CN HQgate

I found something that will potentially increase the number of views to 1000 by the end of the week.
If you're on the Toonzone Forums, then RegularCapital told me to e-mail Humphrey Black about CN HQ (and BM HQ returning). Almost two months later, I received an answer from Renata da Silva Araújo at Turner's office in Madrid, also talking about a hypothetical return of CN HQ to Portuguese shores, following Vodafone's footsteps in December 2013.

And now, for your delectation, my take on the e-mail I received from her:
1: The main reason why Turner invested on a "localized" channel for Portuguese audiences were the ratings. Down in the sewers. I can imagine a channel like any news channel in English having more or less viewers than CN HQ this time last year. I have to tell you that the channel's audiences were very low, very residual. Sadly, the aforementioned core target of channels aimed at kids in general is not composed of people who can speak English very perfectly but those who are learning it. The channel was an "educational" tool for twenty years and, that way, that perception is not right. If, in this very moment, CN is trying to conquer the ratings and reach the top 10 (or, in this case, return to the top 10), it's exactly because the channel's target disliked it for the fact that it was in English. Those who were born in the late 1990s and remember seeing the channel from an early age liked it and was their favorite channel. There were some advantages, like learning English any time (incluiding days without any school classes) and at home, without any language courses.

2: And it's right if, without a cartoon channel in English (two in this case, counting Boomerang), the language's exposition diminishes but we are probably not the best in Europe to speak Portuguese perfectly. In the past, 90% of all foreign content aired in their original language (or in another language, like what happened with the Shin-Ei animes on Canal Panda) and only the most popular shows were dubbed (when RTP had a TV monopoly). Later the market grew and 99% of all shows aimed at children (incluiding live-action shows, which used to be subtitled) are now dubbed. If you turn on FOX, AXN, Canal Hollywood and others, literally ALL the shows they air are subtitled! And the only "entertainment" channel (in English, without subtitles) focusing more on shows I get is BBC Entertainment! Let's just say that this is a characteristic that is decades old and it will SURELY never change. Also, twenty years ago, cable TV consisted solely of the terrestrial channels and tons of foreign channels (VIVA? Anyone?) and Portuguese-speaking channels were growing at a very slow rate.

3: That excellent characteristic (cue the Chef Excellence theme) is also another reason about why there's no dubbing "school" in Portugal. Portuguese dubs are sub-par compared to Spanish, French, Italian or Hungarian dubs because we don't have a dubbing tradition. They say that new dubs are underway to replace those awful ones.

4: As for the relation with Portugal and Spain: yes, I'm fully aware of it. You can see tons of Spanish products (products from Spanish companies) in Portugal. We have two full-scale El Corte Inglés department stores and a few supermarkets (incluiding one in Braga, where I live). Most companies have offices in Spain and also focus on Portugal for geographical purposes. For example: AXN, FOX, Disney and others. Their channels come from offices in Madrid (Nickelodeon/MTV has offices in Lisbon but takes their signal from Spain). However, both the closure of CN ES and the launch of CN PT aren't tangentially related to each other. Spain has the complete opposite of the pay TV situation: they launched the Spanish version of Boing with Mediaset España and CN ES closed down because Boing was more popular and all that. In the channel's final months it had a very meagre schedule. Boing is terrestrial and can be watched by literally anyone in Spain or anyone visiting Spain. Over here it can be watched in the border line, terrestrially.

5: We're sure that the team is the same: CN PT, Boing ES, the former CN ES. CN ES closed due to low ratings and became a web platform. Telecable, a local TV provider in northern Spain was aware of the upcoming situation and decided to remove it, replacing it with Disney XD. She agrees that when CN PT launched, the channel wasn't conveniently translated (incredibly enough, there was a difficulty in finding the right people and translators because they weren't on their better days...!). Here's the example I talked with her:
PT: "...ele é a mascote preferida das crianças"
ES: "...es la mascota favorita de los niños"
Disney had that problem. On the brighter side, we thank them for inventing, in 2011, the definitive Portuguese word for frenemy: "aminimigo". Promos are now adapted by Portuguese people and come from the USA, London or other offices in the EMEA region. Promos are made specifially for CN PT (and also for Boing ES) and there's promo interchange between European feeds, so the same promo can be seen on CN FR, IT, DE, UK and others. I'm aware of that, the RS premiere promo was the season 3 premiere promo from CN HQ (the one on CN HQ had a calm announcer).

6: Finally, the channels that appear on each provider have a serious period of negotiation and money. The reason why the Arab World gets two CNs is because there's still market for channels in English (because of the huge amount of expatriates and the fact that most Middle Eastern countries used to be British colonies up until the last century). It doesn't have to do with satellites... or is it? CN Arabic is FTA, MBC 3 airs Nickelodeon shows and Jeem TV airs Disney shows. Let's not forget the ridiculously HIGH number of expatriates living in the Algarve: if they want channels in English, then they have to use IPTV "providers" containing an unusually high number of British terrestrial channels (some of those providers carry Irish terrestrial channels) but not legally. We don't know if there are any hotels in the Algarve carrying CN HQ. As for the Arab World having two CNs, it depends on your pockets because you need OSN or another TV provider to watch it.
This petition I'm making for Turner would also apply for NOS, however those channels are (or may be) expensive, but those channels could be cheap and have ratings reaching up to 1%. CN HQ and TCM HQ are (in this case, were) cult channels in the past few years (Boomerang was, but to a very limited extent). All those times I went to ZON's store at Braga Parque (or NOS) and was talking about CN HQ and trying to bring it back resulted in stuff like "you need to go to England" or "we can't".

7: Concluding, she says that other Turner channels will arrive to Portugal, whose formats will be analyzed. A wider view at the Portuguese market did not satisfact everyone. Sadly, she couldn't comprehend it very clearly and didn't understand that I could get the English soundtrack since January and that I wasn't fully satisfied.

If there's something wrong, please correct me. Also, don't forget to comment!