Teletoon (Canadian TV channel)

Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian cable television specialty-channel that broadcasts animation programming. Teletoon is owned by Teletoon Canada Inc., a partnership between Astral Media and Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of television and cartoon and has no connection with the television channel in France of the same name.

There are separate English and French language versions of Teletoon. The English version is broadcast in two time-shifted feeds, East (Eastern Time) and West (Pacific Time).

History

Licensed in 1996 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the English language channel launched on October 17, 1997. It was originally owned by a consortium made up of various other Canadian specialty services and producers; The Family Channel Inc. acting as managing partner at 53.3% (Astral Media & WIC), YTV Canada Inc. at 26.7% (Shaw Communications), Cinar and Nelvana with 10% each. Through various acquisitions over the years, ownership resulted in both Astral Media and Corus Entertainment owning a 50% stake in the service.

Initially when Teletoon launched in 1997, it had several time blocks devoted to certain content and showed more mature fare as the day progressed, with a strong commitment to air diverse and international programming, as well as the ability to air a great majority of material uncut. A typical broadcast day would start with preschool content at 7:00 a.m. and end with adult content after midnight, airing more adult cartoons such as Æon Flux, Duckman and various Original Video Animation.

However, Teletoon had an incident during their first year when they accidentally broadcast adult content, including cartoon nudity, during a time normally devoted to preschoolers (thus outside of Watershed). The backlash from the government and parental groups resulted in Teletoon cutting back on almost all programming aimed at teens and adults, alienating those viewers. Teletoon is trying to regain that demographic, starting with the creation of the time block The Detour on Teletoon. Its newest programming block, presenting shows for adults and teenagers. The Detour on Teletoon includes: 12 oz. Mouse, Angry Kid, Bromwell High, Squidbillies, Stroker and Hoop, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Tripping the Rift, Venture Bros, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, Family Guy, and Futurama.

In its second year, Teletoon was supposed to air the cult favourite series, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and even had the show referenced in many promotional materials. However, despite being printed in television listings for weeks, the show never actually aired on the station. The exact reason for the shows abrupt disappearance is unknown, but apparently it involved a royalty dispute with one of the actors interviewed on the show, which has also caused several episodes to be removed from the DVD release. It was thought that Teletoon would never air the series, but in 2004 they did begin airing its spin-off, The Brak Show. The show finally began airing in the fall of 2006.

On February 5 2007, Teletoon's network layout was dramatically changed as was its website, and The Detour's website was moved to teletoon.com, and the aesthetic appearance of both the normal block and The Detour changed.

Teletoon was again involved in controversy, when on December 8, 2007, the station aired Team America: World Police without viewer advisories mentioning the violence and sexual activity contained in the film, despite the film airing outside of Watershed.^[1]

Programming

Further information: List of programs broadcast by Teletoon

Teletoon predominantly airs animated television series with the occasional film broadcast through its programming block, Teletoon Presents, many television series of which come from the Cartoon Network from the United States.

Teletoon's licence requires that 90% of all programs on the network are animated (151.2 hours per week). If the network were to do non-animated stunt programming, such as when Adult Swim aired Saved by the Bell, they could only do so for 16.8 hours per week, or 2.4 hours per day. [1]

Note: The French version of Teletoon contains a different schedule of programs than the English version, some being a French-dubbed version of well-known television shows, such as South Park. For a full list of their programs, please see Télétoon (Canadian TV channel).

Fewer animes were shown on Teletoon, and as of today only airs Bakugan Battle Brawlers and Spider Riders.

Teletoon original productions

Program blocks

Teletoon Presents

Teletoon Presents (formerly known as Cinetoon) is a block on Saturdays that airs animated movies, such as Tom and Jerry: The Movie, and in a few cases, live-action movies, such as the recent version of Scooby-Doo. The movies currently air on Saturday afternoons at 5:00 pm ET. As of Teletoon's layout change in 2007, Teletoon Presents now has two types movies airing on Saturday, (Scooby Doo at 9 am ET, & etc. at 5 pm ET) but this block as been heard to cancel in the upcoming Fall schedule. It also repeats one time on Sunday from 11:00 am ET to 1:00 pm ET.

Teletoon Detour and F'N Good Movie

Teletoon Detour starts at 9:30 p.m. and runs until 4:00 a.m. Teletoon Detour is the name for the animated programming block targeted towards teen and adult audiences. It was launched in September 2002. There was a strong early commitment to air diverse and international programming, and to air a great majority of material uncut. Teletoon Detour has never incorporated Anime into its lineup, as YTV's Bionix block contained most of the recent Toonami and Adult Swim anime properties, until September 2008 when it was moved to Saturday nights and shortened, and now currently only containing Viz programs.

Teletoon Detour was an amalgamation of the old The Detour block, aimed at teenagers, and the former Teletoon Unleashed block, aimed at adults, which had been dropped due to lack of new content.

For the start of the 2006-2007 season, a new Friday night companion block "F-Night" debuted, featuring a slightly different lineup consisting of more of the Adult Swim comedies such as Tom Goes to the Mayor and Squidbillies.

In September 2007, most of the shows that were involved with the "F-Night" block was removed to make room for the F'N Good Movie segment, which now takes up Friday at 10:00 PM, 1:00 AM (repeat) and Saturday at 9:30 PM (repeat).The movies in this block involved in this line-up were mostly animated or were derived from comic books and other animated series. A majority of the films were designed to target an older teenage or adult audience, which was the intended target and purpose of the Detour. If the movie didn't fill in its 2 - 2 1/2 hour block, then either the animated shorts on their line-ups or short films from the Animatrix were used to fill up the space. Some shows or movies on The Detour block are just live action based on comics or animation, for example the Blade trilogy. This wasn't Teletoon's first time to air non-animated shows or movies. However, Teletoon aired the live-action Fireball XL-5 back in the 1997-98 season.

On September 1, 2008, The Detour on Teletoon was renamed to Teletoon Detour.

Current programs