball GT start airing too.
October: due the tapes containing the last two episodes of Slayers never arriving to the channel, the series were replaced by Hello Kitty.
November: the Anime Club replaces Hello Kitty with Candy Candy .
February: Slam Dunk premieres, although it doesn't complete its run.
April: the Anime Club premieres You're Under Arrest .
May: Debut of The Vision of Escaflowne
September: Magic Kids becomes pan-regional. Due licensing troubles which prevent some anime from broadcasting outside Argentina, anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Ranma 1/2, Slam Dunk, Detective Conan, Pokémon are replaced by Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Dr. Slump, Yamazaki and Voltron Vehicles. They also start re-running You're Under Arrest and B'tX
In January, Argentina enters in economical default and thus, Magic Kids finds itself in the financial trouble which ended with its closure in 2006. Such economical crisis makes the cost of canned tripled and thus the airing of many anime. Still, they managed to retrieve the first series of Dragon Ball pan-regionally.
In March, premieres pan-regionally Koni Chan.
In April, Magic Kids alters its schedule for the Live-action programming to create a unique signal to Cablevision and Multicanal in the area of the Capital Federal in Buenos Aires, and to air once again El Chavo (it was too expensive for the channel to air it internationally) on the same schedule as before the pan-regional-ism. The channel in this area and its cable operators kept broadcasting its regular programming, but some times overlapping series, not just El Chavo but also Kenan & Kel and ALF, without disrupting schedules of Live-Action programs.
September: Premiere of Jibaku-kun only for Capital and Gran Buenos Aires (for Multicanal and Cablevision).
October: Released Irresponsible Captain Tylor at pan-regional level.
January: Return of Dragon Ball GT only for Capital and Greater Buenos Aires
Premiered Doraemon and Hunter × Hunter, within the unique signal to Cablevision and Multicanal in the area of Federal Capital and Greater Buenos Aires . Due to the exponential loss of ratings, Cablevision transmits only the channel from 0:00 AM to 12:00 PM, sharing with BocaTV but retransmits all day from 2005 until its closure.
No significant changes occur during the year 2004, however, they manage to broadcast Tsubasa "The Original" (Promoted as Captain Tsubasa) for Capital and Greater Buenos Aires
In January, it takes place the latest release of the channel: Webdiver, Detective School Q and Chinese movie Zentrix . It also returns Dog City. This coincides with the last big investment, which was intended to expand the exclusive signal Multicanal and Cablevision the rest of Argentina and also to Uruguay and Paraguay .
On December 31, there were issued last self-produced programs. The next day, the schedule was changed to include only animated series. None of these would be new. This is due to Pramer's untenable economic situation at the time, whose owner Liberty Media decides to auction to pay debts of more than U.S. $20 million in total (including a dispute over the economic losses of Magic Kids and other channels in addition to the association with Italian group LAMDA, amounting to a total of U.S. $2 million).
On May 26, 2006, after the end of his original productions (the last one out of the air was Captain Tsubasa in late February) and the grid paralyzed for a year, plus the change in policy from Liberty Global (owners of PRAMER) to favor channels that produced only original content, this way solving the great debt PRAMER had held since 2004, Magic Kids replaced by Ballway Channel. Mariela Carril (the former host of the Anime Club), expressed in Issue #42 of Laser Magazine that they were denied a proposing for restructuring of the channel to include more adult audiences.
Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari
B'tX
Dennō Bōkenki Webdiver
Doraemon
Dotto Koni-chan
Dr. Slump
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z
Gakkyu-oh Yamazaki
Ghost Stories
Ghost Sweeper Mikami
Hunter × Hunter
Irresponsible Captain Tylor
Jibaku-kun
Kyaputen Tsubasa
Magic Knight Rayearth
Magic Knight Rayearth 2
Mikami
Orphen
Orphen: The Revenge
Ranma ½
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon R
Sailor Moon S
Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
Sailor Moon SuperS
Saint Seiya
Slam Dunk
Slayers Next
Slayers Try
Tantei Gakuen Q
Vision of Escaflowne
Voltron
You're Under Arrest
Zentrix
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
The Adventures of T-Rex
Animaniacs
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
Las Aventuras de Hijitus
Back to the Future: The Animated Series
Barbe Rouge
Beast Wars: Transformers
Beetlejuice
The Berenstain Bears
Biker Mice from Mars
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Carland Cross
Casper the Friendly Ghost
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
Conan the Adventurer
Creepy Crawlers
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Dino Babies
Dog City
Doug
Dragon Tales
Dungeons & Dragons
Garfield and Friends
Highlander: The Animated Series
Hot Wheels
The Incredible Hulk
Inspector Gadget
Iron Man
The Little Flying Bears
The Magic School Bus
Marsupilami
Pelswick
Phantom 2040
The Pink Panther Show
Reboot
Ren and Stimpy
RoboCop: The Animated Series
Rude dog and the Dweebs
Rugrats
Skeleton Warriors
Space Goofs
Spider-Man
Stickin' Around
Street Sharks
Tales from the Cryptkeeper
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Animals of Farthing Wood
The Tick
Tom and Jerry
Tommy e Oscar
Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light
Where's Wally?: The Animated Series
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa
X-Men
