• by Wayne Friedman , May 26, 2010

Disney/ABC Television Group is ending its ten-year old SOAPnet channel's run – which has a sizable 75 million cable subscribers. In its place Disney Junior, which expands the television programming pre-school block, Playhouse Disney that runs on The Disney Channel.

Disney Junior will target kids 2-7, launching next year, and will compete head on with another “junior” – Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. pre-school network. Some months ago Nickelodeon rebranded some of its channels, including Noggin, which became Nick Jr.

The Disney press release didn't say but it was assume Disney Junior would be commercial-free similar to what exists on the bigger Disney Channel.

Last October, Fox did some cable network housekeeping of its own getting rid of its niche network – Fox Reality Channel. It was replaced by Nat Geo Wild (National Geographic Wild).