YTV

YTV (Youth Television) is a Canadian programming network targeted at children. If it had to be compared to an American equivalent, it would be Nickelodeon (incidentally, a Nickelodeon Canada channel now exists alongside YTV), from which YTV takes a large amount of programming (and indeed, YTV has aired at least one episode of every Nicktoon there is). YTV has had several programming blocks hosted by PJs, or Program Jockeys, who would come in during the credits and do various things such as answering e-mails while introducing the next show.

A staple of any TV watching Canadian kid in The Nineties. The mornings featured an array of programming for younger viewers with tons of interaction from the PJs and many puppet characters who visited or lived in their lavish, treehouse-themed sets. YTV split off another network from its morning-midday programming, Treehouse TV, to cater to toddlers and preschoolers. Come afternoon, YTV was the go-to source for everything from ReBoot and Beasties to Sailor Moon, Pokémon, The Secret World of Alex Mack and The New Addams Family, hosted by a duo of wiseass male PJs and their gum-covered alien television creature Snit, whose screen was a giant mouth. Evenings shifted to a darker note with programming such as Animorphs, Cybersix, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Goosebumps. Between shows throughout the day, animated shorts dubbed "Short Circuitz" would air, ranging from funny and lighthearted ones earlier in the day to darker and surprisingly wistful ones at night {"Windows", for example). It was also responsible for original and often low-budget shows as well, such as PJ Katie's Farm and Radio Active. These days, most of this material is famed for its massive nostalgia factor among natives of the 1990s and late 1980s. Late at night during this period, BritComs such as Yes Minister and Are You Being Served? were run.

Come the new millennium, YTV gradually shifted its programming. It was once, the primary source of Anime for Canadians, which reached its peak with Inuyasha and the Bionix block, that brought several anime series (mostly dubbed by The Ocean Group for CanCon, or Canadian content, reasons) to viewers, and threw in Canadian-produced CGI favorites by Mainframe Entertainment, such as Beasties, ReBoot and Shadow Raiders. The Bionix block was moved to late Saturday nights to make room for reality shows and sitcoms. Before, in 2007, YTV acquired approval from the CRTC to launch an anime-focused channel to be called the Anime Channel. The license expired in January of 2010 and it wasn't even launched.

Although YTV has had live-action shows before, they seem to be more on the rise as of late, with an emphasis on reality shows like The Next Star, Ghost Trackers and The Adrenaline Project. Unfortunately, it appears that they have removed most of their anime lineup to make room for it; some time ago they shortened their Bionix block to an hour of Naruto and an hour of Bleach, but removed the block altogether during reruns. They still show other anime series, however, but mainly ones aimed more at children (Pokémon, Beyblade Metal Fusion). Hopefully they'll acquire the rights to some new anime series soon.

Not to be confused with Yomiuri TV, a Japanese TV network sharing the same initials (albeit in lowercase). Though considering this site's demographic, it's highly unlikely that you will confound them. Incidentally, the Japanese ytv was the original channel for Inuyasha, which was a big hit on the Canadian YTV.