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BabyTV is a multilingual 24-hour TV network owned by Disney (under its international branch). As its name suggests, the channel broadcasts programming targeted at babies, with shows about learning shapes, colors, words, and basic concepts like big and small.

If you think this channel seems similar to another TV network called BabyFirst TV, you aren't alone. Though BabyTV launched in 2003, some of its current programming is very similar to programming offered by BabyFirst TV, which started three years later. Despite these similarites, the differences between the two networks are clearly visible in both programming and overall branding.

BabyTV didn't come to the United States until January 2011, when Dish Network added the channel to its lineup. But in doing so, Dish dropped BabyFirst TV, which Dish had carried since 2006. Fans of BabyFirst TV weren't happy, and they campaigned on Facebook for its restoration while denouncing BabyTV. Dish eventually restored BabyFirst TV on a separate channel, but also kept BabyTV on the lineup, giving people a chance to compare the two channels' programming, and ultimately decide which one is better.


The channel's programming exhibits the following tropes:

  • Animate Inanimate Object: The majority of the characters in Jammers are living musical instruments, with the main four characters being an upright piano, a double bass, a snare drum, and a saxophone.
  • Art Initiates Life: Sketch of Mona and Sketch can draw anything up for the pair to use in their adventures.
  • Artistic License – History: Lampshaded by Mini Matinee. The shorts do cover a basic historical event with each episode and every one ends with the line "In case you were wondering if this was a true story, then maybe it was and maybe it wasn't."
  • Blob Monster: The namesake characters of Pitch and Potch are blobby critters of indescribable species, both different shades of orange.
  • Laugh Track: An in-series group of kids laugh in Pitch and Potch whenever Pitch and Potch do something funny.
  • Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: Due to its demographic, Pitch and Potch doesn't contain dialogue. It's about Pitch and Potch messing with different items and making sounds/music with them.
  • Name and Name: They run an imported Israeli series called Pitch and Potch, after its main characters.
  • Ninja Run: Little Lola runs in this manner, arms straight out behind her during the intro sequence to her episodes.
  • Secret Ingredient: In one episode of Charlie and the Numbers, the secret ingredient of ice cream is humour.
  • Series Mascot: Baby Butterfly (see page image above) and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the Tiny Bunch, appear on the channel's logos and promos.
  • Speaking Simlish: Rocco communicates in this way with The Narrator, who relays the plot and what Rocco is up to to the audience.
  • Stock Animal Diet:
    • Rabbit grows a wide variety of vegetables in his patch, including, yes, carrots. Other animals also eat their respective food, Squirrels and nuts, Tortoises and lettuce, Chicks and seeds, Sheep and grass etc.
    • Zigzagged with Rocco. As a squirrel, he is shown eating nuts, but at other times he eats other foods. For example, one episode has him find a way to carry a plum home so he can share it with some birds.
  • Strictly Formula: Given that the channel's target audience isn't exactly going to follow any complicated story, many of the shorts have much the same in terms of plot. For example, a typical Ahoy Pirates! plot goes as follows: Captain Katie announces that there's treasure on an island, the crew need to find a piece of equipment before leaving, set sail, have an encounter at sea, arrive at the island, solve the puzzles, find the treasure, and have a party with the toys found inside.
  • Talk Like a Pirate: The Narrator for Ahoy Pirates! speaks this way, even adding an "Aaaar, matey!" to the end of the theme song. Averted with the pirates themselves, who are an all female crew.

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