eToonz is a South African digital satellite television

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

children's channel created and owned by eMedia Investments's

e.tv e.tv (commonly referred to on-air as e) is the first and only privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa. It is the fifth terrestrial television channel in the country, following three channels that are operated by the sta ...

. The channel broadcasts for a duration of 16 hours from Sunday to Friday, 17 hours on Saturday and 18 hours with movies during the school holidays. E+Toonz++logo

History

eToonz started as a 30 to 60 minute segment on the defunct Little e block which featured animated programs such as The Adventures Of Lerato and Alex and Deep & Dylan's Curious Minds - South African produced content. e.tv as a broadcaster launched eKasi+,eToonz+, eMovies+ and eAfrica+ as new sister channels as the first of its planned set of TV channels for digital terrestrial television (DTT). e.tv, the SABC and M-Net plan to each roll out their own collections of additional TV channels in South Africa eventually. Since government incompetence and industry infighting has long-delayed the digital switch-over process known as digital migration, e.tv launched its first 4 additional free-to-air TV channels on

OpenView HD OpenView is a free-to-view direct broadcast satellite television provider in South Africa which is run by Platco Digital (part of the eMedia Group which includes free-to-air channel e.tv). It launched on 15 October 2013. In addition to the "e" ...

, although the channels will become publicly available to all viewers once DTT starts. e.tv, tired, frustrated and becoming increasingly scared over its inability to grow its potential market share and possible diminishing returns on its existing market which could evaporate in the face of ongoing TV channel and audience fragmentation in South Africa, decided to no longer wait for DTT but to forge ahead and start launching its additional channels. as eToonz+ along with eKasi+ (now

eExtra eExtra (sometimes called e.tv Extra) is a South African digital satellite television channel owned by eMedia Holdings, offering a variety of lifestyle, dramas, telenovelas, court shows, sitcoms and movies. History e.tv as a broadcaster launched ...

), eAfrica+(now defunct) and eMovies+(now eMovies). At launch,

StarSat StarSat (formerly TopTV until 31 October 2013) is a South African direct broadcast satellite television service that began broadcasting on 1 May 2010. StarSat is operated by On Digital Media, who were granted a pay-TV license by ICASA in Septembe ...

entered talks with eMedia Investments over the potential of including their channels into their platform before things didn't work out. In 2017, news leaked that about the channel's possible availability on

DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

before being made official on May 17 alongside

eMovies eMovies is a 24-hour South African digital satellite television free-to-air movie channel created and owned by eMedia Investment's e.tv for the Openview platform. eMovies Extra is a sister companion channel. History The network launched on 1 ...

eMovies Extra eMovies is a 24-hour South African digital satellite television free-to-air movie channel created and owned by eMedia Investment's e.tv for the Openview platform. eMovies Extra is a sister companion channel. History The network launched on 16 ...

and

. Later that year, e.tv gave eMovies+ and eToonz+ a reimaging; with digital television established, the "+" symbol imagery was also dropped from those two networks. eToonz and three other e.tv services were going to be removed from DStv on 1 April 2022 but the channel remained on DStv for another 2 months as the eMedia Investments filed an application to the Competition Tribunal regarding their carriage agreement with MultiChoice. By the end of May 2022, the channel ceased transmission on the DStv platform alongside eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra. The channel was supplemented by

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...

and

DreamWorks Channel DreamWorks Channel, commonly known as DreamWorks, is a pay television network owned and operated by the NBCUniversal International Networks division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. First launched in Southeast Asia on 1 August 2015, it e ...

. In August 2022, eToonz alongside eMovies, eMovies Extra and eExtra were reinstated on the DStv platform for another 6 months following pending investigation.https://prsdube16.blogspot.com/2022/08/etoonz-emovies-emovies-extra-and-eextra.html

Programming

Most of the channel's content comes from the Craz-e block on e.tv. Certain shows that weren't added onto the channel were the blocks former live-action youth shows. eToonz broadcasts wide range of cartoons, from pre-school shows like

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on th ...

Peppa Pig ''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series by Astley Baker Davies. The show follows Peppa, an anthropomorphic female piglet, and her family, as well as her peers portrayed as other animals. The show first aired on 31 Ma ...

and Super Why, with other cartoons from

Dreamworks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

Spirit Riding Free ''Spirit Riding Free'' is a computer-animated series, produced by DreamWorks Animation Television and distributed by Netflix, based on the 2002 Oscar-nominated traditionally animated film, '' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'', and the first ser ...

, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Trollhunters: Tales Of Arcadia; also anime like the

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

animated series and others such as The Deep.

References

External links

*{{official website Television stations in South Africa Television channels and stations established in 2013 Children's television networks