The Walt Disney Company France (french: La Société Walt Disney), formerly Buena Vista International France, is one of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's international divisions and also European divisions. It is headquartered in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

. The Walt Disney Company France is in charge of all Disney's brands and productions in France. The company also owns and operates French versions of Disney television channel and the

Disneynature Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for The Walt Disney Studios. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France. The company's n ...

film unit. The Walt Disney Company France also co-produces content with other French media companies.

History

Gaumont Buena Vista International

Gaumont and

Buena Vista International Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It ha ...

formed Gaumont Buena Vista International, their joint venture French distribution company, in 1992. In a

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

is launched in France, also serving Luxembourg and Switzerland. After the purchase of Fox Family Worldwide, Disney also got a major ownership interest in Fox Kids Europe, which included Fox Kids in France. Fox Kids switched over to

Jetix Jetix (stylized as JETIX) was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action/adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated from the S ...

in August 2004. Disney Channel +1, a timeshift channel, and a

Playhouse Disney Playhouse Disney was a brand of programming blocks and international cable and satellite television channels that were owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit (now Disney Branded Television) of The Walt Disney Company's Disney–ABC Televis ...

channel launched in 2002. As of 30 June 2004, BVPD and Gaumont dissolved their French distribution joint venture, Gaumont Buena Vista International.

Buena Vista International France

On 30 November 2008 at 8:30 PM,

Disney Cinemagic Disney Cinemagic was a European television brand that consisted of a group of television channels owned by Walt Disney Company Limited (UK) plus two programming blocks by Disney Channels Worldwide. It used to be broadcast on most countries in Wes ...

HD debuted in France broadcasting on CANALSAT from 6am to 1am daily, making the channel the first "children and family HDTV channel in a French market". Jean-Francois Camilleri, head of the company, had the company acquire ''

March of the Penguins ''March of the Penguins'' ( French ''La Marche de l'empereur'' ; ) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary dep ...

'' for the French market. Buena Vista International France also managed to obtain a 20% ownership stake in the French version of the film. However, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution's bid to distribute the film in the US ultimately failed. At the formation of the

film unit, Camilleri was placed in charge of the unit.

Walt Disney Company France

In 2011, Disney Channel HD was launched and

Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven yea ...

replaced the Playhouse channels. Disney Cinemagic in France was replaced by Disney Cinema in . In 2012, a Disneynature cable TV channel was launched in France. It is currently carried by

France Telecom Orange S.A. (), formerly France Télécom S.A. (stylized as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. In 2015, ...

. Camilleri resigned his posts with Disney France in March 2019. While Helene Etzi was appointed to take over his responsibility as head of Disney's French operations, there was no word on who would helm Disneynature.

Divisions

; Cinema * Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures France (former ''Buena Vista International France''), distribution unit. * Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment France (former ''Buena Vista Home Entertainment France''), video distribution unit. *

, a film unit that produces documentary. ; Television *

, flagship channel. * Disney Channel +1, a +1 time shift channel. *

, a channel aimed mainly at children 2–7 years old. ; Streaming service * Disney Channel Pop Pick Play, a service dedicated to

productions, include in some TV packages. * Disney English, an educational service include in some TV packages. * Holà Disney, an educational service include in some TV packages. ; Video on demand service * Disneytek, a service dedicated to

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

and

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

productions. * ABCtek, a service dedicated to

ABC Studios ABC Signature is an American television Filmmaking#Production, production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the List of assets owned by The Walt Disney Company#Disne ...

productions. * Disneynature TV, a service dedicated to

productions.

Euro Disney S.A.S. Euro Disney S.A.S. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company responsible for Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. Disneyland Paris comprises Disneyland Park, Walt Disney Studios Park, Disney Village, and seven on-site Dis ...

, Disney Store France and

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

are not part of The Walt Disney Company France.

Closed divisions

; Cinema and animation *

Walt Disney Animation France The Walt Disney Company has owned and operated several animation studios since the company's founding on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; the current Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, Cal ...

(former ''Brizzi Films''), an animation studio launched in 1986 and closed in 2003. *

SIP Animation SIP Animation (known as Saban International Paris until 2002) was a French animation studio, and a former subsidiary of Saban Entertainment. By 2009, the company had produced over 390 hours of animated content. Despite the name, the company was n ...

(49% minority stake) ; Press * Disney Hachette Presse, a magazine publisher co-own with

Hachette Filipacchi Médias Hachette Filipacchi Médias, S.A. (HFM) is a magazine publisher. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Active, a division of the media conglomerate Lagardère Group of France. History ''Hachette'' was founded by Louis Hachette (French ...

, closed in 2019. All publications are now published by Unique Heritage Media as part of a licensing agreement with The Walt Disney Company France. ; Television *

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...

and Toon Disney +1, a channel launched in 2002 and closed in 2007, replaced by

. *

, a preschool channel launched in 2002 and closed in 2011, replaced by

. * ESPN Classic Sport, a sport channel launched in 2002 and closed in 2013. *

, a channel launched in 2004 and closed in 2009, replaced by

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years ...

. *

and Disney Cinemagic +1, a cinema channel launched in 2007 and closed in 2015,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walt Disney Company France, the Companies based in Paris

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Mass media companies of France Television networks in France