It seems like SOAPnet has been going away for the past few years, and it looks like the cable channel dedicated to soap operas will finally be gone for everyone by the end of the year. Based on customer communications from Time Warner, Cox, Charter, AT&T U-verse, Comcast and others, SOAPnet will no longer be available after December 2013. RMA Cable:
The ABC Cable Group advised RMA Cable today that effective Dec. 31st, 2013 at 11:59:59EST they will cease entirely to exist. The channel will shutdown completely.
As such, it will no longer be available on the RMA Cable (or any other cable/satellite) system.
Charter:
"On or after December 17, 2013, SOAPnet and G4 will go dark for Charter customers. The drops were decided by the networks and beyond our control."
Comcast:
SOAPnet is listed under the networks up for renewal in December with an additional note of "ceasing operations".
Cox:
"The Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company has slowly been pulling this channel across the country. SoapNet will no longer be available on the Cox lineup or any other video provider's lineup."
AT&T U-verse:
"Effective December 31, SOAPnet (channel 365) will no longer be available."
Time Warner:
"On or after December 23rd, Soapnet will no longer be available."
It was announced in 2010 that SOAPnet would go away in January 2012, and then Spring 2012. Some viewers still have the network to this day and ABC-Disney has, so far, never clearly explained what was going on.
Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group, said in a May 2010 press release: “The launch of Disney Junior in the U.S. is the next step in our global preschool strategy, which began 10 years ago with the premiere of our first dedicated preschool channel in the UK. The decision to ultimately transition SOAPnet to accomplish this was not arrived at lightly. SOAPnet was created in 2000 to give daytime viewers the ability to watch time-shifted soaps, before multiplatform viewing and DVRs were part of our vocabulary. But today, as technology and our businesses evolve, it makes more sense to align this distribution with a preschool channel that builds on the core strengths of our company.”
SOAPnet normally releases program schedules a couple of months in advance but has not published anything beyond November to date.
SOAPnet currently airs same day repeats of NBC's DAYS OF OUR LIVES and ABC's GENERAL HOSPITAL. The network previously showed THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS weekday evenings but that show moved to TVGN in July.
UPDATED:
The Walt Disney Co. has confirmed it is officially pulling the plug on SOAPnet effective December 31, 2013.
"SOAPnet had a great run," Ben Pyne, president of global distribution for Disney Media Networks, said in an interview Friday. "It served an audience of super-soap fans. And when given the opportunity, all of our affiliates kept the channel up and running."
DAYTIME SOAP OPERAS
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