Switchover Media (SOM) was an Italian broadcaster of television channels. The company first operated as a subsidiary of Netherlands-based broadcaster

Jetix Europe Jetix Europe N.V. (formerly known as Fox Kids Europe N.V.) was a European television broadcasting company that owned children's television channels and programming blocks across the Europe and Middle East, such as Jetix and Jetix Play. History ...

to being purchased out by its management and rebranding to Switchover Media in June 2009, to its purchase and folding by

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chann ...

in January 2013.

History

Fox Kids/Jetix

Fox Kids Italy S.r.l. was originally founded as a subsidiary of Fox Kids Europe N.V. in 2000 to help control the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Fox Kids feed. A syndicated Fox Kids analogue block was launched in 2001, airing programmes for a few hours a day. A one-hour-timeshift of Fox Kids would later launch, being one of only 2 Fox Kids timeshift channels in the world (the other being in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

). In 2004, as part of a worldwide partnership between Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America and

ABC Family Worldwide ABC Family Worldwide is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Television that is responsible for the operations of the U.S. cable network Freeform. The company was originally formed as International Family Entertainment, a spin-off of the Christian Bro ...

that would rebrand their operations under a single brand name titled

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 ...

, the company was renamed to Jetix Italia S.r.l. The rebrand began with the syndicated Fox Kids block being renamed to K-2 on October 1, while the channel's rebrand to Jetix happened in March 2005. In May 2005, a sister channel titled

GXT GXT was an Italian subscription-based comedy/entertainment television channel. History Jetix Europe launched GXT as a male teen channel in May 2005 on Mondo Sky. On June 1, 2008, a 1-hour-timeshift of GXT was launched on Sky Italia. Due to Dis ...

launched, which focused on a teenage to young-adult audience. A 1-hour-timeshift of GXT launched on June 1, 2008, exclusively on

Sky Italia Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an ag ...

As Switchover Media

On 8 December 2008, Disney made an agreement to increase ownership in Jetix Italy's parent company Jetix Europe to 96%, and eventually purchased the remainder of the company and had them delisted from

Euronext Euronext N.V. (short for European New Exchange Technology) is a pan-European bourse that offers various trading and post-trade services. Traded assets include regulated equities, exchange-traded funds (ETF), warrants and certificates, bonds, ...

. On 1 July 2009, K-2 was rebranded as simply K2, and launched as a standalone free-to-air broadcast network. On 15 July 2009, Jetix Italy S.r.l. announced a management buyout from Jetix Europe under the name of Switchover Media, and would purchase the GXT and K2 networks and blocks from The Walt Disney Company. The company also agreed to operate Jetix Italy for Disney until its rebranding as Disney XD Italy would go to fruition. In June 2010, Switchover launched a channel aimed at a young male audience, titled Frisbee, which was broadcast on

and

Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

. In 2012, Switchover moved out of the youth market with the launch of two specialized adult skewing channels. On May 14, the company launched Giallo, a female focused channel with crime drama, thrillers and whodunits programming from the US and Europe. In the Summer, the company under an agreement with Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori launched Focus on Italian digital terrestrial television, based on the popular science magazine of the same name. The channel is aimed at a male audience and factual based programming. In January 2013, Switchover was acquired by

. GXT and its timeshift both ceased broadcasting on December 31, 2014.

Channels

, Kids channel (Rebranded as Disney XD on September 28, 2009, owned by Disney until it closed down on October 1, 2019) *Jetix +1, 1-hour timeshift service (Rebranded as Disney XD +1 on September 28, 2009, owned by Disney until it closed down on October 1, 2019) *

, male focused pay channel (Closed in December 2014) *GXT +1, 1-hour timeshift service (Closed in December 2014) * K2, general kids channel * Frisbee, general kids channel *Giallo, free to air investigation-themed channel *Focus, a male-skewed factual entertainment channel

Notes

External links

*
Frisbee (TV channel)
(in Italian)
Giallo (TV channel)
(in Italian)
Focus TV
(in Italian) {{Italian television stations Italian brands Italian-language television networks Italian companies established in 2000 Italian companies disestablished in 2013 Mass media companies of Italy Mass media companies established in 2000 Mass media companies disestablished in 2013 2013 mergers and acquisitions Discovery, Inc.