The company got its start in 1995 when the Fox Broadcasting Company and Saban Entertainment announced a partnership in September to launch Fox Kids networks outside North America. In October 1996, the first international Fox Kids network launched in the United Kingdom, being the third network to launch outside North America after the Australiannote and Latin Americannote feeds.
Meanwhile, Saban and Fox decided to fully turn Fox Kids into a joint venture between both companies, forming Fox Kids Worldwide to help control distribution and management for the Fox Kids and Saban programs. Eventually, it rebranded as Fox Family Worldwide after the purchase of International Family Entertainment (which owned The Family Channel). Meanwhile for the international joint-venture, within the course of seven years, there were seven Fox Kids networks across the world. In November 1999, Fox Family Worldwide spun off the EMEA networks as a separately-operated public company based in the Netherlands, named Fox Kids Europe N.V. (FKE). FFW owned 74.7% of the business while the rest of the ownership was floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (later known as Euronext Amsterdam). Fox Kids Europe held all rights to the Fox Kids and Saban catalogues in Europe, Israel, and MENA, while Saban International handled television distribution services. Saban Entertainment itself retained the remaining rights to the library outside these regions and distributed FKE's own content elsewhere. Their licensing was done through co-owner Saban's UK Consumer Products division, which itself was soon reconsolidated at the end of 2000 as a subsidiary of FKE.
In July 2001, the Disney purchase of Fox Family Worldwide included FKE, with Disney deciding what to do with the company. Disney initially had plans to rebrand the channels under the Toon Disney brand but decided against the idea (due to the fact that a Toon Disney channel existed in the UK, Disney later decided to launch international Toon Disney channels during the 2000s). Meanwhile, Twentieth Century Fox allowed FKE to remain trading under the name under a non-term no-cost licensing agreement. By the end of 2001, FKE operated over 13 different networks across 54 countries and 16 languages.
On May 1, 2002, Saban's television distribution arms were folded into Buena Vista Television, and with that, Buena Vista International Television took over TV distribution servicing. The following year, Saban Consumer Products Europe was rebranded as Active Licensing Europe, while a sister network aimed at a younger audience - Fox Kids Play, had launched in Poland, CEE and MENA territories. Within this period, Fox Kids Europe began a process of acquiring distribution rights to a number of action-focused programmes from third-party companies, most famously Sonic X, for the Fox Kids networks. This was the start of a major change for the networks.
In January 2004, Fox Kids Europe, ABC Family Worldwide and the management of Fox Kids Latin America announced a three-way brand partnership; Jetix. This new brand would consist of branded blocks and channels, with Fox Kids Europe securing rights in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Israel. The company also teamed up with Walt Disney Television Animation to form Jetix Animation Concepts, which would consist of Disney-produced cartoons that would air on the Jetix networks and blocks.
The start of transition began with a Jetix-branded block that aired on Fox Kids in EMEA territories and mainly aired new programs and acquisitions. In May 2004, Active Licensing Europe was rebranded as Jetix Consumer Products (JCP) and soon Fox Kids Europe followed suit in July, rebranding as Jetix Europe. Then, the Fox Kids networks transitioned fully to the Jetix brand in a planned phase, beginning with France at the end of August 2004, and ending with Germany in June 2005. Fox Kids Play was rebranded to Jetix Play at that same time.
The rebranding proved to be a success and allowed Jetix Europe to commission more original series. Alongside this, Jetix Italia launched an additional sister network - GXT, in May 2005, which aired programs aimed towards a teenage audience. The company also operated K-2, a syndicated block that replaced the Fox Kids branded block in that country, which would convert into an FTA channel in 2009 under the slightly-altered name of K2.
As the years progressed, Jetix Europe began a larger partnership and association with its majority parent Disney. One example of this was in June 2008, when Jetix Europe transitioned the operations of Jetix France over to Disney's French unit, putting the channel in line with its own networks. Jetix networks also began airing Disney-branded blocks that aired programs from Disney Channel, mainly in areas where the respective network was not offered up (or in the case of certain regions such as CEE territories, Israel and Russia, having been broadcasted through FTA deals with other networks). Disney soon took over distribution sales for all Jetix Europe-owned networks within this year as well.
Then, the association began a step forward, following the announcement of Disney XD in August 2008 (which would launch in the United States in February 2009), as in December 2008, Disney announced they would officially acquire the rest of Jetix Europe that they didn't own, taking it off the Dutch Euronext, and 100% owning the company. The purchase was so the Jetix networks would be officially under the Disney umbrella, and to rebrand them under the Disney XD banner. As with Jetix, the Disney XD rebranding was done in phases, beginning with France in April 2009, and ending with the Netherlands in January 2010. In Scandivanian territories, Jetix merged with the local version of Toon Disney as in the United States, while in CEE and Israel, Jetix was instead rebranded as Disney Channel, as the brand had not yet been offered up in those territories. It seemed like the Greek feed would have been the same, but a standalone Disney Chanel launched instead while Jetix rebranded as Disney XD. In Italy, the company that operated the networks underwent a management buyout and rebranded as Switchover Media, taking GXT and K2 with them, as well as operating the Jetix Italy network under contract until it rebranded as Disney XD. The Russian feed on the other hand, split away from the CEE feed and remained as Jetix until permission was granted by Russian authorities to rebrand it as a standalone Russian version of Disney Channel in August 2010, followed by a wide FTA launch in that region the following year replacing Seven TV. The Jetix Play networks soon followed suit, being closed between August-September 2010, and replaced with standalone Playhouse Disney channels. This brought an end to the Jetix brand worldwide.
Since the rebranding, almost all of the co-produced programs or licensed shows have gone back to their original owners, while the Jetix Europe company was folded in March 2019.
Programs co-produced and aired by Jetix channels internationally:
- Alpha Teens on Machines (2005-2006, Co-produced with SIP Animation)
- Combo Niños (2008, Co-produced with SIP Animation)
- Gadget and the Gadgetinis (2002-2003, as Fox Kids Europe, co-produced with DiC Entertainment and SIP Animation)
- Galactik Football (2006-2010, Series 1-2, co-produced with Alphanim)
- Jason And The Heroes Of Mount Olympus (2001-2002, as Fox Kids Europe, co-produced with Saban International Paris)
- Jimmy Two-Shoes (2008-2010, Series 1, co-produced with Breakthrough Entertainment)
- Kid vs. Kat (2008-2010, Series 1, co-produced with Studio B Productions and distributed by DHX Media)
- Monster Buster Club (2008, co-produced with Marathon Media and Image Entertainment Corporation)
- Monster Warriors (2006, co-produced with Honeybore)
- Ōban Star-Racers (2006, co-produced with Sav! the World Productions)
- Pig City (2002-2004, as Fox Kids Europe, co-produced with CinéGroupe, AnimaKids Productions and Red Rover Studios)
- Pucca (2006-2008, co-produced with Studio B Productions and VOOZ Character System)
- Shuriken School (2006-2007, co-produced with Xilam and Zinkia Entertainment)
- Team Galaxy (2006, co-produced with Marathon Media and Image Entertainment Corporation)
- The Tofus (2004-2005, co-produced with SIP Animation and CinéGroupe)
- What's with Andy? (2003, Season 2, As Fox Kids France, co-produced with SIP Animation and CinéGroupe)
- W.I.T.C.H. (2004-2006, co-produced with SIP Animation and Disney)
Disney-licensed programs:
- Power Rangers (Co-funded production for Disney-era seasons, Home Video rights in some non-English territories, North American/British/Australian/Latin American home video rights, and all consumer product rights held by Disney/Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Non-Disney-licensed programs:
- Captain Flamingo (Licensed from Breakthrough Entertainment, excluding France)
- Iggy Arbuckle (Licensed from Blueprint Entertainment, excluding France and German Free-TV rights)
- Robo Roach (Licensed from Portfolio Entertainment and RTV Family Entertainment)
- Shaman King (2001) (Licensed from TV Tokyo)
- Sonic X (Licensed from TMS Entertainment, EMEA territories and Latin America (via BVI))
- So Little Time (Licensed from Dualstar Entertainment, worldwide TV distribution rights (including US!
) - Tutenstein (Licensed from PorchLight Entertainment)
- Urban Vermin (Licensed from DHX Media, excluding France)
