Teletoon Retro was a Canadianspecialty channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment that was based on the Teletoon programming block. The service was dedicated to broadcasting classic animated television programs such as The Raccoons as well as some live-action series.
Along with its French-language sister channel Télétoon Rétro, it was available in over nine million Canadian households as of 2013; together it had the most subscribers among the digital Canadian specialty channels.[1]
Teletoon Retro was shut down on September 1, 2015, and either replaced by Cartoon Network or Disney Channel, with the former inheriting the service's CRTC license and some of its carriage agreements. That channel would later relaunch under Cartoon Network's own classic animation brand Boomerang in 2023.
History
Teletoon Retro started as a programming block on Teletoon. On November 24, 2000, Teletoon Canada was given approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a national English language category 2 specialty channel named Teletoon Retro.[2] The channel never made it to air.
The Teletoon Retro logo used from October 1, 2007, to February 4, 2013.
Plans to launch the channel arose again in 2005, when on October 25, Teletoon Canada was given approval again to launch Teletoon Retro.[3] The channel was launched at 6:00 PM EST on October 1, 2007, across all major television providers with its first program being The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show. To coincide with the channel's launch, Teletoon briefly relaunched the Retro programming block.[4] A French language counterpart, titled Télétoon Rétro, which had been given approval to be launched at the same time as Teletoon Retro, was launched on September 4, 2008.[5]
On February 4, 2013, the channel underwent a refresh with new graphics and bumpers created by John Lee, retiring the "television sets" era from 2009 to 2013. In addition, the channel also underwent a new logo, and the male announcer (still used on its parent network) was retired and replaced with a female announcer. However, the channel's slogan did not change.
On March 4, 2013, Corus Entertainment announced that it would acquire Astral Media's 50% ownership interest in Teletoon Canada (owner of Teletoon, Télétoon, Teletoon Retro, Télétoon Rétro, and Cartoon Network), along with several other properties. The purchase was in relation to Bell Media's pending takeover of Astral (which had earlier been rejected by the CRTC in October 2012, but was restructured to allow the sale of certain Astral Media properties in order to allow the purchase to clear regulatory hurdles).[6] Corus's purchase was cleared by the Competition Bureau two weeks later on March 18.[7]
On December 20, 2013, the CRTC approved Corus's full ownership of Teletoon Canada[8][9] and it was purchased by Corus on January 1, 2014.[10] The channel continues to be owned by Teletoon Canada, now wholly owned by Corus Entertainment under its Corus Kids division.[11][12]
On March 1, 2014, a high definition simulcast of the channel was launched. The only two providers to carry it were Cogeco and Bell Fibe TV.[citation needed] Shaw Direct, SaskTel, Bell MTS, and Telus Optik TV never launched the feed in time.
In August 2015, Teletoon Retro's website announced that the channel would be shut down effective September 1, 2015; some of its programming was moved to the main Teletoon network.[13] The channel shut down at 6:00 AM on that date. On some providers, Teletoon Retro was replaced by either Disney Channel[14] or Cartoon Network.[15] The transition was legally structured so that Cartoon Network would cease to exist as a separately-licensed service as of September 1, 2015, and henceforth operate under Teletoon Retro's category B license instead.[16][17]
Cartoon Network was ultimately relaunched as a Canadian version of Boomerang on March 27, 2023,[18] thus returning a classic animation format to the former Teletoon Retro channel space.
Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels and two conventional stations. In addition, Astral had a presence in out-of-home advertising.
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↑ "Channel news and previews". SaskTel. Retrieved 1 September 2015. Cartoon Network (currently channel 98/398 HD) is being moved to channel 46/346 HD. It will be moved out of the Kids Theme Pack and will be available as part of the Basic maxTV package. The Cartoon Network will continue to carry the same programming.
Some of the assets listed above are majority-owned, wholly-owned, by Corus Entertainment, or are under license. Refer to full asset list for detailed information.
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