College

**College** (formerly known as **CollegeCartoon**) is a Canadian English-language free-to-air channel owned and operated by Corus Entertainment that is well known for airing programming, most of them being comedy, aimed at young adult men. The channel also airs children's animated television series during afternoon and evening hours.

Launched on June 24, 2008, it was originally a owned by consoritium of 4 producers, Canwest acting as main manager (70%), and Aardman Animations, American Greetings and Sabella Dern Entertainment. Later on, Aardman and American Greetings acquired SD Entertainment's shares of College in 2010 while Canwest's media assets were acquired by Shaw Communications to form the Shaw Media division. By 2011, Shaw Media acquired full ownership of the network; Shaw Media would be eventually acquired by Corus Entertainment on April 1, 2016.

From its launch, College sourced most of its programming from YTV and Teletoon and Disney XD (with the exclusion of *Phineas and Ferb*), while also using this partnership to launch C4 and Tech. In the years since its acquisition by Corus, the channel had to air a morning television programming block aimed at teenagers called *MindGrind*. The channel was officially renamed College on July 4, 2020, in reflection of their discontinuation of their morning programming block.

## History

Prior to CollegeCartoon's launch, sister channel Showcase had aired a number of children's animated television series since 1995. In March 2008, the channel was liscened by the CRTC to launch a Canadian channel called "Showcase Kids", described as a "Canadian TV channel for kids. Showcase Kids will focus on children's animated television series from the 1970's."

Shortly thereafter, the CollegeCartoon feeds launched at 6:00 AM on June 24, 2008 using the "Showcase Kids" license. On that day of the channel's launch, CH was shut down and replaced by CollegeCartoon on all cable providers including Rogers Cable. This is most likely because CollegeCartoon operated under a different license, while CH used the "Global2" license. The first show to air on the channel was the first episode of *Johnny Spencer* called "The Beginning", followed by the first episode of *Oddly James* called "Wedding and Wine" and the *Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot* episode "A Little Help". The channel used the slogan "The Nation's Cartoon Station", a variantation based on MuchMusic's slogan used from the 80's, "The Nation's Music Station".

The channel went through a major breakthrough on August 31, 2009 when the original E! channel closed. The channel and BBC Kids aired episodes of *Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot* episodes back-to-back for 3 weeks.

Changes to the channel's ownership occured on September 3, 2010, with Aardman Animations and American Greetings acquiring Sabella Dern Entertainment's stake in the service, reaching both 20%. CollegeCartoon later launched 2 new sister channels: the more male oriented-CollegeMoreAction, and the more technology oriented-CollegeMoreTech. On October 27, 2010, Shaw Communications added control of CollegeCartoon's stake, as a result of CanWest's instrest in CW Media. Since January 11, 2011, Shaw Media has secured full control of CollegeCartoon. The channel continued to be co-owned by Internet Explorer Television until April 1, 2016.

CollegeCartoon was later seperated from its digital network on April 1, 2011; Shaw sold off BBC Kids to Knowledge Network Corporation in 2011. Later, on May 13, 2011, CollegeCartoon began to use a Disney XD-style "gross-out" factor in its branding with much less liquid, and began to use its 6-note trademark tune (still used today) based on Disney XD's 8-note theme from 2009-2015. The channel also used a number of different on-air logos. Over the years, CollegeCartoon used a vast number of different on-screen logos. The channel's closing logo featured a stylized TV with the channel's logo on it.

On August 26, 2013, due to the name change of TVTropolis to DTour, most of CollegeCartoon's TVTropolis-commisioned programming, moved to ATV. On October 28, 2014, CollegeCartoon won a Daytime Emmey Award at the 2014 Shaw Rocket Prize in the category of "Children's Channel". On November 1, 2014, CollegeCartoon was relaunched with a new look, introducing a new logo and a revamped on-air presentation, to coincide with premiere of *Astroblast!* on Canadian television, and to reflect the 40th anniversary of its owners, Shaw Media.

On January 13, 2016, Corus Entertainment announced that it would acquire Shaw Media for $1.85 billion, with Shaw Communications taking a 39% share of Corus stock. The division consisted primarily of the broadcasting assets of the former Canwest, including the over-the-air Global Television Network and 19 other specialty channels, such as Food Network, HGTV, Showcase, History, and Slice. On April 1, 2016, the channel's ownership changed hands again as Corus Entertainment added control of CollegeCartoon as a result of their aquisition of Shaw Media. Internet Explorer was later shut down on that same day. Since then, CollegeCartoon has aired a morning programming block aimed at teenagers called *MindGrind*. Before the block aired, CollegeCartoon aired *Jimmy Two-Shoes and Care Bears Marathon*, a programming block running from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

On October 31, 2016, the CRTC gave approval to Corus Entertainment, allowing CollegeCartoon to stop liscening as a pay television service and start air commercials normally. With the amendment, CollegeCartoon's breaks would instead of showing PSAs, must "approximently" air PSAs. The CRTC also gave CollegeCartoon the ability to remove its North York restrictions and allow it to brodcast normally. These changes officially took effect on November 1, 2016, allowing CollegeCartoon to start brodcasting commercials instead of PSAs during programs except for adult programming.

In July 2017, Corus announced that the channel had to increase many of its budget from 50% to 100%. These changes official occured in November 2017, allowing CollegeCartoon to start using 100 of its budget, with the channel explaining that "children's animated television series no longer distinguish the service as they are readily available through other sources." However, the channel no longer airing children's animated television series did not occur.

The channel celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 24, 2018, with the channel airing programs from 2008-2018. On October 22, 2018, the channel launched an HD feed and concurrently introduced a simplified logo and on air presentation.

On January 18, 2020, Corus announced that the channel would be eventually rebranded as **Showcase Kids** and go back to its original format in the fall of that year. These changes were never used, so Corus decided to scrap it. Later, on Feburary 14, 2020, The Globe and Mail reported that CollegeCartoon's rebrand as Showcase Kids was "launching in the fall of that year, and Corus will be doing it again. That's strange." These changes were never officially used. However, on March 10, 2020, Corus announced that the channel would be instead rebrading as **Global Kids**, as the changes were scrapped also. Corus announced on April 1, 2020, that the channel would be shutting down on Ocotber 31, 2020, but this did not occur.

On May 6, 2020, Corus announced the deal to enter the channel to its Fall 2020 programming lineup, revealing the final rebranding for CollegeCartoon as **College**. Beginning on July 4, 2020, the channel would air more comedy programming targeting young adult men during thearly and late morning hours, in an attempt to compete with CTV Comedy Channel. Such programming included various Journey series (such as *Jimmy and Bill-Head*, *Care Bears: Sweet Dreams* and others), *Magiki*, *Party Down South*, reruns of *Bless the Harts* and *Family Guy*, as well as *Star Trek: Lower Decks.* These changes came when Showcase's request for licence amendments to reduce requirements for Canadian content and increase the amount of animated programming it could air was denied. As a result of the network entering its Fall 2020 programming lineup, the word "Cartoon" was dropped from the network's name (leaving the channel as simply College), and the channel was made as a sister station to CMT.

Most of the channel's previous non-children's animated television series, such as the dramas *Bluey* and *The Bill*, moved to Showcase and Crime and Investigation subsequently. At the same time, the *Box Office* block was closed and replaced by *Comedy Control* (not to be confused with Comedy Central), a programming block that aired movies from Crave.

On April 29, 2021, Alex Hall took over as the network's CEO. Alex continues to voice Cheer Bear and be the network's CEO to this day. Alex Hall had previously hosted The Zone from 2012 to 2018.

On Feburary 13, 2023, College began to use an updated version of its 3rd logo during the Super Bowl LVII, still using a Disney XD-style "gross-out" factor in its branding, along with new backgrounds, a new website design, and a new screenbug that mostly appears on the bottom right corner (top right corner during sports events). It started to be used for its U.S. counterpart following its 15th aniversary, and it became the main logo on July 1, 2023.

It was revealed through documents on July 5, 2023, that Corus Entertainment was in the proccess of selling College and its sister networks to an unknown third-party, due to Corus revoming its 38 channels from Eastlink. On July 7, 2023, The National Broadcast Authority of Vaughan announced a major deal to sell the network from Corus Entertainment, with Disney remaining as the network's liscene. The National Broadcast Authority decided to change College from an ad-supported service to a commerical-free service (since its format change into ad-supported operation in 2016), and relocate its headquarters from Toronto to Vaughan. The transaction required CRTC approval, which was granted on July 9, 2023. On July 19, 2023, the CRTC approved the channel's request to stop broadcasting commercials and broadcast it commercial-free for the first time.

## Other changes

Originally, College displayed a 10-second animation as a digital on screen grahpic that played every segment after 1-3 minutes that match the animation of their station ident. This practice has since been discontinued as of 2009, as College's current digital on screen graphic can be seen throughout a program that is being broadcast.

## Programming

College's current programming consists of male-targeting comedy programming (much from Showcase and Journey) untargeted at children. College's main programming consist of children's animated television series, which the channel currently air. Paul Gurrero, the network's former CEO, had announced that his full-time at the channel was too chaotic.

With the transaction from Corus Entertainment to The National Broadcast Authority, the channel will discontinue its late night block and become the last children's network in Canada to transition to a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week schedule.

On October 22, 2010, the channel extended its on-air hours, the channel now finishes at 9:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM.

## Programming blocks

### Current

* **The Zone**: This block airs various programs from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. It is currently hosted by Nicolas Hernandez.
* **The Zone Reality**: This block airs back-to-back episodes of *Beavis and Butt-Head* and *Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot* every Saturday morning from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. It replaced the "NBC Toons" block on October 1, 2016. It was previously known as "The More You Know" from 2016 to 2020.
* **Comedy Control**: This block airs various movies every Saturday. It replaces the Box Office block and operates under the same control room.
* **Shaun the Sheep and Care Bears Marathon**: This block airs back-to-back episodes of *Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot* and *Shaun the Sheep* every evening from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. It was previously known as "Jimmy Two-Shoes and Care Bears Marathon" from 2014 to 2016.
* **G4**: This block airs teen dramas all night from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and also movies aired under "PPV Events". It first aired programs about fire, and later adult animated television series, before obtaining its current format. It was previously known as "Lighter" from 2008 to 2011, and "G4TechTV" from 2011 to 2014. The block will discontinue once the channel's ownership changes hands from Corus Entertainment to The National Broadcast Authority.

### Yearly

* **Non-Stop Summer**: This block airs shows during the summer vacation period. It originally aired from 6:00 AM to 12:00PM. On July 5, 2020, Animacation was placed on hiatus, with *Camp Care Bears Week* taking its place. The block returned on June 1, 2021, and now airs from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Animacation was discontinued on June 1, 2023, and replaced by Non-Stop Summer.
* **Funniest Highdrill**: This block airs movies every October.

### Former

* **Italy is a Rigg!**: This block primarily aired sports programming pre-recorded in Italy; it aired from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM.
* **3 Hairy Thumbs Up!**: This block aired movies and was aimed at a family audience; it aired every Saturday from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
* **Teletoon Sundays**: This block aired various shows from Teletoon such as *Johnny Test*, *Skatoony*, and *Fred's Head*.
* **Keep it Bare**: This block aired various original programming, and also episodes of *Shaun the Sheep*. It premiered on May 13, 2011, and ran from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM on weekdays and Sundays, and 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM on Saturdays.
* **Power Box**: This aired Saturdays (7:00 AM to 12:00 PM) and was primarly aimed towards boys aged 2-14. It was hosted by comedian Russell Peters and aired shows like *Danger Rangers*, *Artzooka!* and *Wingin' It*.
* **NBC Toons**: This block aired various shows such as *America's Funniest Home Videos*, *Skatoony* and others. This block was hosted by Jason Agnew and first aired on November 1, 2014, and ran every Saturday from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
* **Cupcake Rainbow**: This block aired movies every Saturday from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. It was hosted by Nicholas Hernandez.
* **Mucho Marcho**: This aired various shows during March break 2015, such as *Oddly James*, *Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja* and *As Told by Ginger*. It was the last block to use the "Keep it Bare" branding.
* **Merry 6mas**: This block aired Christmas specials every December. It first aired on December 1, 2014. It last aired on December 25, 2018. However, it returned to schedule on December 1, 2022.
* **MindGrind**: This block aired weekdays from 6:00AM to 12:00PM. It consisted of various dramas and game shows. Unlike CollegeCartoon's programming blocks of all time, MindGrind broadcasts casino and poker contests where viewers can win a trip to New York City. The block aired for the final time on July 3, 2020. MindGrind is primarily focused at teenagers as CollegeCartoon's audience of children are at school at the time.
* **Camp Care Bears Week**: This block aired male-targeting comedy programming such as *Kevin Spencer*, *Odd Job Jack*, and others. This block aired from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM on weekdays and Sundays, and 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM on Saturdays.
* **College Box Office**: This block aired movies based on media every Saturday between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM. It was hosted by Mankalor.
* **Animacation**: Debuting on June 1, 2015, the block was dedicated toward more children, and aired shows like *Lizzie McGuire*, *Astroblast!*, and *Dennis and Gnasher*.

## VJ's

From its launch from 2008 until 2020, the channel called its mascots "VJ's", with the characters being Moshi Monsters.

### 2008-2016

* Poppet
* Katsuma
* Furi
* Zommer
* Luvli
* Diavlo

### 2016-2020

* Judy Hopps
* Nick Wilde

## Related services

* **C4** - Launched in 2010 as a spin-off of CollegeCartoon, it was targeted at a male audience, broadcasting action and adventure series. In 2012, it rebranded as **CollegeMore**. In 2016, it rebranded under the **C4** name, marketed as an entertainment oriented "superstation" format with a focus on anime and a seperate brand from College. In 2019, the channel was shut down, its licsene was revoked and a new liscene was used to relaunch Home and Life Television on all cable providers.
* **Tech** - Launched in 2010, it was a second spinoff of CollegeCartoon. it is very similar to C4, but focuses on technology and manufactoring instead. In August 2013, Shaw Media renamed the channel to **CollegeTech**. In March 2019, new owner Corus Entertainment relaunched the channel as **Tech**.
* **CartoonPlus** - Launched in 2009, it is a VOD service that viewers must watch. Like Treehouse TV, the VOD service was non-commercial, and primarly featured 30-second shorts of the network's "VJ's" making animation, which is in the form of slapstick comedy.