Founding BabyTV was first developed in December 2003 as an educational block for babies and toddlers in
Israel by Ron Isaak, Maya and Liran Talit and members of their families. The Talits relocated to London to establish International Baby TV. Their first international deal was with
Télévision Par Satellite in France. The first six programs to air on BabyTV were "Hands Up", "Tulli", "Bouncy Balls", "Jammers", "Little Chick" and "1, 2, 3, Tell A Story".
News Corp acquisition and international expansion In October 2007,
News Corp's
Fox International Channels acquired a majority stake in BabyTV, placing it alongside its international offerings of
Fox Crime,
Fox,
National Geographic and others. Rebranded as
Vision 3 Baby and dubbed in Indonesian, it has the same program content and schedules as BabyTV Asia. Vision 3 Baby has since been replaced by the international version of BabyTV. The channel was also launched on
Sky Digital in the
UK on 5 February 2007. In January 2008,
StarHub brought it to Singapore and
ONO in
Spain. By this time, BabyTV was also available in South Korea through
MegaTV and
HanaTV, Taiwan via
Yoyo TV, on
VTV3 in Vietnam, and on FoxHD and the
National Geographic Channel in Japan. On July 7, 2007, Baby TV began broadcasting in the CIS and Baltic countries. The channel broadcasts exclusively in English, but since 2013 programs in Russian have been posted on the YouTube channel and on services. BabyTV was added on
Cablevision and
Multicanal on April 1st, 2007. In 2008, French authorities banned the broadcasting of programs aimed at children under the age of 3, and ordered warnings to be included on foreign channels available in France such as BabyTV and its competitor
BabyFirst. The channel, along with
Fox Crime and
Fox, was launched in India on 25 March 2009. In June, a localized Spanish-language channel was added to
Sky Mexico. The following month, it was also added to
Sky Italia. In July 2010, it was announced that Fox and
Asia Television Limited would bring BabyTV to Hong Kong through
Now TV. In January 2011,
RRsat signed an agreement with BabyTV to distribute the channel to North America via
Intelsat’s
Galaxy 23 satellite. In February, BabyTV was added to the Spanish-language programming package of
Dish Network. In May, it launched in Malaysia via
Astro. In December, BabyTV was launched in the Philippines via
Sky Cable. In June 2012, the channel was brought to Japan in partnership with J:COM. In October, BabyTV premiered on
mio TV (now known as
Singtel TV) in Singapore. That same month, Pixel TV in Ukraine added the channel. In November 2016, BabyTV was added to
Sling TV as part of the company's offering for children. On September 24, 2013,
Fox International Channels collaborates with
13TV to make a morning block of BabyTV from weekends at 9:45am in
Spain. It is also available on
beIN Network with
Arabic language.
Disney acquisition and discontinuation in certain territories On March 20, 2019,
The Walt Disney Company finalized its
acquisition of
21st Century Fox. Baby TV became a part of
Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International with US distribution being taken over by Walt Disney Television. It was considered a surplus asset in the deal, due to its properties having no connection to any existing Disney properties or characters, and
Disney Junior was already Disney's major preschool and toddler brand. The company already had dealt with various issues regarding
screen time for newborns and toddlers (including its own controversial
Baby Einstein franchise it sold off in 2013), so BabyTV has become
de facto depreciated over time by its new ownership. On 31 January 2021, Japanese cable providers stopped airing BabyTV. On 1 September 2021, BabyTV ceased broadcasting on
Now TV. On 1 October 2021, BabyTV and numerous other Disney-owned channels would end transmissions in Southeast Asia. On 18 October 2021, Disney announced that it would close down BabyTV in India alongside
Star World and
Star World Premiere HD on 15 March 2023, following similar decisions taken worldwide to close down English general entertainment channels. In January 2022,
Astro informed its customers that BabyTV would be replaced by
Moonbug Kids starting in February. On 9 June 2022, BabyTV ceased broadcasting in
Latvia, because the TV license was from Russia. On 1 October 2022, BabyTV, National Geographic, and National Geographic Wild were closed in Italy, Russia and Belarus discontinuing all active linear TV services owned by Disney in those countries, apart from
Disney Channel in Russia. BabyTV is still available in Russian and Italian on
YouTube. Baby Network Limited was liquidated in September 2023. That same month,
Charter Communications in the United States dropped BabyTV and its Spanish language simulcast, among several other channels, from
Spectrum to retain carriage of other Disney networks and pick up
Disney+ streaming plans. Focusing solely on Disney+ and
Disney+ Hotstar, The Walt Disney Company ceased broadcasting in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Korea, and Philippines in October 2023. Services in Taiwan were shut down in December. Since 2024, BabyTV has been managed by Disney's
European, Middle East and African division. On March 28, 2024, BabyTV's transmission in The Netherlands, Portugal, and Scandinavia was hijacked to broadcast Russian propaganda. After a second incident on April 17; the network was pulled and moved to a new transponder with increased security. The network remains available in
Armenia, and archived content from the network in Russian remains available on YouTube. In
Hispanic America, the channel continues to operate. On April 29, 2025, Liquid Rock Entertainment was named as the international distributor for BabyTV's catalogue, acting on behalf of
Disney Platform Distribution. On September 30, 2025, BabyTV closed down in France. ==Topics==