Owned by Corus Entertainment | Country Canada | |
 | ||
Launched September 4, 2008 (2008-09-04) Closed September 1, 2015 (2015-09-01) Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV) Slogan Toujours drôle
(Always Funny) | ||
Télétoon Rétro (stylized as TÉLÉTOON Rétro) was a Canadian French-language Category B specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was based on the former Télétoon programming block Télétoon Retro and was dedicated to broadcasting French-dubbed animated series that had commenced production at least 10 years prior to their exhibition. Along with Teletoon Retro, it was available in over 9 million Canadian households as of 2013; together they had the most subscribers among the digital Canadian specialty channels.
Contents
History
Télétoon Rétro was initially a programming block on Télétoon. In October 2005, Teletoon Canada was granted approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch "TELETOON Retro", described at the time as "a national, French-language Category 2 specialty programming undertaking devoted to classic animation and classic animation-related programs from Canada and around the world, including animated movies, specials, series and shorts, all of which commenced production at least ten years prior to their exhibition".
The channel was launched on September 4, 2008 as "Télétoon Rétro". An English-language counterpart, Teletoon Retro, had already been on the air since October 1, 2007.
On March 4, 2013, Corus Entertainment announced that it would acquire Astral Media's 50% ownership interest in Teletoon Canada (owner of Teletoon, Télétoon, Teletoon Retro, Télétoon Rétro, and Cartoon Network). The purchase was in relation to Bell Media's pending takeover of Astral (which had earlier been rejected by the CRTC in October 2012, but was restructured to allow the sale of certain Astral Media properties in order to allow the purchase to clear regulatory hurdles). Corus's purchase was cleared by the Competition Bureau two weeks later on March 18; on December 20, 2013, the CRTC approved Corus's full ownership of Teletoon Canada and it was purchased by Corus on January 1, 2014. The channel continues to be owned by Teletoon Canada, now wholly owned by Corus Entertainment under its Corus Kids and Corus Média divisions.
On September 1, 2015, Télétoon Rétro was discontinued and replaced by Disney La Chaîne, a French-language version of Disney Channel.
Programming
Télétoon Rétro HD
On March 23, 2014, Télétoon Rétro launched Télétoon Rétro HD, a high definition simulcast of the standard definition feed. It was only available on Cogeco (Quebec only).