Vrak (stylized as VRΔK) 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 ...

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...

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 ...

owned by

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

. The channel primarily broadcasts live-action programming aimed at

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

audiences.

History

Background

The youth channel TVJQ () went on the air in 1982 and was distributed by a subsidiary of

Vidéotron Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Owned by Quebecor, it primarily ...

. It was originally available only in the Montreal and Quebec City areas. In 1986, 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) granted a license to Vidéotron for its TVJQ channel to be carried over by other cable companies elsewhere. This made Vidéotron the first cable company in Canadian history to simultaneously be a producer of television content. However, TVJQ was intended to be temporary until a permanent channel for children would succeed it.

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 itself was already partially owned at the time by

Astral Media Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels ...

(the predecessor of Bell Media). ''Le Canal Famille'', name translated as ''The Family Channel'', which was the name of another Canadian youth channel that also began airing in 1988, as well as YTV (owned by

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 ...

VRAK

Le Canal Famille was renamed VRAK.TV on January 2, 2001. The channel switched to an ad-supported format in 2006 to coincide with the renewal of license and launch of HD feed. Vrak.TV was separated from its sister channels in 2013 due to the acquisition of Astral Media by

; Bell sold off Family Channel, the French version of Disney Junior, the English version of Disney Junior 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 ...

to DHX Media, and MusiMax and

MusiquePlus Elle Fictions (stylized ELLE Fictions) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Remstar Media Group. The channel broadcasts general entertainment programming targeting young adult women. It was first established in 1986 as the mu ...

V Media Group Remstar Media Group is a privately held Canadian media firm, owned by the film production and distribution company Remcorp. It owns the French-language specialty channels Elle Fictions and Max. History In June 2008, Remstar acquired the French ...

. Vrak.TV was simply renamed to just Vrak on August 25, 2014. 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.

Programming

Since its creation as Le Canal Famille, the channel airs animated series,

teen sitcom A teen situation comedy, or teen sitcom, is a subgenre of comedic television program targeted towards young people. In general, these type of programs focus primarily on characters between 11 and 19 years of age and routinely feature characters inv ...

s and light-hearted dramas. Many of them are French dubs of English-language programs such as ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the 1992 film of the same name, also written by Whedon, although the events of the film are not consid ...

'', ''

Charmed ''Charmed'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling and his production company Spelling Television, with Brad Kern serving as showrunner. The series was originally broadcas ...

'', '' What I Like About You'', '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'', ''

Gilmore Girls ''Gilmore Girls'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel ( Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flag ...

'', ''

One Tree Hill One Tree Hill may refer to: * "One Tree Hill" (song), a 1987 song by U2 referencing One Tree Hill, New Zealand volcanic peak * ''One Tree Hill'' (TV series), a 2003–2012 American drama series named for the U2 song ** ''One Tree Hill'' (soundtr ...

'', ''

The O.C. ''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on the Fox network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, running a total of four seasons. "O.C." is an initiali ...

'', ''

Life with Derek ''Life with Derek'' is a Canadian television teen situation comedy that aired on Family Channel (Canadian TV network), Family Channel (English) and VRAK.TV (French) in Canada and on Disney Channel in the United States. The series premiered on Fam ...

'', ''

Smallville ''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar/G ...

'', ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...

'', ''

That '70s Show ''That '70s Show'' is an American television period teen sitcom that aired on Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, ...

'', '' 90210'', ''

Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...

'', and many others. It also aired programs from

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 ...

; due to the launch of La Chaîne Disney by

, the last remaining Disney Channel show on the channel, ''

Good Luck Charlie ''Good Luck Charlie'' is an American sitcom that originally aired on Disney Channel from April 4, 2010, to February 16, 2014. The series' creators, Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen, wanted to create a program that would appeal to entire families, no ...

'' (''Bonne chance Charlie'' in French), was removed from the schedule in September 2016. The channel also features local Quebec French language productions, such as ''Il était une fois dans le trouble'' and '' Une grenade avec ça?''. Other series that the channel popularized were ''

Dans une galaxie près de chez vous ''Dans une galaxie près de chez vous'' (English: ''In a galaxy near you'') is a Quebec French language television series that aired on Canal Famille (later Vrak.TV) from January 25, 1999 to November 25, 2001, and a movie of the same name, release ...

'' and ''

Radio Enfer ''Radio Enfer'' (French for ''Hell Radio'') is a Québécois sitcom broadcast on Canal Famille and its later incarnation, Vrak.TV, about a group of students at an unidentified high school managing their own high school radio station. ''Radio En ...

''. As of 2010, the channel has aired films weekly. Initially, as required by the

(CRTC), the channel carried no commercials until 2006.Decision: Premier Choix: TVEC Inc. "Canal Famille" — 871204400

, 1 December 1987 However, it aired promotional messages, interstitial programs (such as help segments known as ''R-Force'' (pronounced like "Air Force")), and

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

s instead. The channel airs commercials as of 2006 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 is 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 Super Écran is a Canadian premium television network owned by Bell Media. It airs a mix of commercial-free films and television series. Films are primarily sourced from the United States and Canada, while the television series mostly consist of ...

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 current 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'' in French). Since May 2019, all remaining children programming on the channel has completely disappeared.

Vrak HD

On October 30, 2006, Astral Media launched an HD simulcast of Vrak.TV called ''Vrak.TV HD''. It is available on

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television ser ...

Bell Fibe TV Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with a FTTN or FTTH Bell Internet service, and uses the Mediaroom platform. Bell Fibe TV officially launched on Septem ...

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 ...

Optik TV Telus Optik TV is a product of Telus Communications, a subsidiary of Telus Corporation, that provides IPTV service in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. The service offers over 630 digital channels, including more t ...

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 ...

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two commu ...

and

International distribution

Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...

( French overseas collectivity) - distributed on the SPM Telecom system.

References

External links

* {{Children's television in Canada Analog cable television networks in Canada Children's television networks in Canada French-language television networks in Canada Television channels and stations established in 1988 1988 establishments in Canada Bell Media networks

History

Background

Le Canal Famille

VRAK

Programming

Vrak HD

International distribution

See also

References

External links