DDTV (Direct Digital TV, frequently mistaken for Dan Diaconescu TV) was a Romanian free-to-air entertainment television channel, founded by

Dan Diaconescu Dan Cristian Diaconescu (; born December 9, 1967 in Caracal, Socialist Republic of Romania) is a Romanian journalist, politician, presenter, the founder and owner of the former DDTV and OTV television channels. He graduated from the Faculty of ...

in 2005. Unlike its sister channel, OTV, DDTV was mostly a children's television channel, since its daytime programming consisted of classic animated series.

Overview

Launched in 2005, the channel did broadcast talk shows, such as "Deșteptarea României" and "Dan Diaconescu Direct", which also aired on OTV. In the summer of 2009, it was announced that DDTV will be rebranded with a completely new programming schedule, getting rid of the talk shows it did broadcast. The rebrand took place on 23 August 2009. In mornings and afternoons, the channel was broadcasting animated shorts, mostly

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

cartoons from

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of i ...

Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized contro ...

Van Beuren Van Beuren () is a Dutch surname. The word ''van'' is equivalent to the English "of" and the German ''von'', hence it usually is not capitalized in names. The similar name, Buren, is a city or estate in the Netherlands which was ruled by the Egmond ...

ComiColor Cartoons The ComiColor Cartoon series is a series of 25 animated short subjects produced by Ub Iwerks from 1933 to 1936. The series was the last produced by Iwerks Studio; after losing distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934, the Iwerks studio's senior com ...

Flip the Frog Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933. The series had many recurring char ...

The Gumby Show ''Gumby'' is an American clay animation franchise, centered on the titular green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey. Gumby stars in two television series, the feature-length '' Gumby: The Movie'', and other media. He imm ...

(most of them being 60s cartoons with the 80s track, plus some episodes from the "revival") and some from

Soyuzmultfilm Soyuzmultfilm ( rus, Союзмультфи́льм, p=səˌjʉsmʊlʲtˈfʲilʲm , ''Union Cartoon'') (also known as SMF Animation Studio in English, Formerly known as Soyuzdetmultfilm) is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Launched in ...

(such as

Nu, pogodi! ''Well, Just You Wait!'' (russian: Ну, погоди!, Nu, pogodi!, p=ˈnu pəɡɐˈdʲi) is a Soviet, later Russian, series of animated short films produced by Soyuzmultfilm. In the 2014 all-Russian poll, ''Well, Just You Wait!'' won by a ...

). There were also some exceptions of illegally copyrighted material being aired, like

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

Yogi Bear Yogi Bear is an anthropomorphic animal character who has appeared in numerous comic books, animated television shows and films. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in ''The Huckleberry Hound Show''. Yogi Bear was the first ...

and

Huckleberry Hound Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character, a blue anthropomorphic coonhound that speaks with a North Carolina Southern drawl. He first appeared in the series ''The Huckleberry Hound Show''. The cartoon was one of six TV shows to ...

, Joe Oriolo's ''Felix the Cat'' TV series (plus even some episodes of

The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat ''The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat'' is an American animated television series produced by Film Roman. The series first aired on September 16, 1995 on CBS lasting for two seasons with the final episode airing on April 12, 1997. The first season ...

) and

Casper the Friendly Ghost Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio. T ...

theatrical shorts (apparently taken from the ''Casper and Wendy's Ghostly Adventures'' VHS release). In the evenings and nights, it did broadcast movies and documentaries targeted at teenagers. The channel was closed on 24 February 2014, because its audiovisual license wasn't extended.

Criticism

In September 2009, DDTV was fined by CNA with 50,000 RON for broadcasting content (from Warner Bros.) without having the necessary rights to broadcast them, after Warner Bros. notified CNA about this problem. After OTV was closed by the CNA, Diaconescu used DDTV to broadcast the programs usually shown on OTV and CNA fined DDTV 100,000 lei (25,000 euros) in October 2013.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20180426135705/http://www.ddtv.home.ro/ * mms://82.76.12.224:8081 Live feed (Windows Media) {{Television in Romania Defunct television channels in Romania Romanian companies established in 2009 2014 disestablishments in Romania Television channels and stations established in 2009 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2014