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Star Channel (Portuguese TV channel)

Star Channel (previously known as Fox) is a Portuguese pay television channel. It primarily specializes its content in American television series and feature films. Since 2019, it is owned by Walt Disney Company. Its main competitor is AXN.

In the past (until 2015), the channel also aired comedies; these were later moved to the Portuguese feed of FX, which in November 2015 was renamed Fox Comedy.

History

As Fox

In February 2003, it was announced that Fox would start broadcasting on Cabovisão from March 1, one of the cable companies that existed at the time, as an exclusive channel to the platform. Cristina Gomez, director-general of Cabovisão, explained to the Lusa news agency that the channel was "a unique experience in Portugal", combining "the greatest hits from the Fox studio, some Portuguese movies and the most important television series". The primary target was defined as viewers in the 18-45 age range, with the aim of leading the entertainment segment in Portugal, similar to what happened in Latin America and Japan, despite the reduced coverage of Cabovisão, which had 17% of the share of the pay-TV operators at the time, against 80% from TV Cabo. The channel promised television series already broadcast in Portugal, as well as some new series that were exclusive to the channel at the time: The Simpsons, The X-Files, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Alien Nation, Batman, L.A. Law, The Pretender and Lou Grant. From the start, the channel would broadcast 18 hours a day, from 9am to 3am. Usually, most of these hit series were shown on late night slots on terrestrial networks. Portugal was a key market for the European expansion of the brand, primarily due to the fact that Portuguese viewers have long since been used to watch television series in their original soundtrack with subtitles.

On September 27, 2004, the channel premiered Las Vegas.

The channel's reach increased in May 2005, when it launched on the TV Cabo platform in its then-new Funtastic Life package. The channel was temporarily available to analog subscribers before moving to Funtastic Life as an exclusive in June 2005. Regional director-general of FOX International Channels Sónia Jackson said that it and the newly-launched FOX Life would "attract customers to the digital network". The fact that it was exclusive to the Funtastic Life package was merely strategic. Within more than three years from launching, the channel's ratings increased significantly, becoming the fourth most-watched cable network, behind AXN, SIC Notícias and Canal Panda. The launch on TV Cabo in 2005 enabled the channel to be measured by Marktest. The channel had increased from 1,400 viewers at launch to close to 12,000 in October 2006 alone. That same month, the average number of viewers that accessed the channel for at least one second stood at 620,000, which at the time was a record high. Occasionally, the channel was made available to analog subscribers due to special actions by TV Cabo.

The network in 2006 premiered Invasion on February 21, 2006 with RTP securing terrestrial rights for the series later in the year. On November 2, 2006, the channel premiered Prison Break, when the network was available free for subscribers of the basic digital service of TV Cabo for two months. During this period the channel also premiered The Unit (November 7, it and Prison Break were secured for RTP), Tru Calling (November 11, already broadcast by RTP2), My Name is Earl (December 3), American Dad! (December 3) and Bones (December 13).

Fox secured rights to the 34th season of Saturday Night Live in April 2009.

The channel was made available to DStv subscribers in Angola and Mozambique to subscribers of the DStv Bué package on February 26, 2009. In the same year, a print advertisement promoting The Simpsons appeared in Angola depicting a localized version of the family, for the "premiere" of the series in the country.

The HD feed of the channel launched on MEO on July 31, 2009. Portugal became the third region to introduce the feed after Italy and Latin America. The HD feed later expanded to other providers.

On February 1, 2010, the channel was made available to ZON's analog and digital basic subscriber bases, the former as part of a realignment of the analog offer.

The channel broadcast the finale of Lost almost simultaneously with the US broadcast on the early hours (5 to 7am) of May 24, 2010. The simulcast had audio problems on the HD feed. The episode repeated on June 1.

The premiere of The Walking Dead was marked by a campaign held on October 26, 2010 involving a zombie invasion in Lisbon and advertising in universities in Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra to attract the university student viewing target. The series premiered on November 2, 2010, two days after the American premiere. A similar campaign in was held in early 2011 for the premiere of Hawaii Five-0, involving an interpretation of the series' opening theme and Hawaiian dancers.

For the tenth anniversary in March 2013, the channel used the international I Love Fox campaign.

For Carnaval 2015 (which fell on February 17), the channel premiered the TV version of Porta dos Fundos. Fox set the date as National Hangover Day, and aired the first episode sideways on purpose, to target "hungover viewers".

To promote the second half of the tenth season of The Walking Dead, a campaign was held on Hi5 in February 2020, reviving the social network.

As Star Channel

On November 27, 2023, Disney has announced that Fox would rebrand to Star Channel on 7 February 2024. The visual concept is of a "luminous shooting star" that will guide the viewers through its programming. The programming will remain mostly unchanged. The full version of the rebrand song, A Brilliant Change was revealed on January 5, 2024. The campaign used in the EMEA region was developed and implemented by The Walt Disney Company's Portuguese marketing and communications team.

Shows

Current programming

Source:

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Miami
CSI: Vegas
Chicago P.D.
The Equalizer
FBI
FBI: Most Wanted
FBI: International
Fire Country
Hawaii Five-0 (Hawai Força Especial)
The Irrational
Tracker
Magnum P.I.
NCIS: Los Angeles (Investigação Criminal: Los Angeles)
NCIS Hawaii (Investigação Criminal: Hawaii)
One Day at a Time

In addition to the above, the channel also airs feature films on weekends.

Former programming

24
The 4400
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Alaska Daily
Alien Nation
American Dad!
American Horror Story
The Americans
Angel
Batman
Being Human (Humanos)
Blindspot
Bones (Ossos)
Breakout Kings (Os Reis da Fuga)
The Bridge
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy, Caçadora de Vampiros)
Burn Notice (Espião Fora-de-Jogo)
Californication
Camelot
The Cell
The Chicago Code
The Cleaner
The Cleveland Show
Cold Case
Covert Affairs (Agente Dupla)
Crusoe (Crusoé)
Da Vinci's Demons
Day Break
The Dead Zone
The Defenders (Defesa à Las Vegas)
Defying Gravity (Gravidade Zero)
Desperate Housewives (Donas de Casa Desesperadas)
Dexter
The Dresden Files
Elementary
Elsbeth
Eureka
Family Guy
The Finder
Flashpoint
The Forgotten
Fringe
Futurama
The Gates
Ghost Whisperer (Em Contacto)
The Glades
Gotham
Harper's Island (A Ilha)
Heroes
Homeland (Segurança Nacional)
House
How I Met Your Mother (Foi Assim que Aconteceu) (formerly on Fox Life)
Huff
Invasion (Invasão)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Nunca Chove em Filadélfia) (formerly on FX)
John Doe
King of the Hill
The Killing
L.A. Law
Las Vegas
Lie to Me
Life on Mars
The Listener
Lost (Perdidos)
Lou Grant
Law & Order (Lei & Ordem)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Lei & Ordem: Unidade Especial)
Major Crimes (Crimes Graves)
Malcolm in the Middle (A Vida é Injusta)
Mental
Miami Medical
Minority Report
Modern Family (Uma Família Muito Moderna)
Moonlight
My Name Is Earl (O Meu Nome É Earl)
Nikita
The O.C. (The O.C. - Na Terra dos Ricos)
Person of Interest
Persons Unknown (Desconhecidos)
The Pretender
Prison Break
The Prisoner (O Prisioneiro)
Safe
Saturday Night Live
Saved
Scandal
Scorpion
Scrubs (Médicos e Estagiários)
SEAL Team
Shameless (No Limite)
The Simpsons (Os Simpsons)
Six Feet Under (Sete Palmos de Terra)
Sleepy Hollow
Smallville
Southland
Spartacus
Stargate Atlantis
The Strain
Touch
Tracker
Tru Calling (Tru Calling: O Apelo)
Tyrant
The Unit
V
The Walking Dead
The West Wing (Os Homens do Presidente)
White Collar (Apanha-me se Puderes)
The X-Files (Ficheiros Secretos)