Disney Cinemagic was the same as Sky Movies in that it didn't have ad breaks during the films, but showed a block of ads lasting around 10/15 minutes in between each film.
Out of interest are the Disney channels in the UK still completely ad free?
No. It changed about 5/6 years ago IIRC.
I believe in 2013, which to be fair was still a long time after it ceased being an add-on subscription and became included in the standard Sky/Virgin packages.
Even when they didn't have proper commercials, they still had breaks, consisting of trails for other shows but also entire music videos by Disney Channel stars, and I also recall extended clips of the songs from High School Musical in the weeks up to its premiere, which meant anyone who was a regular viewer of the channel was already overfamiliar with the songs anyway. I also recall extended promos for other Disney properties, like the theme parks or movies, under the name 'Disney 365'.
I do wonder when exactly it was Disney Channel stopped being simply a channel that showed Disney related programming and became a proper channel in its own right, with its own original series and movies, and breakout stars. Sometime around 2004-2006 perhaps?
Out of interest are the Disney channels in the UK still completely ad free?
No. It changed about 5/6 years ago IIRC.
I believe in 2013, which to be fair was still a long time after it ceased being an add-on subscription and became included in the standard Sky/Virgin packages.
Even when they didn't have proper commercials, they still had breaks, consisting of trails for other shows but also entire music videos by Disney Channel stars, and I also recall extended clips of the songs from High School Musical in the weeks up to its premiere, which meant anyone who was a regular viewer of the channel was already overfamiliar with the songs anyway. I also recall extended promos for other Disney properties, like the theme parks or movies, under the name 'Disney 365'.
I do wonder when exactly it was Disney Channel stopped being simply a channel that showed Disney related programming and became a proper channel in its own right, with its own original series and movies, and breakout stars. Sometime around 2004-2006 perhaps?
The first Disney Channel original series were around 1997/98.
Disney Channel in the US has I believe always been around airing its own stuff, I believe they set up Just A Laugh Productions with its sole aim of creating material for Disney Channel, and later XD, labelled as a DCOS - Disney Channel Original Series. It's only been relatively recently they've started acquiring stuff.
Same for the so-called DCOMs - Disney Channel Original Movies, though as you might expect a lot of these are all "meh" and were often adaptions of existing shows.
On the 31st of March, shutting down:
Disney XD France and Disney Cinema France (for the time being, they continue in overseas French territories)
Disney XD Spain
Disney XD Germany shutting down completely (already gone from Sky Germany), and Disney Junior on Sky Germany
Disney Channel Italy and Disney Junior Italy (unless an unlikely delay is decided) , so that Italy will be left with no Disney channel
On the 31st of March, shutting down:
Disney XD France and Disney Cinema France (for the time being, they continue in overseas French territories)
Disney XD Spain
Disney XD Germany shutting down completely (already gone from Sky Germany), and Disney Junior on Sky Germany
Disney Channel Italy and Disney Junior Italy (unless an unlikely delay is decided) , so that Italy will be left with no Disney channel
Disney Channel and Disney Junior are still available in Italy and both continue on Sky Italia.