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Five years in the making leading U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV is now set to launch of a kids network, reports VARIETY.

The digital channel will be available on all platforms including Freeview, the free-to-air digital service backed by the BBC and BSkyB. Debuting within the next six months, the channel will offer a combination of existing programming, new commissions and acquisitions.

New episodes of TRIPPING THE RIFT will begin July 27, 2005, as part of SCI FI Channels SCI FI Wednesday lineup. Airing at 10:00 pm, the season 2 premiere has the Jupiter 42 crew commandeering some valuable booty on a disabled space truck and sets a course for the all-gay planet Fabulous Heaven to unload their spoils. On Fabulous Heaven, much to the crew's surprise, heterosexual relations are punishable by death. When Chode and Six are caught in a compromising position, the planet's closeted heterosexual statesman, Governor McJersey, has the duo sentenced to a public execution.

SCI FI Channel will start production on the six-hour miniseries THE TRIANGLE this week, in Cape Town, South Africa. Starring Eric Stoltz (PULP FICTION, MASK), Catherine Bell (JAG, BRUCE ALMIGHTY), Michael Rodgers (AUTO FOCUS), Bruce Davison (X-MEN) and Sam Neill (JURASSIC PARK), THE TRIANGLE is helmed by Craig Baxley (KINGDOM HOSPITAL). Hollywood's sci-fi standouts Dean Devlin (INDEPENDENCE DAY) and Bryan Singer (X-MEN) will exec produce with Devlin's Electric Ent. producing.

Disney Channel has ordered a second season of San Francisco's Wild Brain Prods. the learning-focused Playhouse Disney hit HIGGLYTOWN HEROES, a CG-animated, song-filled series. In 2004, the show (daily, 8:00 a.m.) was the second highest rated original Playhouse Disney series, averaging a 3.7 rating among kids 2-5.

On March 1, 2005, Turner Broadcasting, the creators of Cartoon Network, will launch Boomerang, the home of classic shows and stars from the Hanna-Barbera library in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho and Southern Angola. Boomerang will offer MultiChoices DStv channel 81subscribers a channel dedicated to shows such as WACKY RACES, CAPTAIN CAVEMAN, THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH, DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY and INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE.

Sci Fi Channel has partnered with exec producers Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle (MEDICAL INVESTIGATION, THE PRETENDER) to develop TIN MAN, a four-hour miniseries that puts a sci-fi twist on the fantasy classic, WIZARD OD OZ. Mitchell and Van Sickle have also co-written the screenplay.