La Chaîne Disney is a Canadian French-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment under license from The Walt Disney Company, and launched on September 1, 2015, replacing Télétoon Rétro. It is a localized version of the U.S. subscription network Disney Channel, broadcasting live-action and animated programming aimed at children in French in Canada.
The launch of the network came alongside a licensing deal reached between Disney and Corus, who acquired Canadian rights to Disney Channel's programming library, and the announcement of a Canadian version of Disney Channel broadcasting in English that launched concurrently. Previous rightsholder DHX Media never operated any Disney Channel-branded services in English or French, and its only French-language Disney-branded property was a French-language Canadian version of the preschool children's brand Disney Junior.
History
French-language dubs of Disney Channel programs were historically aired by Radio-Canada and later Vrak.TV. The latter channel was co-owned with Family Channel. Vrak.TV was separated from Family with the acquisition of Astral Media by Bell Media; in an attempt to relieve concerns surrounding Bell's total market share in English-language television following the merger, Bell elected to divest Family Channel and its sister networks to DHX Media, which included Astral's French-language version of Disney Junior.[1]
On April 16, 2015, Corus Entertainment announced that it had acquired long-term, Canadian multi-platform rights to Disney Channel's programming library; the cost and duration of the licensing deal were not disclosed. Alongside the licensing deal, Corus announced that it would officially launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel; the service will consist of linear television channels in English and French, along with TV Everywhere and video-on-demand services for digital platforms.[2][1]
The French-language service, La chaîne Disney, launched concurrently with its English-language counterpart on September 1, 2015. It replaced Télétoon Rétro in its previous channel allotments, and operates under the same CRTC license.[3][4]
In 2018, the channel was rebranded to match its English-language counterpart modifying slightly its logo.
Programming
La Chaîne Disney's programming mainly consists of French-language dubs of existing programs from Disney Channel. As no French versions of each brand exist, Disney XD and Disney Junior programs are also included, as part of their respective programming blocks, Disney Junior sur la chaîne Disney[5] and, previously, XD Zone (shown on air as Disney XD Zone). Disney Channel shows also air on the blocks based on their respective themes.[6][7]
Some of the assets listed above are majority-owned, wholly-owned, by Corus Entertainment, or are under license. Refer to full asset list for detailed information.
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