Current Station Group: Bell Media Inc.
Previous Station Group(s): Astral Media Inc, Bell Media Inc, Corus Entertainment Inc.
Teletoon, a channel established to present animated film and tape productions, was originally licensed in 1996 to a group consisting of Astral Communications, WIC, YTV, Cinar and Nelvana. A subsequent ownership realignment gave 40% ownership to Corus Entertainment, 40% to Astral and 20% to Cookie Jar Entertainment (formerly Cinar), and still later, Astral and Corus acquired Cookie Jar’s 20% between them for a 50% ownership each. Teletoon’s 24-hour service offered cartoon and animated programming for children, teens and adults in appropriate time periods, and created original production in addition to acquiring animated programming from world sources.
On June 27, 2013, after a previous such application had been denied in 2012, the CRTC approved an application by Astral Media Inc. to sell its pay and specialty television channels, conventional television stations and radio stations to BCE Inc., including its 50% share in Teletoon.
On March 4th 2013, Corus had announced that it had entered into a number of agreements with Bell and separately with Shaw Media that would consolidate Corus’ ownership of ABC Spark and Teletoon, and enable Corus to become a significant media contributor in the Québec and the French-language specialty television market.
Corus had reached an agreement with Bell to acquire the 50% remaining ownership interest in Teletoon that Bell hoped to acquire as part of the acquisition of Astral Media Inc. which at the time was pending regulatory approval. With these acquisitions, Teletoon, Télétoon (French), Teletoon Retro, Télétoon Rétro (French), and Cartoon Network (Canada) would be wholly owned by Corus.
It was a condition of the CRTC approval of the Astral application that BCE was required to divest itself of ownership of several television and radio programming undertakings, including Teletoon. Pending eventual sale, the Commission directed BCE Inc. to transfer the interim management and control of Teletoon to a trustee pursuant to the terms of the voting trust agreement addressed in a letter of approval issued 27 June 2013, by no later than 29 July 2013.
Written by Pip Wedge – July, 2013
Ownership: Corus
Start Year: 1996