Sorry, I don’t really know how to phrase my question. For example, we know that over here in the USA, a box set of dragon ball z contains the English dub and the original Japanese track. If someone from somewhere else wanted to watch, let’s say SpongeBob on DVD, could they expect the original English track or was it commonplace to only have the local dub? ETA: Of course I’m referring to the time period before streaming, and I mean any type of popular cartoon.
I’m going to talk about Argentina during the late 90s- early 2000s. There was no streaming yet, however some shows came with a thing called Secondary Audio Programming, aka SAP, which you could enable with a button on your remote control. There were NO subtitles though, so if you didn’t understand what was being said you were on your own.
Personally I liked to watch most Cartoon Network shows with SAP.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought any series on dvd before the streaming ages, so I won’t talk about that. However, if you were going to the cinema you could pick if you wanted the original with subtitles or the dub. Most live action films not for kids were more often available in its original voicetrack but the reverse was true for animated and children’s content. You had to search more or go to a late night screening to watch Disney with subtitles for example.