Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the Little Mermaid will soon have a cable television network to call their own.
The Walt Disney Co. has announced that it will launch Toon Disney, an all-animation companion network to the Disney Channel, on April 18, 1998.It will be an immediate competitor to Time Warner's Cartoon Network, which in November was tied with TBS and TNT as the second-highest rated basic cable network.
"There's more than enough room for high-quality programming," said Anne Sweeney, executive vice president of the Disney/ABC Cable Networks.
Toon Disney has more than 2,200 episodes of animated features in its library. The network's schedule is still in flux, although some highlights will be "The Little Mermaid," "Gummi Bears," "New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and "Darkwing Duck."
Toon Disney will be taking on the Cartoon Network's formidable library of features, including Loony Tunes, the Flintstones, the Jetsons and Tom & Jerry.
Disney is positioning itself for the age of digital television, when there will be room for a lot more channels on cable systems, said Larry Gerbrandt, a cable analyst for Paul Kagan & Associates.
"Anything Disney does has a chance," he said.
The new network will be offered exclusively to cable operators that already carry the Disney Channel as a basic cable option.