Minimax (TV channel)

Minimax is a international pay television channel aimed at children, broadcasting to Central European countries including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, ex-Yugoslav countries, Romania and Moldova, and select Asian countries including Japan, Philippines and India. Minimax's policy goals include edutainment and non-violent programs.

As of 2018, the channel runs 24 hours a day. Previously, since 2000, Minimax timeshared with Musicmax, Game One, ITV Hungary, M+, Cool, Animax, and C8 over the years.

As the channel broadcasts in multiple countries in multiple languages with the same schedule (except commercial advertisements), program trailers and other presentation elements do not feature written information.

History
Minimax has its origins in Spain, where it was launched on 1 January 1994. The original Minimax in Spain was replaced with Fox Kids in 1998. A version of Minimax was launched in Hungary on 6 December 1999. At launch, the channel aired only between 18:00-20:00 CET. Until 3 March 2000, it gradually extended its broadcast hours, and from that date onwards, the channel aired between 06:00-20:00 CET until 31 December 2017.

On 2 May 2000, a regional version of the French television channel Game One (originally planned as Game Channel) began timesharing with Minimax, broadcasting between 20:00-06:00 CET. In 1 June 2001, Minimax launched in Romania. On 27 August 2001, ITV Hungary took over Game One's time space.

On 9 February 2003, ITV Hungary closed down. Later that year, Minimax launched in Slovakia. On 1 January 2004, Minimax launched in Czech Republic, taking over the channel space of the defunct TV channel Supermax on some providers, while the Supermax channel still aired on a few providers. On 15 September 2003, M+ was launched taking over the evening slot. M+ is available only in smaller cable companies. Although most cable companies turned off the signal after Minimax signed off, UPC and UPC Direct after Minimax signed off instead aired the "Minimax for UPC" channel which broadcast programs from the now-defunct music channel Musicmax which was aired same channel space as Game One/ITV/M+ and Minimax.

On 4 September 2004, M+ merged with Humor 1 and renamed as Cool. When it was still called M+, it has operated independently from Minimax beginning in 6 December 2003. On 4 December 2004, A+ Anime began timesharing with Minimax, replacing Cool. In Hungary only on the UPC Direct platform the lesser-known music channel called A+ Music was aired on the same channel space as A+ and Minimax. On 6 September 2006, Sony Pictures Television International acquired A+ and later relaunched it as Animax on 2 July 2007.

In June 2007, Chellomedia (now AMC Networks International) acquired Minimax from Groupe Canal+. Later that year, the channel launched in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.

Animax broadcast for the last time in the region on 31 March 2014, and was relaunched as C8 on 1 April 2014 in Hungary and 5 May 2014 in Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. On 30 December 2015, C8 closed down in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, and Romania. Since that time, Minimax is 24/7 in those countries.

On 5 October 2017, AMC announced that Minimax would go 24/7 in Hungary. In December 2017, it was announced that Minimax would operate for 24 hours per day in Serbia by New Year's Eve. On 1 January 2018, C8 closed down completely and Minimax filled up the overnight slot, thereby running 24/7 onwards in Hungary too.

Near the end of 2019, it was announced that Minimax - and also, all AMC-owned channels - would be discontinued on DIGI. However, on 31 December 2019, executives made a last minute decision to continue broadcasting the channels.

Announcers

 * Balázs Láng (Hungarian) (1999–2008);
 * Attila Dolmány (Hungarian) (2008–2010);
 * Gábor Csőre (Hungarian) (2010–present);
 * Libor Terš (Czech);
 * Marius Săvescu (Romanian) (2001–2008);
 * Alexandru Rusu (Romanian) (2008–present);
 * Scott McCord (Canadian) (1999-present)
 * Chris Phillips (American) (1999-present);
 * Masami Kikuchi (Japanese) (1996-2003);
 * Hiroaki Takeuchi (Japanese) (2003-2013);
 * Jun Konno (Japanese) (2013-present);
 * Pui Fan Lee (British) (1996-1999)
 * Chris Jarvis (British) (1999-2002)
 * John Sparkles (British) (2002-2007);
 * Xavier Coronel (Latin Spanish) (1998-2006);
 * Mauro Ramos (Brazilian Portuguese) (1998-2006);
 * Kim Seong-jun (Korean) (1997-2006);
 * Billy Wei (Mandarin Chinese) (2010-present).

Trivia

 * All non-European feeds as well as the British feed (except for Israel, India and Pakistan) have used the 1995 mascots throughout their entire lifespan.
 * However, the Japanese, Thai, and Indian feeds switched to the 2004 logo around the same time the Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, and Slovak feeds did.
 * The Indian feed used both the 1995 and 2006 mascots simultaneously until 2013.
 * The British feed was going to air for a year longer than the expected shutdown date. However, due to Cartoonito launching earlier than planned, they had no other choice but to get rid of the feed.
 * Despite the Taiwanese feed launching in 2010, its identity package is based on the Japanese/Thai identity package.