Will Disney close all the UK linear kids channels?

What? @DisneyChannelUK gave us such great presenting opportunities and brought so much joy to many. Very proud to have been part of their story from 1997-2005 and very grateful for the lifelong friendships that resulted from it. They can’t close those memories down 🥰 The BEST! https://t.co/0Cqi497rwc

— Nigel Mitchell (@MrNigelMitchell) June 25, 2020

I wonder what those two are up to now?
We all know Alex is still around on BBC Points West, but what happened to them and Alex's Playhouse Disney co-star, Dave?

Without sounding harsh, check their Twitters. Nigel recently reunited with Jemma and Jean

Well it's nice they've reunited after 15 years since DC scrapped continuity and WWOD to become more like their American counterpart later on.

I can imagine their sadness when they found out the channel that jump started their careers is suddenly gone after 25 years on air.

BabyTV is moving to 609 (Disney Channel UK's original channel number) on Sky on October 14th.

BabyTV was a part of Fox channels before the Disney's acquisition. I wonder why it wasn't integrated into Disney Channel family immediately.

My only guess would be that it’s likely still tied up in existing carriage deals with the rest of the former Fox Network Group portfolio - Disney would still have to honour any contracts that were agreed before they acquired the Fox channels.

https://deadline.com/2020/10/sky-dreamworks-deal-madagascar-dragons-rescue-riders-1234599356/

Not a huge surprise given the two are corporate siblings but Sky are adding a raft of Dreamworks content to Sky Kids which I guess should help fill the content gap left by the Disney departure.

The good bit about this for me is that Sky will air the shows on Sky One, which has always looked much better as a general entertainment channel when it has been showing a mix of genres.

In its early years kids programmes were a big part of Sky One - DJ Kat and Fun Factory of course - and even throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s there were still kids shows in the lineup. So a bit of a return to roots there.

I think it’s a perfectly sensible idea in the absence of a linear outlet - and adding it to the standard entertainment channel acts as a possible upsell to the kids’ platform.

Sky did do this a few months ago but it's great to see it come back to compete with current linear stations and CITV on ITV. Still though, the idea of a Sky Kids channel is still there but I don't see Sky wanting to do that since streaming is the future after all.

They didn't close the Disney Channel for nothing!