ABC1 (British and Irish TV channel)


ABC1 was a British television channel owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company, available to the viewers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It used the branding of the Disney-owned American network, ABC.
The channel had general entertainment programming with programming from the US parent channel, apart from the weekend morning programming block Playhouse Disney, which was aimed at children.

History

ABC1 channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004 but only from 6am to 6pm with the expectations to eventually broadcast 24/7 by 2010. The channel did not air commercials for the first few months to build up viewers. In December 2004, it was launched on Telewest's digital cable service, and on 14 December on the NTL digital cable service.
In March 2005, ABC1 took its first advertisement from Procter and Gamble. Also in 2005, Sky started carrying the channel. In the summer 2006, a Playhouse Disney block was added to the schedule in the morning.
It was announced on 7 September 2007, that ABC1 would cease broadcasting on all UK TV platforms, due to Disney deciding to concentrate on their other channels and lack of primetime availability on Freeview. Despite being scheduled to close down on 1 October 2007, ABC1 ceased broadcasting on all UK TV platforms at noon on 26 September 2007.