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Minimax (TV channel)

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For the television channels formerly known as Minimax in Spain and Poland respectively, see Disney XD (Spanish TV channel) and Teletoon+. For other uses, see Minimax (disambiguation).

Minimax
CountryHungary
Broadcast areaHungary
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Romania
Moldova
Serbia
Croatia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
North Macedonia
Slovenia
HeadquartersAMC Networks International Central Europe, Budapest, Hungary
Programming
Language(s)Hungarian
Czech
Romanian
Serbian
Slovene
Picture format16:9/4:3 576i HDTV
Ownership
OwnerSogecable/Canal+ (1994–2003)[1]
Fox Family Worldwide Inc. (1998)[2]
Cabeltechnologie (1999–2003)[3]
Mediatech Hungary (1999–2007)[4][5]
AMC Networks International Central Europe (2007–present)
Sister channelsJimJam
History
Launched1 January 1994 (Spain)
16 April 1999 (Poland)
6 December 1999 (Hungary)
1 June 2001 (Romania and Moldova)
23 December 2003 (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
17 June 2007 (Serbia)
2011 (Slovenia)
ReplacedSupermax (Czech Republic)
Closed15 November 1998 (Spain)
16 October 2004 (Poland)
Replaced byFox Kids (Spain)
ZigZap (Poland)
Links
Website(See #External links)

Minimax is a European pay television channel aimed at children, headquartered in Hungary, and broadcasting to 11 Central European countries. The channel was also broadcast in Spain from 1994 to 1998 and Poland from 1999 to 2004. Minimax's policy goals include edutainment and non-violent programs.

As of 2018, the channel runs 24 hours a day. Previously, from 1995 though 2017, Minimax timeshared with Sportmanía, Musicmax, Game One, ITV Hungary, M+, Cool, Animax, and C8 over the years.

As the channel broadcasts in multiple countries in multiple languages with the same schedule (except commercial advertisements), program trailers and other presentation elements did not feature written information from 2004 to 2021, however, they started being rolled out again.

History

Minimax has its origins in Spain, where it was launched on 1 January 1994 as part of a 4-channel Sogecable package on Canal Satélite, broadcasting on the Astra 1C satellite for 13 hours a day, from 8am to 9pm.[6][7][8] In 1994, Canal+ expressed its intentions to launch the channel across Europe and even to offer the Canal Satélite package to Latin American viewers.[9] In 1995, the channel Sportmanía launched and began timesharing with Minimax. In 1996, Minimax reached a deal with Nickelodeon to broadcast the latter's shows on weekends.[10] In May 1998, Minimax began broadcasting series from Fox Kids, initially as a three-hour block.[11] However, by November 1998, Fox had purchased Minimax's broadcasts entirely and it was replaced by the Spanish version of Fox Kids on 15 November of that year. However, Minimax programming continued to be shown in the mornings for preschool audiences.[12]

The current Central European iteration of Minimax began on 16 April 1999 when the Polish version of the network was launched.[13][14] A version of Minimax was launched in Hungary on 6 December 1999, to coincide with the Christmas season. At launch, the channel aired only between 18:00-20:00 CET.[15] Until 3 March 2000, it gradually extended its broadcast hours, and from that date onwards, the channel aired between 06:00-20:00 CET until 31 December 2017.[citation needed] This new version of Minimax focused on European-produced programming, some of it from the communist era, and providing it when no other children's channel did, and not showing violent content. This caused the channel to surge in popularity in Hungary.[16]

On 2 May 2000, a regional version of the French television channel Game One (originally planned as Game Channel) began timesharing with Minimax, broadcasting between 20:00-22:00 CET. On 15 May 2001, Minimax began its test transmissions in Romania and Moldova, until the channel was fully launched in 1 June to coincide with Children's Day. On 27 August 2001, ITV Hungary took over Game One's time space.[citation needed]

In 2003, the Hungarian company Mediatech Media gained full control of the Minimax brand, previously having co-owned it with the original owners Groupe Canal+ and Cabeltechnologie.[17] On 9 February 2003, ITV Hungary closed down. On 15 September 2003, M+ was launched, taking over the nightly slot. M+ was provided only smaller cable companies. Although most cable companies turned off the signal after Minimax signed off, UPC and UPC Direct after Minimax signed off instead aired the "Minimax for UPC" channel which broadcast programs from the now-defunct music channel Musicmax which was aired same channel space as Game One/ITV/M+ and Minimax.[citation needed]

On 23 December 2003, the Hungarian feed of Minimax started broadcasting in Czech when a test transmission occurred in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and on 1 January 2004, a fully localised Czech feed (though sharing with the Hungarian feed) was launched in those countries, taking over the channel space of the defunct TV channel Supermax on some providers, while the Supermax channel still aired on a few providers until 15 September 2004.[citation needed]

On 4 September 2004, M+ merged with Humor 1 and renamed as Cool. When it was still called M+, it has operated independently from Minimax since 6 December 2003.

In Poland, Minimax's programming was becoming starkly divided between content for preschoolers and content for teenagers (akin to the American channel Noggin). Because of this, there were two main blocks - MiniKaruzela (premiered on 24 December 2000) for preschoolers and MaxiStrefa (premiered in January 2002), showing sitcoms and cartoons for older audiences. MiniKaruzela was spun off into MiniMini+ (named after Minimax) on 20 December 2003, however MiniKaruzela broadcast until 10 April 2004, Minimax was replaced by ZigZap on 16 October 2004, which is now known as Teletoon+. The channel still retains a focus on pre-teens and teens. Despite Minimax not having existed in Poland for 18 years, MiniMini+ has still retained its name.

On 4 December 2004 in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, A+ Anime began timesharing with Minimax, replacing Cool. In Hungary only on the UPC Direct platform the lesser-known music channel called A+ Music was aired on the same channel space as A+ and Minimax. On 6 September 2006, Sony Pictures Television International acquired A+ and later relaunched it as Animax on 2 July 2007.[18]

In June 2007, Chellomedia (now AMC Networks International) acquired Minimax from Mediatech Media. Later that year, the channel launched in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.[19] The channel operates in the Serbian language in these countries.

Between 29 October and 22 November 2009, the Slovak-language operations of Minimax were replaced with Czech-language ones.[20]

In 2011, the channel launched in Slovenia.[21][22]

Animax broadcast for the last time in the region on 31 March 2014, and was relaunched as C8 on 1 April 2014 in Hungary and 5 May 2014 in Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.[23] On 30 December 2015, C8 closed down in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, and Romania. Since then, Minimax has been 24/7 in those countries.[24]

On 5 October 2017, AMC announced that Minimax would go 24/7 in Hungary. In December 2017, it was announced that Minimax would operate for 24 hours per day in Serbia by New Year's Eve.[25] On 1 January 2018, C8 closed down completely and Minimax filled up the overnight slot, leading the Hungarian version to broadcast 24/7.

Near the end of 2019, it was announced that Minimax, as well all AMC-owned channels, would be removed from DIGI. However, on 31 December 2019, executives made a last minute decision to continue broadcasting the channels.[26]

Visual identity

For the first year of the channel's existence, its logo was a black oval with the words "Mini Max" written in an abstract black and yellow font, often upon a dark turquoise background.[27]

In 1995, the branding of the channel was refreshed, with a logo design still used to this day. The Spanish graphic design agency Ostra Delta designed a new logo and a new package of idents for Minimax.[28] The logo consisted of a blue ring with an orange centre with the channel name in a thick white wavy font on top, however, the colours could vary.[29][30] The idents consisted of the channel's multiple (normally 6) loosely animated human mascots doing various things and at the end of each ident the channel logo would rapidly draw itself in the centre of the screen with the name flashing through different fonts before the end of the ident. This was also accompanied by a jingle (normally extended into a song), which still remains to this day.

Upon the channel's relaunch on 16 April 1999, the idents were kept and new versions were commissioned.[31] At night, a testcard would play (with the Minimax theme) telling the viewers to resume watching in the morning.[32]

On 1 July 2004, the logo was refreshed to an orange ring with a transparent centre and white text. However, until 20 February 2006, idents were in a transition, and still featured the original mascots and the blue version of the logo appearing but hastily shrinking from the screen and the orange version appearing on top.[33] All written information was removed from idents and information screens at this time as well, and replaced with audio announcements to better facilitate the channel's multilingual broadcasts. The signoff ident depicted a starry sky while an announcer wished the viewers goodnight.[34]

On 20 February 2006, the original package was fully replaced after 11 years. This time, the new package was designed by the Hungarian agencies Studio Baestarts and KGB Studios. The mascots were replaced with new partially 2D-animated ones, a girl named Mini, a boy named Max, and an anthropomorphic cat and dog respectively named Picicica (derived from the Romanian word for cat "pisică", Kočka Micka in Czech Republic and Slovakia)[35] and Macikutya (Cutulache in Romania, Bumbrlíček in Czech Republic and Slovakia).[36][37][38] The mascots do not speak in dialogue, like the channel's idents and information boards. They also feature in a similarly dialogue-less series of animated PSA shorts called MiniKRESZ, animated by Studio Baestarts.[39] In 2009, live-action versions of Mini and Max starred in the Minimax original show, MiniChef.

The signoff ident depicted Mini and Max putting Picicica and Macikutya to sleep, who come out the door just as Mini and Max leave, cutting to the Minimax logo. Other Minimax idents would play as the next station opened.[40][41] In 2015, the closedown was truncated to just Mini and Max putting the pets to sleep.

On 23 March 2013, both the logo and the idents received a fully 3D CGI refresh, which included the 2006 idents being reanimated.[42]

On 1 July 2021, the Hungarian feed rebranded its presentation again, with a package designed by Bulgarian agency ROBO LAB, with a redesigned version of the logo. Mini and Max were dropped after 15 years while Picicica and Macikutya had updated designs, however, they only appear on the channel's websites now, not on air.[43] The idents were rolled out to all other Minimax feeds on 1 August.[44] These idents re-introduced written information in start and end cards for commercial breaks, and in programme promotion.

Announcers

  • Balázs Láng (Hungarian) (1999–2008)
  • Attila Dolmány (Hungarian) (2008–2010)
  • Gábor Csőre (Hungarian) (2010–present)[45]
  • Libor Terš (Czech)
  • Marius Săvescu (Romanian) (2001–2008)
  • Alexandru Rusu (Romanian) (2008–present)

International channels

Availability of Minimax by country:
  Available, localised feed
  Available, other country's feed
  No longer available

Current channels

Launch date Country
6 December 1999  Hungary
1 June 2001  Romania
 Moldova
23 December 2003  Czech Republic
 Slovakia
17 June 2007  Serbia
 Croatia
 Slovenia (Serbian feed)
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 North Macedonia
 Montenegro
2011  Slovenia (Slovenian feed)

Defunct channels

Active date Country Replacement
1 January 1994–15 November 1998  Spain Fox Kids / Jetix
16 April 1999–16 October 2004  Poland ZigZap

See also

References

  1. ^ "Manga Classics - Minimax" (in Spanish). 24 September 2005.
  2. ^ Gallo, Isabel (2 December 1998). "Nace Fox Kids, una cadena infantil llena de acción, entretenimiento y aventuras". El País (in Spanish). elpais.com.
  3. ^ "Canal Plus launches Minimax channel". telecompaper.com. 13 December 1999.
  4. ^ "Canal Plus launches Minimax channel". telecompaper.com. 13 December 1999.
  5. ^ European Film and Media Culture. Lennard Højbjerg, Henrik Søndergaard. 2005. ISBN 9788763504270.
  6. ^ "Canal+ España promo (1993)". YouTube (in Spanish). 1993. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  7. ^ Rivas, Rosa (1 July 1995). "Minimax, un canal sin violencia exclusivo para el público infantil". El País (in Spanish). elpais.com.
  8. ^ "Manga Classics - Minimax" (in Spanish). 24 September 2005.
  9. ^ "Sogecable lanza Canalsatélite, la mayor oferta de televisión por satélite en España". El País (in Spanish). elpais.com. 12 January 1994.
  10. ^ Rivas, Rosa (2 August 1996). "Minimax se 'casa' con Nickelodeon". El País (in Spanish). elpais.com.
  11. ^ "Canal Satélite emitirá en Minimax programas infantiles de Fox Kids". El País (in Spanish). elpais.com. 2 April 1998.
  12. ^ Gallo, Isabel (2 December 1998). "Nace Fox Kids, una cadena infantil llena de acción, entretenimiento y aventuras". El País (in Spanish). elpais.com.
  13. ^ "Canal Plus launches Minimax channel". telecompaper.com. 13 December 1999.
  14. ^ Minimax - pierwszy polski kanał dla dzieci, minimax.com.pl
  15. ^ "Túl a tévémacin". hir24.hu. 5 February 2004. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  16. ^ Popular Television in Eastern Europe During and Since Socialism. Anikó Imre, Timothy Havens, Kati Lustyik. 10 September 2012. ISBN 9780415892483.
  17. ^ European Film and Media Culture. Lennard Højbjerg, Henrik Søndergaard. 2005. ISBN 9788763504270.
  18. ^ ANIME+
  19. ^ Popular Television in Eastern Europe During and Since Socialism. Anikó Imre, Timothy Havens, Kati Lustyik. 10 September 2012. ISBN 9780415892483.
  20. ^ "Minimax Slovakia". Minimax Slovakia (in Slovak). Minimax. 29 October 2009. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009., the website stopped operating sometime after this date.
  21. ^ "Minimax gets Slovenian deal". digitaltveurope.com. 22 November 2011.
  22. ^ "Minimax". Minimax Slovenia (in Slovenian). Minimax. 15 June 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  23. ^ Kardos Attila (3 December 2013). "Megszűnik az Animax!" (in Hungarian). sat-tv-radio.hu. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  24. ^ "24 órás lesz a Minimax" (in Hungarian). sat-tv-radio.hu. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  25. ^ "Минимакс ће почети 24-часовну шему". Mts.
  26. ^ "Éjféltől eltűnik a Sport1 és a Sport2 a DIGI-től, de a Spektrum, a TV Paprika és a többi AMC-s tévécsatorna mégis megmarad". 31 December 2019.
  27. ^ "Mini Max Promos - 17th April 1994". YouTube. 17 April 1994. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
  28. ^ Identidad televisiva en 4D (in Spanish). Costa Solà-Sagalés Costa, Joan Costa. 2005. ISBN 9789990508062.
  29. ^ "Minimax Promos Part 1 - July 1997". YouTube. July 1997. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2007.
  30. ^ "Minimax reklám 2004 (2.)date=2004". YouTube (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  31. ^ "Minimax - Oprawa graficzna 1999-2004 (UPDATE)". YouTube (in Polish). 1999. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  32. ^ "Minimax - Testcard z lat 2002 - 2004 (W kolorze)". YouTube (in Polish). 2002. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  33. ^ "Minimax - Ident compilation (Romania) (2004-2006) (part 2)". YouTube. 2004. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  34. ^ "Minimax adászárás - A+ adáskezdés - 2005. július [újradigitalizált]". YouTube (in Hungarian). July 2005.
  35. ^ "Minimax Slovakia". Minimax Slovakia (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  36. ^ "MiniKRESZ - YouTube" (in Hungarian). MiniKRESZ. 17 March 2014.
  37. ^ "Minimax Romania Closedown/A+TV Start Up (February - August 31, 2006)". YouTube (in Romanian). 2006. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  38. ^ "Minimax Slovakia". Minimax Slovakia. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  39. ^ "MiniKRESZ - Fogd a kezem átkelésnél! - rajzfilmsorozat, filmek gyerekeknek (mese, KRESZ gyerekeknek) - YouTube" (in Hungarian). MiniKRESZ. 20 March 2014. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021.
  40. ^ "Minimax adászárás - A+ adáskezdés (+reklám, ajánló) (2007. február 10.)". YouTube (in Hungarian). 10 February 2007. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  41. ^ "Minimax adászárás - Animax adáskezdés (2014. március 31.) UTOLSÓ!". YouTube (in Hungarian). 31 March 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  42. ^ "Minimax Closedown No C8 3". YouTube. 2013. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  43. ^ "Minimax Klub" (in Hungarian). AMC Networks. July 2021.
  44. ^ "Minimax Hungary promos, ads (01.07.2021)". YouTube (in Hungarian). 1 July 2021. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021.
  45. ^ "Csatornahangok". Emtv.blog.hu. 1 January 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
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