Cartoon Network (Canada)

Cartoon Network is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. Based on the U.S. cable network of the same name, it primarily broadcasts animated series aimed at children and teenagers.

The channel launched on October 17, 1997 as Teletoon (its name being a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon"), a bilingual service originally owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc. – a consortium of Western International Communications and Astral Media (via their specialty channel Family Channel), Shaw Communications (via its specialty channel YTV), and the animation studios Cinar and Nelvana. With subsequent acquisitions and divestments, Corus became the sole owner of the channel in 2014. Teletoon historically aired a mix of domestic productions and imported series, with many of the latter coming from the American Cartoon Network.

In 2012, Teletoon launched a Canadian version of Cartoon Network as a sister network under license from Turner Broadcasting. In February 2023, Corus announced that Teletoon would rebrand as a new iteration of Cartoon Network on March 27, 2023, with the previous Cartoon Network channel concurrently relaunching under Cartoon Network's own sister brand Boomerang.

Cartoon Network operates two timeshift feeds running on Eastern and Pacific schedules. Along with its French-language counterpart Télétoon, it is available in over 7.3 million households in Canada as of November 2013.

YTV was originally intended to be the Canadian distributor of Cartoon Network, applying for a licence at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in late 1992. The original target was to launch the channel in late 1993 at earliest. The arrival came at a time when US cable networks were beginning to encroach Canadian cable, which, according to YTV's president Kevin Shea, could open new avenues for Canadian producers. By early 1994, the planned Cartoon Network distribution licence was replaced by a new project, Fun TV. The new network was supposed to be owned by Rogers and CUC, owners of YTV, animation studios Nelvana and Cinar and the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Cartoon Network output would later be given to another proposal owned by the backers of Family Channel.

A new proposal was mooted in January 1996. 53.3% would be owned by the backers of Family Channel, 26,7% by YTV and 10% each by Cinar and Nelvana, who had supported Fun TV. It promised to spend CA$42 million on Canadian animated productions over a seven-year period. The bid was not comparable to the US Cartoon Network, justifying that Turner's channel was attached to Hanna-Barbera's library and was mainly seen as nostalgia, according to Nelvana's chair Michael Hirsh. The new channel would cave some nostalgia, but would concentrate on newer titles, with emphasis on productions from all over the world. There would also be Japanese animation and adult animated titles, comparable to Fritz the Cat, at night. Regulations suggested that it would cater to children from 6am to 6pm (commercial-free 3pm-6pm), families from 6pm to 10:30pm (including one animated movie during prime time) and a nightly news magazine about animation.

On September 3, 1996, Teletoon was one of the 23 licensed channels to be approved by the CRTC, after a related application for a channel to be called "Fun TV" had been denied. The channel was part of the "Gang of Four", referring to the first four of the 23 channels (the other three being CTV News 1, History Television and The Comedy Network) set to launch. These channels were already negotiating pricing conditions with the cable companies. The English-language version of Teletoon launched on October 17, 1997. The channel was originally owned by a consortium of other Canadian specialty services, including Family Channel acting as managing partner at 53.3% (Superchannel/WIC and The Movie Network/Astral Media), YTV at 26.7%, (Shaw Communications), along with the Canadian animation studios Cinar and Nelvana with 10% each. Shaw spun off its entertainment assets as Corus Entertainment in 1999, which subsequently acquired WIC's stake in Family Channel among other assets as part of its breakup later that year, Corus acquired Nelvana in 2000.

Teletoon was licensed as a bilingual service in both English and French, being one of only two Canadian specialty services with such a license; the channel maintains two feeds under the license, with the French feed operating under the branding Télétoon. At the original licensing hearing before the CRTC, the network's operators had stated that the two channels "would be similar in nature and programmed with a similar attitude towards them", but that there may be differences in their programming due to market differences (including Quebec's prohibition on advertising to children) and program rights. To this end, Teletoon often commissioned programming to air in both English and French whenever possible.