Animax India was an Indian television channel owned by

Sony Pictures Networks India Culver Max Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., trading as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN or SPNI), is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Sony Pictures Television. SPN manages and operates 26 television channels, the streaming media platform SonyLIV ...

that launched in 2004. The channel primarily aired

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series and films dubbed in Hindi and, for a period, English, as well as with subtitles. It was the only channel in India to simulcast anime series on the same day as Japan. On 18 April 2017, Animax ceased broadcasting in India. The channel would be succeeded by Animax's Asian feed.

History

Original format

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX in all caps, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. Launched on July 1, 1998, Animax is the first 24-hour network in the world dedicated to anime.The Anime Biz' - ...

began operations across

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and the rest of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

on 5 July 2004 with Irfan Pathan as a brand ambassador. It was operated and broadcast from Singapore by Animax Asia and distributed by Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd. It was also the first animation channel that targeted the age 15–25 demographic and was the only channel in India to simulcast anime in the same week and on the same day as Japan. Animax India started with 12 hours

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

feed that targeted young kids and teens ages 7–14 and it had planned to launch Hindi and English language audio tracks. An Animax-branded Hindi block, "Animax Kool Kidz", was launched on

Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (abbreviated as SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures. History This chann ...

from 5 December 2004. This block featured shows like

Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...

Cyborg 009 is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was serialized in many different Japanese magazines, including '' Monthly Shōnen King'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', '' Shōnen Big Comic'', '' COM'', ' ...

, Daigunder,

Fancy Lala ''Fancy Lala'', known in Japan as , is a magical girl anime series produced by Studio Pierrot in 1998, following an OVA released in 1988. A two-volume manga adaptation by Rurika Kasuga ran in ''Ribon''. The original designs were created by A ...

Princess Comet is a multimedia franchise beginning with a Japanese television drama series created and produced by International Television Films, a division of the film company Toho. Directed by Ōtsuki Yoshikazu and written by Mamoru Sasaki, it stars ...

, Princess Sarah, Princess Tutu,

Tales of Little Women , also simply known as ''Little Women'', is a Japanese animated television series adaptation itself of Louisa May Alcott's 1868-69 two-volume novel ''Little Women'', produced by Nippon Animation. It was first aired in 1987 (January–December) ...

and UFO Baby. From 15 August 2006, Animax entirely shut down its Hindi feed but kept its English one, since it changed its target audience to the ages 15–24 group. In 2007, the network would begin airing live-action content like ''Tech Max'', ''Game Max'', ''Animax Press Play'', ''Imagination and Speak Out'' and movies like ''

Spider-Man 2 ''Spider-Man 2'' is a 2004 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of Spider-Man. Directed by Sam Raimi and written by Alvin Sargent from a story conceived by Michael Chabon and the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles ...

'', ''

Kung Fu Hustle ''Kung Fu Hustle'' ( zh, c=功夫, l=Kung Fu) is a 2004 Martial arts film, martial arts action comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the leading role, alongside Eva Huang, Huang Shengyi, Yuen Wah, Yue ...

'' and ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a superhero created by Mike Mignola and appearing in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots ...

''. On 1 January 2008, Animax South Asia merged with Animax Asia's but had a separate feed for India. Animax became the first channel to simulcast Tears to Tiara on April 6, 2009, Animax also aired Korean entertainment shows like Live Power Music, Pretty Boys & Girls and Comedy Boot Camp in Korean audio with English subtitles. Animax India rebranded its logo along with

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

on 4 May 2010. Animax added American reality shows to their list with the premiere of Scare Tactics. Animax also simulcasted the yearly Video Game Awards hosted by

Spike TV Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel and the flagship property of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, who operates it through the MTV Entertainment Group. The network's headquarters are locate ...

. With the premiere of '' Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan'', Animax stopped dubbing anime and started airing them in Japanese audio with English subtitles instead. However, Animax continued to dub a few anime shows like the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Animax continued to simulcast all the shows aired on AXN, its sister channel. The Shows

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal television, paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally ai ...

Chuck Chuck () is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV produce ...

and Fear Itself were originally aired on AXN India. In 2012, the channel stopped airing such shows and reverted to its old logo, focusing only on anime. Moreover, all DTH providers in India delisted Animax as the channel couldn't pay carriage fees. Animax made its way back into the DTH networks in 2016 with its addition on

Tata Sky Tata Play is an Indian subscription-based satellite television (DTH) service provider owned by Tata Group. it was using MPEG-4 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT-4A GSAT-10 and GSAT-24 satellites. Incorporated in 2005, ...

at LCN 686. Animax

Closure

Animax ceased broadcasting in India on 18 April 2017. The Asian feed would launch on Sony's Indian digital platform, Sony LIV, as a replacement. On 8 May 2020, the Asian feed would cease streaming on Sony LIV as a result of KC Global Media's acquisition of several Asian Sony-owned networks . Three years later, Animax Asia would resume broadcasting on the

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

platform JioTV on 20 January 2023. Animax, along with sister brand Gem, would also begin streaming on

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

that same year.

References

External links

* of Animax Asia {{Sony Corp Television stations in Mumbai Sony Pictures Television Television channels and stations established in 2004 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2017 Television channels and stations established in 2023 2004 establishments in Maharashtra Sony Pictures Networks India Anime in India

History

Original format

Closure

See also

References

External links