quarta-feira, 24 de dezembro de 2014

RTP 2's Zig Zag gone weird

This Christmas, RTP 2's Zig Zag has been showing 2009 Noddy and Connie the Cow Christmas shorts (about the length of bumpers), random shows and basically this will be a weird Christmas on RTP 2.

Merry Christmas

Technically it's been a slow month for this blog, but merry Christmas anyway.
This is not a vintage year, to say the least.

quarta-feira, 10 de dezembro de 2014

What's wrong, Disney Portugal?


A Disney fan blog said that there are some issues that need to be solved but they can't. He talked to Disney Channel PT's marketing team and answered to the following questions:
Galaxy Wonder [Wander] (Wander Over Yonder) is set to premiere soon? Answer: early 2015.
Are they bringing back old shows? Answer: negotiating the return of Wizards of Waverly Place, but not for now.
What about other shows like That's so Raven? Answer: they don't want to do that because they don't want those shows all the time.
Why is Violetta taking a lot of time on Disney Channel? Answer: it's their most popular show and they can't take it off because they can't abdicate of something that makes them leaders.
Amongst other questions, one of the questions was related to Disney XD.

The answer is: at present Disney doesn't want to create the channel because there aren't sufficient targets and people or money to make it.
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At present Portugal is the only Western European nation not to get Disney XD. We only have two Disney channels: Disney Channel and Disney Junior.
Disney had an HD channel between 2009 and 2012: Disney Cinemagic HD. When Disney Cinemagic closed down (both the SD and HD variants), they disposed of Disney Cinemagic HD as if it was unwanted wastes. Disney Cinemagic's license was taken by Disney Junior and they did not launch Disney Channel HD in Portugal.
At present, there seems to be only one pair of "boy-girl" channels: Canal Panda, whose movie selection is repetitive and based on Barbie, and Biggs, the channel which added Braceface (a show for... girls?) to their schedule last year, but other than that it's mostly a male-based channel. (Let's not forget that one of the channel's launch shows was Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch!)
Disney Channel is progressively focusing more on girls than ever before: Violetta is the most popular show, to an extent that you can see most girls with at least one piece of Violetta merchandise!
Disney is aware of the existence of the only boyish kids channel: Biggs. There is a channel with Disney XD's main target audience over here, and it currently holds such a monopoly (Cartoon Network feeds around the world have shown female-oriented shows, like CN KR and their recent acquisition of Tori GO! GO!.), which hasn't been broken yet. A country like Japan seems to have more competition, that is Kids Station competes with Disney XD.
Also, Disney has no budget or people to launch the channel: something similar has happened to South Korea's Disney operations. Toonzone user ltw9719 has shown me a photo of Disney's Korean headquarters and there is a glass wall with Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD's logos. Is Disney Korea also suffering from that? Lack of budget, perhaps? Lack of target audience, despite the competition?
My TV provider has no room left for more than one kids channel, considering that, since 2007, all kids channels occupy channels 40-49. The market seems to be a bit saturated and a few brands don't operate to our country: Boomerang, Disney XD, NickToons and Nick Jr.
So what's the point in not launching DXD PT? There is a channel with DXD's target audience but there is no way to get an increase and launch it.
DXD PT won't launch in 2015, or it probably never will, unless there is a lookphole to this situation.