YTV (Canadian TV channel)

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This article refers to the Canadian television network. For other uses, see YTV (disambiguation)
YTV
Typecable specialty channel (youth)
Country
 Canada
AvailabilityNational
OwnerYTV Canada Inc. (Corus Entertainment)
Launch date
September 1, 1988
Official website
http://www.ytv.com

YTV is a Canadian cable television specialty channel aimed at youth, available nationwide through cable and satellite television. Presently it is wholly owned by Corus Entertainment. "YTV" presumably stands for "Youth Television", although YTV itself denies this.

YTV's schedule is primarily children's programming, with target audiences ranging from pre-schoolers to young adults. At the upper end of this range are repeats of dramas such as Smallville and Gilmore Girls. Until recently it aired a significant number of British sitcoms in late night; it now only airs My Family. Among its claims to fame, it was the first to air the first completely computer-animated series, ReBoot, and the Anime show, Sailor Moon. YTV's flagship programming block is The Zone, aired on weekday afternoons; Carlos Bustamente and Stephanie "Sugar" Beard currently host the interstitial segments.

While it produces or commissions a substantial portion of its programming, YTV also acquires and airs most of the original series of the similar American service Nickelodeon, which is not available in Canada. Thanks to strong contractual ties, YTV has exclusive access to all Nickelodeon animated titles, and to date has aired every one of these productions. It has recently gained a strong anime element in an attempt to appeal more to teens, picking up titles ranging from InuYasha to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It is spearheading that effort by introducing YTV Anime On Demand, a new video-on-demand service offering "Anime 24/7".

The channel operates two timeshifted feeds, East (Eastern Time) and West (Pacific Time).

History

Launched on September 1, 1988, YTV was the successor to two prior special programming services operated by various Ontario cable companies beginning in the late 1970s. Not surprisingly, then, the two largest shareholders in YTV were two cable companies, Rogers Cable and a company known as CUC which would later be acquired by Shaw Communications. By about 1995, through various acquisitions and trades, Shaw had secured full control of YTV; it was spun off as part of Corus in 1999.

After Corus took control of the channel in 1999, YTV began to utilize a Nickelodeon-style "gross-out" factor in its branding, albeit with much less slime, with its mantra (and former slogan) being "Keep It Weird". Over the years YTV used a number of different on-air logos, featuring the same arrangement of white letters on various bizarre and imaginative creatures. The logo used on production credits - and thus presumably the "official" logo - features this arrangement on a red screen on a stylized purple television set. The channel's advertisements often focused on promoting the brand through crude humour, often at the expense of the programs being advertised. As this advertising style permeated the station at all hours of the day, it was heavily criticized, especially by older fans of the channel.

In fall of 2005, a new post 6 p.m. advertising style was developed for older audiences which used a much simpler logo and much sleeker packaging with barely any gross-out tactics. In the spring of 2006, this look was adapted for the entire station.

An interesting tidbit about YTV is that former PJ Aashna's performance of Canada's national anthem still plays on YTV, shortly before 6:00 a.m. ET.

Other logos

Programming blocks

Since the station launched, YTV has been well-known for dividing their broadcasts into distinct programming blocks for a variety of reasons. An unnamed programming block which later became "The Treehouse", and "The Afterschool Zone", now known simply as "The Zone" were the first and second blocks established in the station's early years. This was done primarily as a tactic to comply with CRTC restrictions on advertising in children's programming: popular imported programming would run a few minutes short due to fewer ads being permitted compared to US stations. Instead of filling the time with public service announcements or other filler material, the idea of devoting several minutes between programs to interaction between live-action hosts was utilized, and has proven successful to this day.

Other blocks, such as Limbo and Bionix, have been created for the specific purpose of designating programming intended for older or specific audiences. Without similar advertising restrictions being applied, these blocks are unhosted.

Current programming blocks

Past programming blocks

The Treehouse was a daily programming blocks aimed at preschoolers. It was hosted by Todd, Krista, and Katie, and featured puppets known as the Fuzzpaws. The Treehouse aired many shows such as Wishbone, Bananas in Pyjamas, Once Upon a Hamster, The Big Comfy Couch, What-a-Mess, Take Part, and PJ Katie's Farm. This block has since been spun off into its own specialty channel, Treehouse TV.
This segment originally did not have a specific name, and ran from 10am until switching over the Afterschool Zone. The original hosts were PJ Jen and PJ Chandra. PJ Gord acted as a substitute for both this block and The After School Zone.
  • The Alley
The Alley was the original weekend morning programming block, which was hosted by the existing PJs from the weekday segments, along with the Grogs.
  • YTV News
YTV News was a 30 minute news show. It aired on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays and was advertised as being the only national, youth-oriented TV Newsmagazine. YTV News was hosted by Janis Mackey, Exan, Honey Khan, Cory Atkins, Mark McAllister, and Wilf Dinnick who covered many stories from Canadian elections to world issues. Viewers of YTV News were encouraged to create their own news editorials about themselves and send them in to be broadcast. YTV News shared facilities with CTV News, and was briefly rebroadcast on CTV on weekend mornings, albeit with the title Wuz Up.
  • The Breakfast Zone
The Breakfast Zone or B-Zone was aired in a morning time slot as the name implies. Originally hosted by Jenn and Paul, with Aashna soon replacing Jenn, the block was intended as a morning version of The Zone, but functioned more as a long running single program than an actual block. Programs started at much more arbitrary times as the banter between the live-action hosts became more of a central focus than mere filler material. The block was later rebranded as the short-lived B-Zone, hosted by Taylor.
  • Shift
Shift was broadcast in prime time and aired many of YTV's most popular shows. Some of Shift's programming included ReBoot, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Beasties, and Goosebumps. Shift was hosted by Aashna and Paul. It was dropped in favour of extending The Zone by one hour.
  • Brainwash
A former weekend programming block aired on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Brainwash was hosted by Carrie and Ed (Shaun Majumder early in his career) from a colourful set featuring pipes and video screens. Concept created and produced by Kim J. Saltarski & Atul N. Rao (later forming writer/producer team "The Membrains"). Brainwash had many slogans such as "Put a spin on your reality", "Headaches are an excellenct source of iron", and "YTV's laundromat of choice". The theme was a play on the name using bubbles, washing machines, and brain visuals. Brainwash was similar to The Zone but was much longer. It featured programs such as Bump in the Night, Sailor Moon, and The Pink Panther. Brainwash was eventually replaced with Snit Station.
  • Snit Station
Snit Station replaced The Breakfast Zone in the weekend morning slot and was hosted by YTV's robotic mascot Snit and Denise. Snit Station programming included Animaniacs, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Garfield, Huckleberry Hound, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. When Snit later left Snit Station this block became known as the Vortex block and programming dramatically changed.
  • Limbo
Limbo was YTV's first attempt at a block for teenagers and featured programming such as Daria, Stressed Eric, Home Movies, and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. Limbo originally aired from 8 p.m. to midnight ET, but was eventually pushed back to 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. ET before being cancelled. Bionix is Limbo's closest current equivalent.
  • The Dark Corner
A former seasonal programming block that was aired on Halloween. The Dark Corner featured many of YTV's darker shows such as Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Freaky Stories, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • YTV Jr
YTV Jr. boasted 40 hours of commercial-free programming per week and was aimed at the pre-school demographic. YTV Jr.'s programming included children's favourites such as Rupert, Groundling Marsh, and The Big Comfy Couch. YTV Jr. later became obsolete as Treehouse TV, YTV's dedicated childrens channel, became widely available.
Vortex aired on YTV from 2001 to June 24, 2006. It was formerly hosted by Stephanie Broschart, who left in 2002 and was replaced by Paula Lemyre. Unlike its predecessors, Vortex was exclusive to Saturdays. Vortex was also based mainly on action cartoons, not unlike Cartoon Network's Toonami block. It ended on June 24, 2006 upon Paula's departure from YTV and was replaced by The Zone Summer Weekends.
The Zone Summer Weekends aired on YTV from July 1, 2006 to September 2, 2006. It was hosted by Sugar and Carlos. The Zone Summer Weekends replaced Vortex and was a Saturday morning spin-off of The Zone. It featured all of the programs that Vortex had but the only commonly noticed differences were the new logos and animations. A few times, The Zone Summer Weekends was extended into the afternoon. It ended on September 2, 2006 and has since been replaced by CRUNCH.

Program Jockeys

In the earlier days, YTV had hosts called Program Jockeys or "PJ"s, in the same vein as "Disc Jockey" or "Video Jockey". Current hosts of these segments have since dropped the moniker of PJ.

Current

Past

Programs of note

As an early specialty station with a focus on an ambiguously defined area such as youth programming, YTV has incorporated many unique and controversial programs into their schedule over the years.

British sitcoms

Due to a general lack of original programming for specialty services in its early years, YTV often filled its schedule with older or more obscure types of acquisitions not normally seen on other services. One of the most well-known additions has been British sitcoms, which were initially used to fill prime time slots, but due to popular demand remained prominently on the station's late night schedule for well over a decade. Highlights included the North American premiere of Red Dwarf as well as a persistent run of the improv series Whose Line is it Anyway?, but because YTV's standards for content had not been firmly established at the time, both series endured excessive censorship.

Although prime time programming slowly became more focused, programs such as Are You Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, and Yes Minister found cult audiences in late night timeslots, and aired free of time and content edits for years as more focus was placed on younger audiences viewing at earlier hours. However, in 2003 when YTV began marketing their late night hours towards older youth viewers, it was finally decided to remove the remaining shows from the schedule, having them return only for occasional Christmas specials. Currently, the only British sitcoms still running is My Family, which continues to air recent episodes, and the animated Canada/UK show Bob and Margaret.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

In 1993, YTV obtained the Canadian broadcast rights to the sensationally popular children's series Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, which played to a receptive audience on weekday afternoons, trailing the American broadcast by several months. However, due to a handful of complaints sent to the recently formed Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, YTV was pressured to remove the series from their line-up due to its violent content. Despite not actually being a member of the CBSC board, YTV complied and pulled the series before the end of its first season. While a phone-in poll was conducted to see if viewers wanted Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers back on YTV, no further installments of the Power Rangers series ever aired on the network but commercials for toys and videos were advertised on the network, Fox and the CanWest Global System stations were the only broadcasters of the series in Canada. Newer versions of the series are run on Family.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In 1997, YTV premiered the popular series Buffy the Vampire Slayer one week before it began airing concurrently in the US on the WB. From the beginning this was regarded as a surprising move, as the mature nature of the series was a noticeable contrast to most of the station's acquisitions, and clearly catered towards an older audience despite seeing many late afternoon airings. However, it quickly became one of their highest rated programs, and YTV apparently took on a strong commitment to airing the series uncut and in its entirety. This was demonstrated most blatantly when one parental complaint was mockingly read on-air by former The Zone host Paul McGuire.

YTV's broadcast continued even after Buffy was moved to UPN in the United States, not only making the US broadcast more widely available in Canada, but also gradually leading to a notable increase in violent and sexual content. Regardless, for its entire run Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired before the Canadian watershed of 9 p.m. The only exception was the season six episode "Seeing Red" which was premiered at 9 p.m. in 2002 due to extreme content.

Farscape

In 1999, the North American debut of Farscape on YTV garnered a reasonable amount of positive attention from Canadian sci-fi fans, but controversy arose in 2000 with YTV's decision to not acquire the rights to the show's second season and skip the cliffhanger finale to the first season. Apparently, the promotional materials from the Jim Henson company used to pitch the series to various networks misleadingly depicted it as being youth-oriented due to its use of muppets. As such, the general direction of the series was a considerable contrast to YTV's expectations, and was ultimately deemed too "adult" for the network. This decision resulted in considerable fan outrage, and while the series eventually found a home on SPACE, many believe that the series was never able to attract its potential audience as a result of the initial cancellation.

Anime

Ever since hosting the North American broadcast premiere of Sailor Moon in August of 1995, YTV has become a central hub for anime fandom in Canada. While Sailor Moon still remained their most popular and influential franchise (enough to provoke the final seventeen episodes of Sailor Moon R to be dubbed specifically for the Canadian market) franchises such as Dragon Ball and Pokémon saw massive success on the station in following years. However, in 1999, YTV's confusion in attempting to market Gundam Wing, which had proven to be a monumental hit on weekday afternoons in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, posed significant problems for the medium's exposure in Canada. Although audiences were shocked to see the show's follow-up movie, Endless Waltz (which was aired before the actual series) shown completely uncut, YTV's decision to air an edited version of the series at 11:30 p.m. on weeknights due to uneven market research conducted through an online poll, essentially cut the series off from mainstream viewership.

This likely contributed to the complete lack of many popular anime series being run on YTV for the next several years. However, this dry period ended in 2003 when InuYasha was introduced to the station. Its popularity with teen viewers brought about the creation of the Bionix block. While some minor, inconsistent content edits occurred in programs like Gundam SEED as a result of this new focus (although the edits were few and nowhere near as severe as some censorship seen on Cartoon Network), the block has gradually matured with its content and tone falling more in line with that of Adult Swim. However, YTV's decision to air Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in 2005 met with some controversy due to the show's content and adult nature. Despite airing at midnight, the episode "Jungle Cruise" was skipped due to its gruesome theme and content, bringing more question as to why YTV would license a show of this nature. While the episode was later reaired uncut in a later timeslot, it remains unclear whether or not YTV will air the series' much more graphic second season.

Between the end of Limbo and beginning of Bionix programming blocks, YTV launched the Anime Master forum. The Anime Master character is portraited as a red-suited masked ninja, dubbed in Snit's voice, and has made a few guest appearances in The Zone and Vortex segments.

Live action show hosts has also done interviews in Anime North. The interviews were shown in the live action segments between programmes (called Animinutes), or as a separate block.

On September 29, 2006, YTV Canada Inc. announced it had applied to the CRTC for permission to launch a Category 2 English-language specialty channel called "The Anime Channel". The proposal included minimum 85% animated and related programming and maximum 15% information-based program, targeted at adults over the age of 18. A meeting with the CRTC will be held on November 14, 2006.

YTV Anime On Demand

File:Ytv anime on demand.gif
YTV Anime on Demand Logo

In 2005, Corus Entertainment began offering a video on demand service called YTV Anime On Demand to cable providers, as of yet Rogers Cable is the only provider to offer the service. The service offers old and new anime programs that does not air on YTV channel itself.

Other programming

Current programs (As of November 2006)

YTV's schedule presently includes the following programs. This list of shows is from YTV's official website:

   

Past programs

Here is a list of programs that no longer air on YTV on a regular basis, or are just not airing right now. Canadian Content shows are frequently revived by YTV when the need for more Canadian content arises.

   

External links

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