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Toonami (British and Irish TV channel)

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This article is about a British television channel. For Toonami in the United States, see Toonami.
Toonami
Ownership
OwnerTurner Broadcasting System Europe (Time Warner)

Toonami was a British cartoons channel which aired from September 2003 to May 2007.


History

Toonami was a programming block on the Cartoon Network, until October 2002 when it became a key component of CNX, a new channel launched by Cartoon Network UK, the first Cartoon Network derivative to launch outside North America. CNX also broadcast martial arts movies, adult-oriented animation (such as Adult Swim programming), and dramas like The Shield and Birds of Prey at night. The network catered towards a young male audience. A year later, CNX was relaunched as Toonami and now targeted a younger audience.[citation needed]

Toonami UK, throughout its existence, also aired cartoons based on DC Comics properties on the channel, such as Justice League Unlimited and the first two seasons of Batman Beyond (aired as Batman of the Future). Contractual disputes with Warner TV distribution prevented the channel from showing the third and final season of Batman Beyond and the whole of Superman: The Animated Series, forcing the channel to recycle through the first two seasons of Batman Beyond as a result.[citation needed]

From March 6, 2006, Toonami UK changed its focus from action cartoons to entertainment in general, as the channel moved to Sky 602 and began airing live-action shows such as Backyard Science, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Stencil, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and Life with Derek. Additionally, the channel's graphics were redesigned, with the black, white and red logos replaced with a new blue background logo and giggling, blob-like mascots that are used in the channel's commercial bumpers and channel indents.[citation needed]

Toonami and Cartoon Network Too merged into one channel on May 24 2007, with the pre-school programming slot Cartoonito taking Toonami's channel slot as a separate channel.[1]

Destination Friday

For a short period of time, Toonami UK aired a special programming block on Fridays called "Destination Friday", which ran from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Near the end of its run, Toonami UK's newer shows had only aired once or twice a week, such as One Piece, Code Lyoko and Pokémon Chronicles. Code Lyoko which was later aired across seven days. "Destination Friday" initially repeated the week's episodes for viewers who either want to see them again or missed them the first time round. Between 5.30PM and 7 p.m., a feature-length animated movie has also been shown.

A selection of several Batman animated movies were shown, such as Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. The UK premieres of the Dragon Ball, and Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT movies occupied this slot throughout the summer months.

Shows that aired on Toonami UK

Closure

On 3 May 2007, Turner UK announced that CN Too will go 24 hours and launch Cartoonito as a standalone channel on 24 May. It was also confirmed that Toonami would close down immediately on the same day. On 24 May at 3am, Toonami was finally closed down with Cartoonito launching in its slot. On the same day CN Too also replaced Toonami by becoming a 24 hour service with all the programmes moved to CN Too. Even though Toonami has become CN Too, the official Toonami website is still running. The "sign in" feature has now been taken off the site and now into the CN Too logo. Before Toonami died, a message warns viewers about the merge with the CN Too channel. The message was 'Breaking News: Toonami becomes the bigger and better Cartoon Network Too on 24 May (Sky 602, Virgin 732, Tiscali 326)'

See also

References

  1. ^ C21Media:
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