Canal Panda (Spanish TV channel)

First Canal Panda logo used from 1997 to 2015

Canal Panda was the first Portuguese and Spanish channel exclusively dedicated to children and teens. Its daily broadcast was 20 hours a day, without interruptions, and with a big variety of programs such as cartoons, anime, live-action series, children's films and special programs about sports, music and culture.

It was founded on 1 April 1996 with the name Panda Club in Portugal, it changed to Canal Panda a year later. The channel launched in Spain on 15 September 1997 for the launch of Via Digital.

Initially it was distributed in Spain, but on 1 January 2001, satellite provider Vía Digital stopped carrying the channel, justifying the strong competition in the Spanish market[1] and was replaced by Megatrix, with distribution deal with Antena 3.[2] In 2004, Megatrix closed down due to the merger between satellite providers Canal Satélite Digital and Vía Digital.

On 1 April 2011, Canal Panda was relaunched in Spain due to a decision of Chello Multicanal for recovering the brand and replacing KidsCo which Chello was the Spanish distributor and was not satisfied with the bill.[3] Since then, it is considered an Iberian channel. The focus of programming on the channel also shifted towards preschool shows. The launch was met with some controversy among the otaku community, as its Portuguese counterpart was showing some anime that were not airing in the Spanish version, but the Spanish version claimed that such titles didn't match the channel's content criteria.[4]

On 6 July 2015, the channel changed its look and logo.[5]

On 2 July 2019, Vodafone TV added the channel in HD to its pack offer.

On 1 June 2021, the channel launched a block aimed at older children and teenage audiences called Panda Kids which airs live-action shows, game shows and reality shows.[6][7][8][9] In Portugal, Panda Kids is a pop-up channel.

On 15 December 2022, the channel closed down again. The physical channel got replaced with Enfamilia, with the Canal Panda branding continuing as a two-hour block called Panda Enfamilia.