TCA: Disney Junior Network to Launch March 23

Complete Coverage: TCA Winter Press Tour 2012

Pasadena, Calif. -- Disney Junior will launch as a 24-hour
network on March 23, the company announced at the TCA winter press tour here
Monday.

The new 24-hour preschool channel will replace SOAPnet on
that day on most cable and satellite operators, with Disney Channels
President/COO Gary Marsh saying, "We think this is a real game-changer in this
universe."

The channel will launch with new series Doc McStuffins, about a young girl who nurses sick stuffed animals
back to health, and later will premiere Sofia
the First
, about a pre-school age princess.

Series from the Disney Junior programming block will also
migrate to the new network, including the short-form A Poem Is...,Mickey Mouse
Clubhouse
and Jake and the Never Land
Pirates.