Disney Channel is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targete ...

owned by

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

under license from

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

, which began broadcasting on September 1, 2015. It is a localized version of the U.S. basic cable network of the same name. broadcasting live-action and animated programming aimed at children and teenagers between the ages of 9 and 18. The channel launched as part of a new licensing agreement between Corus Entertainment and the Disney–ABC Television Group (now known as Walt Disney Television), which succeeded a previous program supply agreement between Disney and Family Channel (owned by

WildBrain WildBrain Ltd. is a Canadian media, animation studio, production company, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest independent library of Children's tel ...

). Its launch marked the first time that a Disney Channel-branded television service has operated in Canada.

History

Background (1988–2015)

At the time of its launch in 1988, Family Channel, owned by DHX Media, held Canadian rights to

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

's programming library. As such, it operated licensed Canadian versions of Disney Channel's spinoff brands,

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...

and Disney Junior, as sister networks.

Launch and development (2015–2017)

On April 16, 2015,

announced that it had reached a "landmark" agreement with the

Disney–ABC Television Group Disney General Entertainment Content (DGEC), formerly ABC Group, Disney–ABC Television Group and the second incarnation of Walt Disney Television, is a division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company that ove ...

to acquire long-term, Canadian multi-platform rights to Disney Channel's programming library; the cost and duration of the licensing deal were not disclosed. Corus also announced that it would launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel on September 1, 2015; the service consists of a linear television channel, along with

TV Everywhere TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of American subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" ...

apps (Watch Disney Channel Canada), and

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

services for television platforms. This marks Corus' second Disney/ABC-licensed service behind ABC Spark – a localized version of

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

. At launch, Corus stated that Disney Channel was available in 10 million households, with carriage across most major Canadian cable providers including Rogers, EastLink, and

Access Communications Access Communications Co-operative Limited is a Canadian telecom cooperative based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The cooperative provides internet, cable television, telephone, smart home and security services to residential and business customers ...

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

providers Bell MTS, Bell Fibe TV, Telus Optik TV,

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian Crown corporations of Canada, crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provinci ...

VMedia VMedia is a Canadian telecommunications and broadcast distribution provider. It offers VoIP telephone and home security services across Canada; DSL and cable Internet in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbi ...

, and Execulink Telecom, and national satellite providers

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television service a ...

and

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct G.P. is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Rogers Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two ...

. Corus stated that it would transition "select Disney branded kids linear television offerings" to new properties under its ownership in the future; and brand new Corus-operated Disney Junior and

services launched on December 1, 2015. In the meantime, Disney Channel aired blocks featuring selected Disney Junior and XD programs. Until the Disney XD and Junior blocks were finished on this channel, and for the 2015–16 television season, DHX consequently re-branded its Disney XD and Junior networks as Family CHRGD (later WildBrainTV) and Family Jr. respectively, and began phasing out Disney programming from the two channels and Family; DHX Media's licensing agreement with Disney formally ended at the beginning of January 2016.

Present day

Disney Channel originally operated as an "exempted" Category B service: under new policies implemented in 2012, channels that would otherwise meet the definition of a Category B service are exempted from licensing by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC), provided that they submit a formal application for licensing after they reach 200,000 subscribers. On September 1, 2017, the channel became a regularly licensed

discretionary service A discretionary service is a Canadian specialty channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried optionally by all subscription television providers. It replaces the previous category A, ...

. In December 2022, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD were added to the streaming bundle

StackTV StackTV (stylized in all-caps as STACKTV) is a Canadian subscription video streaming package offered by Corus Entertainment. It was announced on June 3, 2019 and was originally offered through Amazon's Prime Video Channels; the offering launche ...

, to accompany Teletoon (now

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

), Treehouse, and YTV.

Programming

Disney Channel primarily airs animated, live-action series and movies from its U.S. counterpart. It also airs programming from sister channels

and Disney Jr., interstitial programs such as Movie Surfers, a look at the latest movies from

, and special previews of new shows. In order to fulfill

Canadian content Canadian content (abbreviated CanCon, cancon or can-con; ) refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requirements, derived from the Broadcasting Act of Canada, that radio and television broadcasters (inclu ...

requirements, Disney Channel also airs programming from other Corus-owned networks.

Programming blocks

Current

* Disney Jr. (branded as Mickey Mornings on-air) – a weekday morning programming block featuring programming from Disney Jr.. The block was originally discontinued after December 18, 2015, due to the launch of the new Corus-operated Disney Jr. channel. However, the 2-day special preview of the new Disney Junior show, '' Mickey and the Roadster Racers'', premiered on January 21, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. EST across all English-language Disney channels in Canada as a simulcast and aired the preview on Disney Channel and

until January 22, 2017. The block returned in April 2018.

Former

on Disney Channel – a late Friday night/early Saturday morning (formerly weekend afternoon, then Thursday night) programming block featuring programs from Disney XD that are targeted at children's ages 6 to 15. The block was put on hiatus after November 29, 2015, due to the launch of the new Corus-operated Disney XD channel. The Disney XD on Disney Channel block also airs occasionally on weekends to show special episodes such as the Lab Rats: Elite Force premiere episode. The block returned on November 3, 2016, after an 11-month hiatus and began airing on Thursday evenings from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST/PST. The block was put on hiatus again after May 25, 2017, but then returned on September 2, 2017, with ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

'', '' Milo Murphy's Law: Missing Milo'', and '' Walk the Prank''. * Famalama DingDong – a four-day block with former sister channels YTV and

Teletoon Cartoon Network (formerly Teletoon) is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts animated series aimed at children and teenagers. It was launched on October 17 ...

(still owned by Corus). It showed the world premiere of Disney Channel's newest show '' Stuck in the Middle'' along with movies like '' Invisible Sister'' and new episodes of '' Girl Meets World'' on February 12, 2016. It was the last channel to air on February 15, 2016, after YTV and Teletoon. It returned as a YTV-exclusive since 2019.

Logos

file:2014 Disney Channel logo.svg, 2015–2017 file:2017 Disney Channel logo.svg, 2017–2019 file:2019 Disney Channel logo.svg, 2019–present

References

External links

*
Disney Channel Canada Schedule
{{Disney Channel Children's television networks in Canada Corus Entertainment networks Television channels and stations established in 2015 Specialty television channels in Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

English-language television stations in Canada 2015 establishments in Canada