Launched July 5, 2010 Country Canada Broadcast area National | Owned by DHX Media Language French | |
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Télémagino is a Canadian French-language Category B specialty channel owned and operated by DHX Media. Launched on July 5, 2010 as a sister to an equivalent English-language service, it airs programming aimed at preschool-aged children. The channel previously operated under Disney's preschool television brands, including Playhouse Disney and later Disney Junior, but was rebranded under an in-house brand on September 18, 2015 following the acquisition of Canadian rights to Disney's children's programming library by Corus Entertainment.
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Along with its English-language sister network Family Jr., it is available in over four million Canadian households as of 2013.
As Playhouse Disney Télé and Disney Junior
The channel was licensed in 2006 as Vrak Junior, a sister channel to Astral's Vrak TV, though, aimed at younger viewers than Vrak. It was launched on July 5, 2010 as Playhouse Disney Télé. Three years prior, an English language version (then known as Playhouse Disney) was launched on November 30, 2007 as a multiplex channel of Family. The network took on the new Disney Junior brand in 2011.
On March 4, 2013, following the Competition Bureau's approval of Bell Media's takeover of Astral, it was announced that Family Channel and its sister networks (including the two Disney Junior services, Disney XD, MusiquePlus, and MusiMax) would be divested in an attempt to relieve CRTC concerns regarding the takeover. On November 28, 2013, DHX Media announced it would acquire the four channels for $170 million pending CRTC approval. On July 24, 2014, the CRTC approved DHX's purchase of the networks, and the deal was closed on July 31, 2014.
As Télémagino
On April 16, 2015, it was announced that Corus Entertainment had acquired Canadian rights to Disney Channel's program library and would launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel that September, and that its sibling brands of Disney Junior and XD would be re-launched at a later date. In anticipation for this transition, DHX concurrently announced that its Disney-branded networks would be re-branded as spin-offs of Family Channel. The re-branding of Disney Junior's French feed was tentatively announced as Famille Junior, but was later changed to Télémagino. The new name was officially introduced on September 18, 2015, alongside the re-branding of its English-language counterpart as Family Jr..