Star Channel
Star Channel (formerly known as FOX and later Fox Channel) is a Latin American subscription television channel of US origin, owned by The Walt Disney Company Latin America and operated by Disney Media Networks Latin America. It is mainly aimed at the family audience.
| Star Channel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Broadcast area | Latin America |
| Headquarters | Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | Spanish Portuguese English (as an optional audio track) |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 480i for the channel's SDTV feeds) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | The Walt Disney Company Latin America (Disney International Operations) |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched |
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| Former names |
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| Links | |
| Website |
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| Availability | |
It began broadcasting on August 14, 1993 under the Fox name, presenting comedy, action, and drama series under its original name (except for The Simpsons and Futurama), as well as films of various cinematographic genres. Since 2005, it has had a block of cartoons for adults, broadcast from Monday to Friday at night called ¡No Molestar! (¡Do Not Disturb!).
On November 5, 2018, the channel was renamed to Fox Channel. After the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney in 2019, and in order to avoid relating it to the current Fox Corporation, on November 27, 2020, Disney announced that the Fox channels would be renamed under the name Star, issue that was finalized on February 22, 2021.[1]
History
[change | change source]Beginnings (1990s)
[change | change source]On August 14, 1993, Fox extends its broadcasts to Latin America. Its programming had a high percentage of series aimed at families and adults. In its beginnings, the signal broadcast old series from 20th Century Fox such as Batman and Lost in Space, among other series. The most watched series on the channel are The Simpsons [citation needed], which is broadcast to this day, along with series such as Dark Angel, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Ally McBeal, among others. In addition, the signal broadcasts a block of movies since its inception, either from 20th Century Fox, as well as from other film production companies such as Dreamworks, and is characterized by transmitting suspense, action, drama, comedy and animated films.
In 1994, Fox had blocks dedicated to the family and the sports world, so some of them were on the channel itself to date. Its first blocks were Cine Fox, Fox Kids and Fox Sports.
In 1999, the Hispano-American signal decided to create an animated block on Sundays named Animated Sunday, where series such as The Simpsons, Futurama and Los Reyes de la Colina, among other series, were broadcast. That same year they created the website canalfox.com to see information about the series, channel programming, movies, etc.
2000s
[change | change source]In 2005, Fox decided to change the name of animated Sunday to Do Not Disturb!, a section that has the same characteristics as the previous block, but during the commercials, acid dialogues of some subject are shown.
In 2007, the Fox website changes its name to mundofox.com but the theme of the site is the same and includes special sites for the series, videos and image galleries.
That same year, Fox created the first original series for Latin America: Final Time, an adaptation of the Argentine series of the same name. It is produced in Colombia by the production company Fox Telecolombia and has the participation of renowned Ibero-American actors. This series also aired on FX.
In 2008, and as part of its 15th anniversary, Fox organized a contest where viewers could take a photo with any object, but as long as it bore the figure of an oval that represents the letter "O" of the Fox brand, having a recognized success since more than 350,000 photos per minute (approximately) were sent to the site.
2010s
[change | change source]
Starting in 2012, the Fox site is renamed canalfox.com again, as it reserved the mundofox.com site for the launch of MundoFox.
On October 15, 2013, the channel premiered a new graphic package for its 20th anniversary. On August 17, Fox kicked off its 20th anniversary celebration with a 24-hour marathon of The Simpsons. On December 28, 2014, the channel began broadcasting 16:9 programming for series originally shot in that aspect ratio. On February 9, 2015, Fox debuted a new graphics package.
On November 5, 2018, the channel changed its typography, graphics, and renamed itself Fox Channel.
2020s
[change | change source]On February 22, 2021, the channel was renamed as Star Channel. This change also affected Fox Life and Fox Premium, which were renamed Star Life and Star Premium respectively.
Sister channels
[change | change source]Through the commercial success, other channels associated with Star (formerly Fox) have been released:
- FX (Latin American TV channel): The channel is a counterpart of the flagship FX channel, many shows which were broadcast on Fox have been moved to FX, such as Prison Break and Bones. The channel is mainly orientated to male audiences.
- Star Life (Latin American TV channel) (formerly Fox Life): It was orientated mainly to female audiences.
- Star Premium (Formerly Fox Premium):
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "Disney Renaming Fox Channels in Latin America to Star | What's on Disney Plus". 27 November 2020.
Other websites
[change | change source]- Star Channel Latin America (in Spanish)
- Star Channel Brasil (in Portuguese)