Vrak

Vrak (stylized as VRΔK) was a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media. The channel primarily broadcast live-action programming aimed at 13-to-35 age group audiences.

Launched in 1988 as Le Canal Famille, it was originally conceived as French counterpart of the Family Channel under the ownership of Astral Media as well as rival broadcaster YTV, which was also then jointly owned by Rogers Media and CUC Broadcasting at the time. The channel was later renamed to Vrak.TV in 2001 and then was acquired by Bell Media in 2013 upon the acquisition of Astral Media, while the English counterpart and its sister channels were divested to DHX Media (now WildBrain) in 2014.

As with the English counterpart, Vrak.TV's programming heavily mirrored that of the American cable network Disney Channel, with which Family held a licensing agreement. Vrak's programming lineup consisted mainly of domestic and foreign-imported live-action and animated series from Disney Channel, feature films from the Disney film library, classic films from other Canadian and American film studios, and specials while it outsourced many of its programs from the U.S., mostly from Nickelodeon. After Vrak was separated from Family, the license agreement ended in 2015; Disney then entered into a new licensing agreement with Corus Entertainment and launched new Canadian versions of La Chaîne Disney, along with Disney XD and Disney Junior while Vrak.TV, renamed to Vrak in 2014, changed its audience focus in 2016 to the ages 13–35 group due to the success of its ''Vrak2'' block.

Vrak was originally licensed as a premium specialty service, which necessitated that it operate under a commercial-free format, but allowed it to operate multiplex feeds but changed to air commercials from 2006 onwards.

After being removed from Vidéotron, the channel ceased operations on October 1, 2023, due to declining viewership and having been deemed "outdated" by Bell Media.

History

Background

TVJQ

The origins of the channel date back to 1975, when Télécâble Vidéotron, then established in Longueuil and serving the South Shore of Montreal, already distributed around thirty channels, accessible via a converter. Subscribers had to call to request the broadcast of a video document which would be broadcast on one of the eight channels according to the theme (sports, socio-cultural leisure, senior citizens, students, children, etc.). In January 1980, Videotron acquired Cablevision Nationale, which served the east of Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke, among others. A few months later, the Cablevision Nationale network was upgraded to allow the distribution of thirty channels, while the Inter-vision consortium made up of different cable distributors from the south of the province, set up at the corner of Pie-IX boulevards. and Rosemont in Montreal under the name Cablespec, takes care of the production and broadcasting of eight specialized channels under the responsibility of Jacques Lasnier. The eight channels would have been launched on Saturday, October 18, 1980.

The channel, initially called ''Enfants et Jeunesse'' before adopting ("Télévision des Jeunes du Québec") in May 1982, presented children's programs produced in Quebec for the most part as well as European, American and Japanese animation series, as much as possible without violence, seeking to eliminate gender discrimination. It was established and distributed by a subsidiary of Videotron.

TVJQ was on the air daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Since 1979, Videotron subscribers could take turns enjoying a variety of interactive games starting at midnight (via a touchtone telephone), which occupied “channel 26” until the channel returned to the air. The games continued on Canal Famille until shortly after the launch of in January 1990. In the evenings from January 1983, educational and cultural programs aimed at adults were programmed.

From January 1982 to September 1985, the channel broadcast the show ''Radio-Vidéo'', a block of video clips produced by Pierre Marchand, who in 1986 would become the creator of the MusiquePlus channel. Meanwhile, in October 1984, another block of music videos produced by MuchMusic was broadcast, a month after the channel's launch in Toronto. In March 1986, Videotron obtained a “broadcasting license for the operation, on an experimental basis and for a temporary period, of a cable television network in order to distribute by satellite to affiliated cable television companies in the province of Quebec the service of special French-language programming “Télé des Jeunes”. This license allows Videotron to have its TVJQ channel carried over by other cable companies elsewhere. Videotron thus becomes the first cable company in Canadian history to simultaneously be a producer of television content. CF Cable TV offered Videotron's TVJQ channel from 1987. When MusiquePlus was launched in September 1986, the version received via satellite of TVJQ became MusiquePlus after 8 p.m. with a four-hour live programming block followed overnight 'a rebroadcast or a block recorded during the afternoon. On the Videotron side, MusiquePlus evening programming took the position of MuchMusic while cultural programs aimed at adults were still broadcast on TVJQ until midnight. Blocks of 30 minutes produced by MusiquePlus were added to TVJQ's programming, replacing those of MuchMusic.

In 1986, the channel's spokesperson was Gargouille, a cartoon character created by Tristan Demers, who would get his own show.

In 1987, Videotron submitted a request to the CRTC to convert its channel TVJQ to a full-service channel while continuing to target young people. On December 1, 1987, the CRTC approved the license application for Premier Choix: TVEC for Canal Famille, and consequently refused the license renewal application for TVJQ. The same day, the license application from CHUM Limited and Radiomutuel for a dedicated MusiquePlus channel was approved. TVJQ remained on the air until the arrival of Canal Famille. TVJQ ceased operations on August 31, 1988.

Le Canal Famille

Licensed by the CRTC in 1987, Le Canal Famille was launched on September 1, 1988, as a replacement to TVJQ. Le Canal Famille was created by Premier Choix TVEC which was already partially owned by Astral Media through its subsidiary Astral Bellevue Communications.

''Le Canal Famille'', name translated as ''The Family Channel'', which was the name of another Canadian youth channel that also began airing in September 1988 and itself owned at 50% by Astral Bellevue Communications.

At launch, the channel carried a few original shows from Quebec including ''La Garderie des amis'', ''Hibou Chou Genou'', ''Labo Labo'', as well as ''Bibi et Geneviève'' when the chain closed at 7:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m Fridays and week-ends) and opened at 7 a.m. Another original program, ''Mémoire Vive'', joined the lineup in December 1988. There were also some shows previously broadcast on Super Écran such as ''Inspector Gadget'' and '' Bibifoc'', dubbed Canadian shows, popular former TVJQ series, some Japanese animated series and co-productions. The channel increased the number of its original productions in the following years.

The popularity of Videoway's interactive menus in the early 1990s prompted Super Écran to offer a second choice of films in the evening using Canal Famille after its closing at 7 p.m. After about twenty minutes of trailers and self-promotion of Super Écran, the channel becomes scrambled for the presentation of a film.

The heyday of Canal Famille was between 1990 and 1996. The channel benefited from a fashion effect and produced several low-budget classics such as ''Fripe et Pouille'', ''Les Zigotos'', ''Sur la rue Tabaga'' and the most popular, ''Télé-Pirate'' which benefits from a weekly reach of 400,000 viewers.

In 1994, ''Bibi et Geneviève'' moved to TQS. Canal Famille kept the reruns, but the contest block became exclusive to TQS.

During the 1995-1996 season, Canal Famille changed its logo, attracted more young people on the air and suddenly targeted teenagers aged 12 to 17. The channel aired ''Radio Enfer'', the first Québecois sitcom for young people, and ''Le Studio'', a comedy sketch series directed by Bruno Blanchet. This momentum continued the following year with the addition of '' Goosebumps'' and ''Generation W''.

Shortly after the launch of Canal D (also owned by Premier Choix) in 1995, which offered some classic television series, Canal Famille similarly saw the addition of series to its programming such as '' Bewitched'' in the fall of 1995, ''Gilligan's Island'' in 1996, ''The Flying Nun'' in 1997 and '' Family Affair'' in 1998.

In September 1997, the Télétoon channel (of which Premier Choix is 50% owner) was launched, offering 24-hour programming focused on cartoons for several age groups. Canal Famille lost around half of its market share, reduced its number of original productions and filled its programming with series produced by Nickelodeon.

To counterattack Télétoon, Canal Famille broke from its "childcare" image and took a slightly more delinquent tangent. It now offered more audatious concepts like ''Turbulence Zone'' or '' Dans une galaxie près de chez vous''.

In the fall of 2000, Canal Famille offered ''Watership Down'' as the only new feature. The rest of its programming was no longer renewed and consisted of reruns. Canal Famille's market shares among children aged 2 to 11 fell to 8.6% while they were around 25% before 1997.

To deal with the situation, Canal Famille decided to renew its image and 75% of its programming. On December 5, 2000, Astral announced that Canal Famille would become Vrak.tv as of January 2, 2001, would offer 75% renewed programming overnight (50% new features, 25% new episodes) and would henceforth be in operation from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. (instead of 7 p.m.), allowing the channel to offer more mature series for teenagers.

VRAK

Canal Famille was replaced by VRAK.TV on January 2, 2001, keeping the same channel frequency and still owned by Astral Media. The desire to create Vrak.TV from the remains of Canal Famille would be a success. Audience ratings tripled in six months. The channel switched to an ad-supported format in 2006 to coincide with the renewal of license the launch of its high definition feed on October 30, 2006.

Vrak.TV was separated from its sister channels in 2013 due to the acquisition of Astral Media by Bell Media; Bell sold off Family Channel, the French version of Disney Junior, the English version of Disney Junior and Disney XD to DHX Media, and MusiMax and MusiquePlus to V Media Group.

Vrak.TV was simply renamed to just Vrak on August 25, 2014 and launched a new block, Vrak2, aimed at a teen audience.

On September 12, 2016, Vrak changed its audience focus to the ages 13–35 group due to the success of its ''Vrak2'' block. Some series targeting its former audience focus moved to other stations.

Removal from Videotron, closure

On August 16, 2023, Vrak and Z were removed from Vidéotron, the company that created the original channel it was based on 41 years earlier, while Bell removed Yoopa from all of their TV services a day later. Yoopa shut down on January 11, 2024 and replaced with a TV broadcast version of Qub Radio channel.

Two days later on August 18, 2023, Bell Media announced that the channel would be closing on October 1, 2023, owing to "challenges" in the broadcasting sector, lack of viewers and regulatory affairs deemed "outdated" by Bell Media. On September 25, the CRTC confirmed it had revoked Vrak's licence at the request of Bell Media. On October 1, 2023 at midnight ET, the channel quietly shutdown without ceremony after an episode of '' Entre deux draps''.

Programming

Since its creation, the channel had aired animated series, teen sitcoms and light-hearted dramas. Many of them are French dubs of English-language programs such as ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', ''Charmed'', '' What I Like About You'', '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'', ''Gilmore Girls'', '' One Tree Hill'', '' The O.C.'', '' Life with Derek'', ''Smallville'', ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''That '70s Show'', '' 90210'', ''Gossip Girl'', and many others. It also aired programs from Disney Channel; due to the launch of La Chaîne Disney by Corus Entertainment, the last remaining Disney Channel show on the channel, '' Bonne chance Charlie''' was removed from the schedule in September 2016. The channel also featured local Quebec French language productions, such as ''Il était une fois dans le trouble'', '' Pin-Pon'' and '' Une grenade avec ça?''. Other series that the channel popularized were '' Dans une galaxie près de chez vous'' and '' Radio Enfer''. As of 2010, the channel had aired films weekly.

Initially, as required by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the channel carried no commercials until 2006.Decision: Premier Choix: TVEC Inc. "Canal Famille" — 871204400
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, December 1, 1987 However, it aired promotional messages, interstitial programs (such as help segments known as ''R-Force'' (pronounced like "Air Force")), and public service announcements instead. The channel aired commercials from 2006-2023 with the launch of its HD feed and license renewal. Its former English-language counterpart (Family Channel) continued to be commercial-free until November 2016.

Unlike the other specialty channels, Vrak was the only channel on the air daily from 6am to midnight. When the station was Le Canal Famille, the station would close down at 7pm (8pm on weekends), sharing time with the flagship Super Écran channel (then also owned by Astral and now sharing Bell Media ownership with Vrak). In 2001, when the channel was revamped as VRAK.TV, its hours were increased to 10 p.m. (Super Écran followed on most systems). Vrak's closedown time at midnight went into effect in mid-2005.

On September 12, 2016, due to the channel's changes in audience focus, its animation programming completely disappeared from the channel, eventually, they reappeared on the channel in January 2017, starting with '' Bob l'éponge''. By May 2019, all animated and children's programming had left the network's schedule, with comedy following in May 2022; the network's final schedule exclusively consisted of dramas.

International distribution

* Saint Pierre and Miquelon ( French overseas collectivity) - distributed on the SPM Telecom system.

See also

* YTV
* Family Channel

References

{{Children's television in Canada

Children's television networks in Canada
Defunct specialty television channels in Canada
French-language television networks in Canada
Television channels and stations established in 2001
2001 establishments in Canada
Former Bell Media networks
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2023
2023 disestablishments in Canada