Spacetoon is a pan–Arab free–to–airtelevision channel that specialises in animation and children programs. It began broadcasting on 27 March 2000 with headquarters in Damascus and Dubai. The channel targets children from 4 to 8 years old. 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. The main Indonesian channel began airing on 23 March 2005 in Jakarta, it later became NET. and its broadcast remains on satellite television. Currently there are three Spacetoon channels in Indonesia, Spacetoon, Space Shopping and Spacetoon Plus. In India, Spacetoon India exists as licensing company, but not as a separate TV channel. In South Korea, Spacetoon launched in 2005 but has since closed down. Spacetoon is closely affiliated with Syria-based dubbing company Venus Centre. Spacetoon is broadcast in 22 countries, and has an audience of over 130million viewers.
History
Arab world
In 1999, Bahrain Radio and Television Corporation officially signed an agreement to broadcast a children's cartoon channel. On 27 March 2000, Spacetoon officially launched, but as a six-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. On March 3, 2013; the channel was rebranded, but never used by Indonesian counterpart.
In Indonesia, Spacetoon officially launched on 23 March 2005. The station was founded by H. Sukoyo, a former TV7 executive. When it was launched, Spacetoon broadcast on 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. WIB. Later broadcast timings were extended from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. WIB. When programming ended, a 10-minute section filled with animation, songs, and messages for kids was shown. On mid-2011, due to financial problems, Spacetoon began broadcasting some home-shopping program and alternative medicine program. In March 2013, 95% of Spacetoon ownership stakes were acquired by NET. Finally on 18 May 2013, Spacetoon officially closed for terrestrial to make way for NET. on terrestrial network, while Spacetoon broadcast in Indonesia still remains on satellite television. In September 2014, Spacetoon divided into two channels: Spacetoon and Spacetoon 2. Spacetoon 2 broadcasts more cartoon and animation than Spacetoon although still broadcasts some home-shopping programs. In May 2016, Spacetoon added another channel, Spacetoon 3. It had clearer audio than Spacetoon and Spacetoon 2, but was closed down on October of the same year. In November 2016, Spacetoon 2 was officially renamed as Space Shopping. The reason was home shopping programmes having way much revenue on the channel, which itself had little income. Currently, Spacetoon has three channels in Indonesia: Spacetoon, Space Shopping, and Spacetoon Plus.
Planets
Each of the programs aired were divided in blocks, called "planets", one for each genre:
