Teletoon Retro was 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 ...

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 ...

that was 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 ...

that was based on the

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 ...

programming block. The service was dedicated to broadcasting classic

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

television programs such as ''The Raccoons'' as well as some live-action series. Along with its French-language sister channel

Télétoon Rétro Télétoon Rétro was a Canadian French language Category B specialty television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was based on the former Télétoon programming block ''Télétoon Retro'' and was dedicated to broadca ...

, it was available in over nine million Canadian households as of 2013; together it had the most subscribers among the digital Canadian specialty channels. Teletoon Retro was shut down on September 1, 2015, and either replaced by

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 ...

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 ...

, 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 A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

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 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) to launch a national English language category 2 specialty channel named Teletoon Retro.Decision CRTC 2000-697
CRTC; 2000-12-14 The channel never made it to air. Plans to launch the channel arose again in 2005, when on October 25, Teletoon Canada was given approval again to launch Teletoon Retro. 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. A French language counterpart, titled

, which had been given approval to be launched at the same time as Teletoon Retro, was launched on September 4, 2008. 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

, Télétoon, Teletoon Retro,

, and

), along with several other properties. The purchase was in relation to

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

'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). Corus's purchase was cleared by the

Competition Bureau The Competition Bureau () is the independent law enforcement agency in charge of regulating competition in Canada, responsible for ensuring that markets operate in a competitive manner. Headed by the Commissioner of Competition, the agency is ...

two weeks later on March 18. On December 20, 2013, the CRTC approved Corus's full ownership of Teletoon Canada and it was purchased by Corus on January 1, 2014. The channel continues to be owned by Teletoon Canada, now wholly owned by

under its Corus Kids division. 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. 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. The channel shut down at 6:00 AM on that date. On some providers, Teletoon Retro was replaced by either

. 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. Cartoon Network was ultimately relaunched as a Canadian version of

on March 27, 2023, thus returning a classic animation format to the former Teletoon Retro channel space.

Former programming

Teletoon Retro primarily aired classic animated programming; its CRTC license specified that programming had to have been produced at least 10 years prior. While primarily devoted to animation, its CRTC license allowed as much as 10% of its programming to be live action and animated cartoons such as '' The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show'', ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...

'', ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions, which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the R ...

'' and others; as such, it also aired some live-action series, such as ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

'', ''

Fraggle Rock ''Fraggle Rock'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock'' or ''Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets'') is a children's Musical film, musical Fantasy film, fantasy television comedy, comedy puppet television series about interconnected so ...

'', and ''

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ''Mighty Power Rangers'' (''MMPR'') is an American superhero television series that premiered on August 28, 1993, on the Fox Kids programming block. It is the first entry of the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, and became a 1990s popular culture, ...

''. The network also aired 1980s action-genre cartoons: ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'', '' He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'', '' She-Ra: Princess of Power'', ''

ThunderCats ''ThunderCats'' is a media franchise, featuring a fictional group of cat-like humanoid aliens. The characters were created by Tobin Wolf and featured in an animated television series named ''ThunderCats'', running from 1985 to 1989, whic ...

'', '' G.I. Joe'', ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

'' and ''

Inspector Gadget ''Inspector Gadget'' is a media franchise that began in 1983 with the DIC Entertainment animated television series '' Inspector Gadget''. Since the original series, there have been many spin-offs based on the show, including additional animated ...

''.Alt URL
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References

{{Children's television in Canada Retro Former Corus Entertainment networks Television channels and stations established in 2007 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2015 Children's television networks in Canada Defunct specialty television channels in Canada English-language television stations in Canada 2007 establishments in Canada 2015 disestablishments in Canada Classic television networks

History

Former programming

See also

References