Vrak
Vrak was a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media. The channel primarily broadcast live-action programming aimed at 13-to-35 age group audiences.
Launched in 1988 as Le Canal Famille, it was originally conceived as French counterpart of the Family Channel under the ownership of Astral Media as well as rival broadcaster YTV, which was also then jointly owned by Rogers Media and CUC Broadcasting at the time. The channel was later renamed to Vrak.TV in 2001 and then was acquired by Bell Media in 2013 upon the acquisition of Astral Media, while the channel's English counterpart and its sister channels were divested to DHX Media in 2014.
As with the English counterpart, Vrak.TV's programming heavily mirrored that of the American cable network Disney Channel, with which Family held a licensing agreement. Vrak's programming lineup consisted mainly of domestic and foreign-imported live-action and animated series from Disney Channel, feature films from the Disney film library, classic films from other Canadian and American film studios, and specials while it outsourced many of its programs from the U.S., mostly from Nickelodeon. After Vrak was separated from Family, the license agreement ended in 2015; Disney then entered into a new licensing agreement with Corus Entertainment and launched new Canadian versions of La Chaîne Disney, along with Disney XD and Disney Junior while Vrak.TV, renamed to Vrak in 2014, changed its audience focus in 2016 to the ages 13–35 group due to the success of its Vrak2 block.
Vrak was originally licensed as a premium specialty service, which necessitated that it operate under a commercial-free format, but allowed it to operate multiplex feeds but changed to air commercials from 2006 onwards.
After being removed from Vidéotron, the channel ceased operations on October 1, 2023, due to declining viewership and having been deemed "outdated" by Bell Media, while its former English counterpart was closed on October 22, 2025.
History
Background
TVJQ
The origins of the channel date back to 1975, when Télécâble Vidéotron, then established in Longueuil and serving the South Shore of Montreal, already distributed around thirty channels, accessible via a converter. Subscribers had to call to request the broadcast of a video document which would be broadcast on one of the eight channels according to the theme. In January 1980, Videotron acquired Cablevision Nationale, which served the east of Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke, among others. A few months later, the Cablevision Nationale network was upgraded to allow the distribution of thirty channels, while the Inter-vision consortium made up of different cable distributors from the south of the province, set up at the corner of Pie-IX boulevards. and Rosemont in Montreal under the name Cablespec, takes care of the production and broadcasting of eight specialized channels under the responsibility of Jacques Lasnier. The eight channels would have been launched on Saturday, October 18, 1980.The channel, initially called Enfants et Jeunesse before adopting in May 1982, presented children's programs produced in Quebec for the most part as well as European, American and Japanese animation series, as much as possible without violence, seeking to eliminate gender discrimination. It was established and distributed by a subsidiary of Videotron.
TVJQ was on the air daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Since 1979, Videotron subscribers could take turns enjoying a variety of interactive games starting at midnight, which occupied “channel 26” until the channel returned to the air. The games continued on Canal Famille until shortly after the launch of in January 1990. In the evenings from January 1983, educational and cultural programs aimed at adults were programmed.
From January 1982 to September 1985, the channel broadcast the show Radio-Vidéo, a block of video clips produced by Pierre Marchand, who in 1986 would become the creator of the MusiquePlus channel. Meanwhile, in October 1984, another block of music videos produced by MuchMusic was broadcast, a month after the channel's launch. In March 1986, Videotron obtained a “broadcasting license for the operation, on an experimental basis and for a temporary period, of a cable television network in order to distribute by satellite to affiliated cable television companies in the province of Quebec the service of special French-language programming “Télé des Jeunes”. This license allows Videotron to have its TVJQ channel carried over by other cable companies elsewhere. Videotron thus becomes the first cable company in Canadian history to simultaneously be a producer of television content. CF Cable TV offered Videotron's TVJQ channel from 1987. When MusiquePlus was launched in September 1986, the version received via satellite of TVJQ became MusiquePlus after 8 p.m. with a four-hour live programming block followed overnight 'a rebroadcast or a block recorded during the afternoon. On the Videotron side, MusiquePlus evening programming took the position of MuchMusic while cultural programs aimed at adults were still broadcast on TVJQ until midnight. Blocks of 30 minutes produced by MusiquePlus were added to TVJQ's programming, replacing those of MuchMusic.
In 1986, the channel's spokesperson was Gargouille, a cartoon character created by Tristan Demers, who would get his own show.
In 1987, Videotron submitted a request to the CRTC to convert its channel TVJQ to a full-service channel while continuing to target young people. On December 1, 1987, the CRTC approved the license application for Premier Choix: TVEC for Canal Famille, and consequently refused the license renewal application for TVJQ. The same day, the license application from CHUM Limited and Radiomutuel for a dedicated MusiquePlus channel was approved. TVJQ remained on the air until the arrival of Canal Famille. TVJQ ceased operations on August 31, 1988.
Le Canal Famille
Licensed by the CRTC in 1987, Le Canal Famille was launched on September 1, 1988, as a replacement to TVJQ. Le Canal Famille was created by Premier Choix TVEC which was already partially owned by Astral Media through its subsidiary Astral Bellevue Communications.Le Canal Famille, name translated as The Family Channel, was also the name of another Canadian youth channel that also began airing in September 1988 and itself owned at 50% by Astral Bellevue Communications.
At launch, the channel carried a few original shows from Quebec including La Garderie des amis, Hibou Chou Genou, Labo Labo, as well as Bibi et Geneviève when the channel signed off at 7:00 p.m. and signed on at 7:00 a.m. Another original program, Mémoire Vive, joined the lineup in December 1988. There were also some shows previously broadcast on Super Écran such as Inspector Gadget and Bibifoc, dubbed Canadian shows, popular former TVJQ series, some Japanese animated series and co-productions. The channel increased the number of its original productions in the following years.
The popularity of Videoway's interactive menus in the early 1990s prompted Super Écran to offer a second choice of films in the evening using Le Canal Famille after its closing at 7 p.m. After about twenty minutes of trailers and self-promotion of Super Écran, the channel becomes scrambled for the presentation of a film.
The heyday of Le Canal Famille was between 1990 and 1996. The channel benefited from a fashion effect and produced several low-budget classics such as Fripe et Pouille, Les Zigotos, Sur la rue Tabaga and the most popular, Télé-Pirate which benefits from a weekly reach of 400,000 viewers.
In 1994, Bibi et Geneviève moved to TQS. Le Canal Famille kept the reruns, but the contest block became exclusive to TQS.
During the 1995-1996 season, Le Canal Famille changed its logo, attracted more young people on the air, suddenly targeted teenagers aged 12 to 17, and was subsequently renamed to simply Canal Famille. The channel aired Radio Enfer, the first Québecois sitcom for young people, and Le Studio, a comedy sketch series directed by Bruno Blanchet. This momentum continued the following year with the addition of Goosebumps and Generation W.
Shortly after the launch of Canal D in 1995, which offered some classic television series, Canal Famille similarly saw the addition of series to its programming such as Bewitched in the fall of 1995, Gilligan's Island in 1996, The Flying Nun in 1997 and Family Affair in 1998.
In September 1997, the Télétoon channel was launched, offering 24-hour programming focused on cartoons for several age groups. Canal Famille lost around half of its market share, reduced its number of original productions and filled its programming with series produced by Nickelodeon.
To counterattack Télétoon, Canal Famille broke from its "childcare" image and took a slightly more delinquent tangent. It aired more audacious concepts like Turbulence Zone and Dans une galaxie près de chez vous.
In the fall of 2000, Canal Famille aired Watership Down as its only new feature. The rest of its programming was no longer renewed and consisted of reruns. Canal Famille's market shares among children aged 2 to 11 fell to 8.6% while they were around 25% before 1997.
To deal with the situation, Canal Famille decided to renew its image and 75% of its programming. On December 5, 2000, Astral announced that Canal Famille would be rebranded as Vrak.TV on January 2, 2001, would offer 75% renewed programming overnight and would henceforth be in operation from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., allowing the channel to offer more mature series for teenagers.
VRAK
Canal Famille was replaced by Vrak.TV on January 2, 2001, keeping the same channel frequency and still owned by Astral Media. The desire to create Vrak.TV from the remains of Canal Famille would be a success. Audience ratings tripled in six months. The channel switched to an ad-supported format in 2006 to coincide with the renewal of license the launch of its high definition feed on October 30, 2006.Vrak.TV was separated from its sister channels in 2013 due to the acquisition of Astral Media by Bell Media; Bell sold off Family Channel, the French version of Disney Junior, the English version of Disney Junior and Disney XD to DHX Media, and MusiMax and MusiquePlus to V Media Group.
Vrak.TV was simply renamed to just Vrak on August 25, 2014 and launched a new block, Vrak2, aimed at a teen audience.
On September 12, 2016, Vrak changed its audience focus to the ages 13–35 group due to the success of its Vrak2 block. Some series targeting its former audience focus moved to other stations.