Disney Plans to Kill SoapNet in 2012

When Disney Kills SoapNet in 2012 they intend to replace it with a service aimed at preschoolers. The current plan is to call the new station Disney Junior.

Ms. Sweeney (Anne Sweeney, co-chairwoman of Disney Media Networks) called the decision to unplug SoapNet “a tough one,” but one that made business sense because the original purpose of the channel, shifting soap operas from day to night, had grown obsolete with the rise of digital video recorders.

....Opinion

When SoapNet began most houses had vcr's and most everyone was quite literate to program to record their soaps. I don't really know what the use of DVR's has to do with anything. The purpose of SoapNet was to catch channel flippers and get people hooked on a Soap at a different hour.

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Disney, which is trying to secure long-term advertising commitments for SoapNet, says that the channel will not go dark for 18 months or so. (Note the or so.) The company is in the final stages of obtaining approval for the new format from cable affiliates that carry SoapNet. Although ABC remains committed to its soap operas, including “General Hospital” and “All My Children,” other broadcasters have been moving away from the genre, limiting the amount of content available for SoapNet.

.......Opinion

How committed is ABC to its Soaps. Isn't One Life To Live still on????

Isn't Cable already saturated with programs for children???

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I obviously have no problem with Disney adding more programming for children. Course I say that as someone who, when I was a child, was generally pissed off when anyone tried to make me watch shows that were dummied down for children and filled with mindless propaganda in the name of education.