Cartoon Network is a pan-European children's pay television channel owned by the EMEA sub-division of the international division of Warner Bros.
The channel started broadcasting on 25 September 2024, after the merger between the French, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Scandinavian feeds.
A localization of the namesake American channel, it airs primarily in Western Europe along with other countries in the EMEA region.
Cartoon Network Europe first launched on 17 September 1993 as part of a timesharing service with TNT Classic Movies.
[13] Unlike in France, Cartoon Network is free in all Swiss TV providers, and it is the most popular kids channel in French.
An original video game titled Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL was released on the Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS.
[20] On 4 September 2017, Cartoon Network France fully rebranded using graphics from the Dimensional branding package.
Cartoon Network launched in Munich, Germany on 3 September 2005 as a Saturday morning programming block on kabel eins.
[25] The channel's broadcasts included other Germanic-speaking countries such as: Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol in Italy, and Luxembourg.
However, a version of the channel called TNT & Cartoon Network continued to appear on some providers in Europe.
On 1 January 2000, a regional Scandinavian version of Cartoon Network was created, broadcasting in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
In mid-May 2009, the branding was changed to the Arrow era as seen on other CN feeds in the EMEA region at the time.
Distributors that only broadcast the partial version include Viasat, Telia Digital-tv and many smaller analogue cable systems.
[37] At the request of the Czech regulator, between NEPLP [lv], from 17 April 2023, the channel starts broadcasting in Latvia, replacing the Southeastern European version, but completely on 1 May 2023.
The Portuguese-language version of the channel started to broadcast their feed to Angola and Mozambique on 1 October 2013,[39] coincidentally a few months after Cartoon Network in Spain closed.
On 3 December 2013, the Portuguese channel was officially launched in Portugal on all cable operators, switching from the Pan-European version (in English) [40] at 20:00, broadcasting in 16:9.
The Pan-European English feed was removed from the operator NOS service, along with other foreign language international channels on 1 February 2010, and the Portuguese-language Panda Biggs was included in its place.
[42] In 1997, Canal Satélite Digital signed an agreement with Time Warner in which, apart from obtaining rights from the production company, it also benefited from the entry of Cartoon Network and TNT in its offer.
Turner Broadcasting System Europe announced on 14 June 2013 that Cartoon Network and Cartoonito would close in Spain on 30 June 2013, due to dwindling TV ratings and the pay TV crisis Spain had at that time as a consequence of the 2008 financial crisis.
[43] On 20 June, it was published on the blog of the Cartoon Network website the cessation of its television broadcasts, but noting that the website would remain active,[44] with its content becoming available on demand (VOD) services for tablets, smartphones or televisions connected to the Internet in which viewers could watch the series and content of the channel.
Properly throughout September 2024, Cartoon Network Portugal was in the channel's censorship and controversies, when it moved to Western Europe.
The censorship was motivated by the channel's decision not to acquire the Portuguese-dubbed version from PSB (which dubbed the golden age of American animation onto VHS), which is notable for containing xenophobic and racist caricatures and actions, as well as violence involving weapons, household objects and torture.
With this in mind, and to avoid controversy and problems with the media, Cartoon Network only aired the silent episodes (although it censored some of them) and only subtitled the graphics.