Blogging Excavations: Cartoon Network Was Not The Only One

This one didn't finish off due to a lack of time.
PART 1
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In the late 1980s, satellite television grew like mushrooms. The first TV channel aimed at kids to air in Portugal was TCC.

The Children's Channel (last logo pictured here) led to an eventual breakup to Portugal when the SKY Multichannels package arrived, offering no choices for children over the next two-and-a-half-weeks,
Cable TV arrived to the Madeira Islands in 1992, using some SKY channels but that was just the beginning. The first cable network to operate in Portugal was Bragatel (now defunct), in early 1994. And then, TV Cabo began operations (by "then", I mean later that year). And the only channel that was aimed at Portuguese children was, believe me, a channel that accompanied us in our growth. Say hello to Cartoon Network!

Cartoon Network was one of the most original channels when cable TV had become mainstream over here, in the mid 90s. There was a bunch of foreign channels, but, for reasons unknown, it was one of the most watched. We learned English until the channel's fate in 2013, which I'll cover later.
Initially, it was just HB shows with some random third-party shows in the middle. We shared the signal with the UK, and they did so until 1999, and we could watch British ads during the breaks.
Then they aired those "What-A-Cartoon" shorts and the first Cartoon Cartoons aired.
Shamefully, it was timeshared with TNT after 21:00...
On April 1st, 1996, Canal Panda was born. However, it was owned by ABC and they used their schedule. I couldn't find a high quality version of the channel's first logo. I know that it's on the internet, but it consisted of a panda's head on a red circle with the channel's name. Unfortunately, I don't have any schedules.
Within a year, it adopted the current name and logo.

The channel aired mostly obscure stuff which no one remembers. I can do an addendum in part 2. But the most successful show on the channel was Doraemon.

Canal Panda aired Doraemon in European Spanish (I like their accents) with European Portuguese subtitles until as late as 2010, and we learned Spanish from it. Oh well... Now they're airing an AWFUL dub, with the voices lacking half the fun factor as the Spanish version.
A third channel, broadcast on TV Cabo's satellite service at the time, called Locomotion, existed and it offered more unfamiliar shows...

I suggest a view of filipeflower's "documentary" about Locomotion and the channel's history. It's in my language. Search for "filipeflower locomotion" and watch all four parts in order.
Next time, I will cover what aired on these channels between 1998 (my birth year) and 2001. See you then!
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For those who wanted to see how Panda Club's logo looked like, it looks like this:

PART 2
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Welcome to part 2, focused on children's channels in Portugal between 1998 and 2001. Why 2001? Because some channel launched that year.
That channel will be revealed in part 3, focusing between 2001 and 2005.

Anyway, Cartoon Network launched a new look on October 15th, 1999. On that date, CN HQ's British signal was scrambled and CN HQ got some independence from CN UK. The British commercials were still present for at least the next eighteen months. I vaguely remember that look from when I was four and, with help of my mother, helped some guest to say "how can you say NEXT in Portuguese?". The channel added more and more original programming, and with that, TCM was replaced with TNT. I remember that my CN fandom started with this era. Oh well...
Canal Panda was still airing unfamiliar shows and Doraemon, but they started to include more and more shows dubbed in Portuguese. Canal Panda's "bilingualism" was about to end on December 31st, 2000, when the channel finished broadcasting to Spain and had already focused more on Portugal.
And Locomotion?

Locomotion was rebranded in 2000 with a new logo and schedule. The channel had just become more mature at an infant age of 4. We shared the channel with Latin America, hence the Brazilian Portuguese dubs that aired on the channel. However, we got an Iberian version of it, despite the dubs that aired on Locomotion over here.
Locomotion was an irreverent channel that combined Adult Swim-esque craziness with experimentalism, through the Locotomia and Fracto blocks.
Locotomia aired experimentalist animation, thanks to it some new animators could have their 15 minutes of fame and Fracto combined techno music with experimentalist animation and some live-action footage as well. Later they devoted the block to weird music videos, such as Argentina's "Miranda", which according to some Brazilian forum, was the worst thing ever. Many people hated Locotomia but liked another characteristic: animes.
Part 3 will focus more on 2001-2005. See you then!
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PART 3
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2001 already?

A channel is born. On November 27th, 2001, Disney Channel launched in Portugal, offering only Disney shows and it was a pay channel. I didn't get it until 2008, but didn't watch it regularly until the following year. A year and a half into the channel's existence, they got a new logo, in line with the rest of the world.

Cartoon Network got a new look in 2002:

It's also the first look I remember clearly. It was very original and clever. The channel was improving as the days went on, and was already one of the 10 most watched channels. I was shocked when they dropped all classics in May 2005, but Boomerang had become a guilty pleasure when I got it three years later (like the Eastern European/Asian channels).
Canal Panda was still the same, but the channel was now being overtaken by animes. Digimon was SO popular... but they still aired my Doraemon cartoons.
And Locomotion?

In 2002, Locomotion was rebranded with a new look, which involved a cartoon city (I'm drawing this... Because I really love you. Ah! It's Cartoon City) and tended to be aimed more at younger viewers, when the channel was acquired by Corus. I like it, it's so beautiful...
One particular thing with Locomotion: over here, we had an anime that the Latin American Locomotion didn't air. It was Ranma 1/2, which was dubbed by some Miami studio, just like South Park. Such a dub was about to premiere in Brazil, it was even announced on Locomotion, but they didn't premiere it.
Locotomia was still alive and so was Fracto. Here's one of Miranda's music videos for Fracto.
After a while, Fracto was renamed "LOVE VISION - TELEVISION 100% HAPPY!", which had a similar function to Fracto, and two anime-related blocks: Animafilms, dedicated to anime movies, and Japanimotion, dedicated to anime.
All of a sudden, in 2003, the channel stopped broadcasting to Portugal and Spain. BUT I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT THE CHANNEL'S "DIRE FATE"!!!
Locomotion was acquired by Pramer (Argentina) in 2004, acquired a lot of animes and renamed itself as "Locomotion Animestation", before the new management got tired of it and sold the channel to Sony. They replaced it with Animax, and by 2008, Sony decided that they could launch Sony Entertainment Television and Animax for Portugal and Spain. It took me A FULL YEAR to get both channels. I initially didn't watch a lot of Animax, but then I watched Shin-Chan on the channel... Animax had a fate in 2010, and that fate was replacing half of the channel's schedule with American shows that had no interest with Otakus. Then in March, they announced the plans to close the channel down: in Latin America, they replaced it with Sony Spin, and in Portugal, they replaced it with AXN Black. Spain kept the channel until the end of last year, airing fewer and fewer animes.

Bragatel (and later Pluricanal) were the only Portuguese providers to carry CBeebies, alond with BBC Four after 7pm. You can't watch it no more in Portugal, unless you watch them on FilmOn. They later added BBC One, around 2006 (they already had BBC World).
Next time: 2005-2008. See you then!
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Here's filipeflower's documentary on Locomotion: