Treehouse TV is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

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 targeted ...

for preschoolers aged 2 to 5 that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from YTV's former preschool block, " The Treehouse". The channel is owned by YTV Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Ont ...

. Development of a separate channel started when YTV aired preschool shows as part of its weekday morning lineup. This block of shows was given the name "The Treehouse" in 1994. On November 1, 1997, Treehouse TV launched as its own channel, airing preschool shows from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. Like the block it was spun off from, commercials weren't broadcast when the Treehouse channel first launched. Instead, shorts hosted by humans and puppets were broadcast. As of 2011, Treehouse TV had been available to over 7.5 million homes across Canada.

History

The Treehouse block

The Treehouse brand began as a daily programming block for preschoolers on YTV. The block was given the name "The Treehouse" in 1994. Commercials for the block weren't shown. Instead, the block was hosted by three program jockeys (or "PJs") named PJ Katie, PJ Krista, and PJ Todd. In between shows, the PJs made crafts, played games, and held contests. As the block's name suggests, these segments were set in a tree house. The PJs' co-hosts were a group of stuffed animal puppets called the Fuzzpaws. On Fridays, PJ Katie would act out stories with clay animals. These segments were eventually spun off into the series '' PJ Katie's Farm''.

Treehouse channel

In early 1996, it was announced that YTV was looking to "break part of tsaudience off with a separate network aimed at viewers under the age of 6." The network's president, Patricia Macdonald, said she had "done a lot of research that led us to the conclusion that the preschool market is underserved." On September 4, 1996, the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcast ...

(CRTC) approved YTV's request to launch a new channel called Treehouse TV. The new channel eventually debuted on November 1, 1997, at 8:00 a.m. EST. For a few months, The Treehouse block on YTV continued to air alongside the channel. In 1998, the Treehouse block was replaced by

YTV Jr. YTV Jr. (formerly known as The Treehouse) was a block on YTV for preschoolers that was launched in 1994 and aired weekdays until 2002. History When YTV launched, it had a block of programs for preschoolers with a focus on Canadian content. In ...

, an unhosted block. Like the Treehouse block, the Treehouse channel was non-commercial, opting instead to show interstitial shorts in between shows. These shorts featured a new set of characters who lived in Treetown. While the PJs (program jockeys) from the original Treehouse block did not return for the Treehouse channel, PJ Katie's show (''PJ Katie's Farm'') was rerun on Treehouse throughout 1999. In March 2005, Corus Entertainment began offering a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

service called ''Treehouse On Demand'' to cable providers such as

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable Inc. is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. R ...

and

Cogeco Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezelin ...

, delivering content from Treehouse TV. It is offered as a free service to customers who subscribe to each providers digital cable service. Some providers such as SaskTel offer it as a standalone premium subscription service. Between June 2015 and May 2019, Corus operated ''TreehouseGO'', a

TV Everywhere TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" themse ...

service available on iOS and Android devices. In 2011, Corus launched a standalone subscription video on demand service for iOS. It was later rebranded to ''Treehouse Classic'' before a 2016 revamp dropped the "Classic" branding. On February 5, 2013,

Nelvana Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. (; previously known as Nelvana Limited, sometimes known as Nelvana Animation and simply Nelvana or Nelvana Communications) is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment company owned by Corus Entertainment. Founded ...

's animation division, launched the Treehouse Direct channel on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. On March 2, 2015, Treehouse TV launched its own YouTube channel. On July 19, 2019, Corus Entertainment filed a

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

lawsuit against a

medical marijuana Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restriction ...

dispensary chain, known as "Treehouse Dispensary", alleging the chain "wilfully copied and is using a confusing similar imitation" of the Treehouse TV logo. An attorney for the dispensary contested the claims and said that the business "categorically denies that its logo infringes on any existing trademarks in the United States." Corus won the lawsuit through a default judgment the following December. On July 4, 2022, the CRTC announced plans for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

, Télétoon, YTV,

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

, La Chaîne Disney,

Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven ...

and

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...

have been renewed for another two years (licences valid until August 31, 2024).

Programming

References

External links