Spacetoon (Arabic: سبيستون or سبيس تون) is a pan–Arab free–to–air television channel that specialises in animation and children programs. It began broadcasting on March 15, 2000 and its headquarter is based in Damascus, Syria, with another one in Dubai, UAE that opened on 2003. The channel targets children from 4 and up and is for the family. Its late night block Space Power is targeted at teenagers and young adults.
The Spacetoon company has had three now-defunct channels in the Arab world besides the main still existing Spacetoon channel: Space Power TV, Spacetoon Radio and Spacetoon English and a video on demand app called Spacetoon Go.
Spacetoon is closely affiliated with Syria-based dubbing company Venus Centre. Spacetoon is broadcast in 30 countries, and has an audience of over 500 million viewers.
The channel is affiliated with Spacetoon Media Group under the shadow of Global New Age Media, and it is considered one of the most prominent media brands directed to children in the Middle East and North Africa. The channel aims to make children happy in the Arab world and consolidate noble values and good qualities, as well as Islamic values like fasting and pilgrimage. It pays great attention to keeping pace with the contemporary world and presenting the latest series and cartoon programs while imbuing the values and moral character of the Arab and Islamic community, which made it unique and distinguished by being the first of its kind to take this approach in its content.
Spacetoon is considered to be the first channel on a large scale in content, culture, Arab identity, modernity, and intonation at the level of voices in the minds of these generations, starting from those who witnessed its opening in 2000 until today, despite the change of identity and offerings, the content and approach remain unchanged.
The idea of the channel is to navigate in space between its planets (shown below)
Languages[]
- Arabic
- English
- French
- Japanese
- Indonesia
- Korean
- Hindi
History[]
Origins (1985-1999)[]
Before the 1990s, there was no specialised children's channel that covered all of the Arabic world. Main channels would show children's shows in specific times of the day. Most of these were Japanese anime.
This changed in 1997, when Disney Channel launched in Arabic and English across the Arabic world (French Disney Channel was also available to Arabic countries that could speak French), but it was a paid channel, so the demand was still there.
In 1999, Bahrain Radio and Television Corporation officially signed an agreement to broadcast a children's cartoon channel.
The channel was themed after space, an endless place, just like a child's imagination. The planets of programming were in this space. The space motif is not unlike what Canadian channel Teletoon used in their first year, albeit Spacetoon separated planets by blocks, not by times of day.
2000-2005[]
On March 15, 2000, Spacetoon officially launched, but as a seven-hour block. It was for two years, until 12 January 2002 when the contract ended, according to a statement issued by the ministry. Later, Spacetoon was established as an independent channel.
2005-2013[]
On June 18, 2005, the channel changed its identity.
2013-present[]
On March 3, 2013, The channel was re-branded, but never used by Indonesia counterpart (Still uses 2005 rebranding).
In 2019, Spacetoon launched an app called Spacetoon Go.
Planets[]
Each of the programs aired were divided in blocks, called "planets", one for each genre:
- 1 Action [Planet of excitement and mystery] for action series.
- 2 Sports [Planet of challenge and strength] of the sports series.
- 3 Adventure [Planet of imagination and thrill] for imagination and adventure series.
- 4 Comedy [Planet of laughter] for comedy programs and sitcoms.
- 5 Movies [Planet of all colors] for the cartoons and animated movies.
- 6 Abjad [Planet of numbers and letters] for educational programs.
- 7 Bon Bon [Planet of big heroes] for baby shows.
- 8 History [Planet of time inmemorial] [former, 2000-2013] for the historical series.
- 9 Science [Planet of discovery and knowledge] for science programs.
- 10 Zumorroda [means "emerald" in Arabic, planet for girls only] for girly programs.