hough Mickey Mouse and his aide-de-camps made their way into the country�s heart long ago, Walt Disney Corp took a while to get both its feet on the Indian subcontinent. Most of the delay in launching its children�s channels in the country was due to the messy dissolution of its distribution deal with Modi Enterprise in August 2003. In 2004, the launch was further delayed as the media house dragged its feet on the choice of a new distribution partner, before tying up with the STAR Group late last year. Everything settled, The Walt Disney Company (India) had a dual launch with Toon Disney (pitched against Cartoon Network) and flagship The Disney Channel going on air on December 17, 2004.

Disney was supposed to have launched three channels at one go; however, as things stand, the third channel, Playhouse Disney aimed at pre-school kids, has been incorporated as part of The Disney Channel. With almost 3,000 hours of multi-genre content already dubbed into various languages, Toon Disney is India�s first and only 24-hour Tamil and Telugu kids channel, while Disney Channel is a 24-hour Hindi channel. Both the channels are also available in English in select markets (Toon Disney is expected to be available in Hindi by end 2005). ... more