The Disney Channel will be available to Sky and to cable operators as a separate premium service from 2 March after an ITC investigation (subscribers see ITC Extends Bundling Review).
The decision is the result of detailed discussions between the Disney Channel, BSkyB and the ITC after complaints about the practice of requiring cable viewers to purchase two Sky movie channels before they could obtain the Disney Channel. As well as being available as a separate subscription service the channel will remain a bonus channel, free to dual movie subscribers.
To help promote the channel’s new wider availability, Disney Channel will offer three days of unencrypted programming from Saturday 21 to Monday 23 March 1998 as part of its ‘Big Free For All’ campaign.
