I've heard the launch date is going to be the 12th of January, is this right?
I've also read about some of the shows that they'll be showing, can someone point me to the article or source, all this information is in my head and its a bit loose.
And, my last question, does it have a website yet? That should clear some more stuff up for me.
That is the launch date yes, but I'm very much doubting it will launch then, as they have 8 days to obtain a licence (which I don't think they have yet) and distribute listings to Digiguide and the like.
FX is the right way to launch a channel (also launching on the 12th)
i have a feeling it wont happen, but it may be the date they start broadcasting an info loop about there programmes.
404? It works fine here.
Here is the article...
Quote:
Friday October 10, 11:04 AM
Disney to launch UK Freeview entertainment channel
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. media conglomerate Walt Disney plans to launch a UK TV entertainment channel on the Freeview platform this winter, the company says.
The channel, which will not carry the Disney brand, will go up against the publicly funded BBC, a newly unified ITV commercial network and Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, which has said it plans eventually to launch its own entertainment channel on Freeview.
Disney purchased its slot on Freeview -- an increasingly popular free-to-air digital terrestrial platform that has about 2 million viewers just prior to its first anniversary -- from SDN, a joint venture between the Welsh television body S4C, United Business Media and cable firm NTL. Terms were not disclosed on Friday.
UBM is a part owner of Channel Five, which along with the publicly owned, commercially funded Channel Four would also compete with the new Disney-backed channel. BSkyB has three slots on Freeview, and has said it may expand its Sky Travel channel into a broad-based entertainment channel as Freeview's subscriber numbers climb.
Disney already has several businesses in Britain, including a family-orientated Disney pay channel on UK satellite and cable, a partnership with Capital Radio, and a 25-percent stake in breakfast television channel GMTV, carried on the ITV network.
Disney also sells content to other British broadcasters. It signed a deal with the BBC earlier this week for the exclusive terrestrial rights to more than 100 films, including "Chicago" and "Pirates of the Caribbean".
GMTV stakeholder SMG is lobbying regulators to force Granada and Carlton to sell off their stakes in the breakfast network, after their merger was conditionally approved earlier this week.
Disney spokesman Lucian Harrington said the company would be interested in buying Granada and Carlton's stakes if they came on the market.
Yes, I'm concerned about how quiet it is. Supposedly the channel is going to launch in barely over a week.
By now, the channel should have a confirmed channel number and should be appearing in the lineup if you store channels on your box, schedules for the first few days should be doing the rounds and it should have a bigger web presence than a few quite old stories on news sites. Furthermore, being from Disney it's not unreasonable to expect it to have been trailed on some existing channels.
Unless they are going for a very low key launch (which I can't see the point of, since they'll be the first general entertainment channel to launch in a year, and only the second ever to appear on the platform) I can't see that 12th January start date being met.
Think about it, even CBM with it's 'later this summer' had an LCN in the lineup and a promo screen up, even if the channel itself never materialised.
Why hasn't this Disney channel got more coverage I don't know. But compared with FX UK (which even has a channel logo, EPG number and listings for several weeks up in DigiGuide allready), also planned to launch on the 12th, it's nowhere .
I've read on the f tn forums all the same info, so even though launch is doubted, there is a strong possibility that it could go ahead. Bur on the the other hand I say it wont happen , its the lack of publicity that gets me. We're coming up to f tn's first birthday, this time last year, they had an MHEG message saying "launching 15th of january, 6:00pm" whilst UKBI showed they're video loop and vice versa.
Something also very interesting on the f tn forums, bearning in mind most of the members are morons, (actually alot of people here are registerd there), it says f tn will be closing down and will be being replaced by National Geographic LIte.
1. What is FX UK? 
: