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83-571: Family Channel (commonly or simply known as Family ) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by WildBrain Television Inc., a subsidiary of WildBrain . The network primarily airs children's television series , teen dramas , as well as other programming targeting a family audience. Despite having its own headquarters in the Brookfield Place office in Financial District ,

166-472: A 24-hour broadcast schedule. On January 11, 2011, Family launched a high-definition feed, and concurrently introduced an updated logo and on-air presentation. In March 2013, following the Competition Bureau 's approval of Bell Media 's acquisition of Astral Media, Bell announced that it would divest Family and its sister networks, among other assets, in order to reduce the market share it would hold in

249-474: A 5:3 (1.67:1) aspect ratio and 60 Hz refresh rate. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), headed by Charles Ginsburg, became the testing and study authority for HDTV technology in the international theater. SMPTE would test HDTV systems from different companies from every conceivable perspective, but the problem of combining the different formats plagued the technology for many years. There were four major HDTV systems tested by SMPTE in

332-421: A Canadian version of Disney XD under a separate license. It re-branded as Family Chrgd on October 9, 2015. It was renamed once more to WildBrainTV on March 1, 2022. Specialty channel The number of specialty channels greatly increased during the 1990s and 2000s with the increase of broadcast bandwidth and television's transition to digital , while the previously common model of countries having just

415-462: A French version of Family Channel and its competitor network, YTV . In 2001, the channel was renamed to Vrak.TV. On July 5, 2013, due to the acquisition of Astral by Bell Media, Vrak.TV was separated from Family. In 2014, it rebranded as Vrak, while launching a new block called Vrak2 . In 2016, the channel changed its demographic to the 13-35 age group due to the success of its Vrak2 block. On August 16, 2023, Vrak and Z were removed from Vidéotron,

498-566: A channel is specialty service (or even more explicitly "specialty television programming undertaking"), referring to virtually any non- premium television service which is not carried over the airwaves or otherwise deemed exempt by the CRTC. They are primarily carried, therefore, on cable television and satellite television . The CRTC previously enforced strict regulations on the types of programming that may be carried by specialty services, employing minimums and restrictions across specific genres on

581-617: A clearer, more detailed picture. In addition, progressive scan and higher frame rates result in a picture with less flicker and better rendering of fast motion. Modern HDTV began broadcasting in 1989 in Japan, under the MUSE /Hi-Vision analog system. HDTV was widely adopted worldwide in the late 2000s. All modern high-definition broadcasts utilize digital television standards. The major digital television broadcast standards used for terrestrial, cable, satellite, and mobile devices are: These standards use

664-420: A comprehensive HDTV standard was not in the end established, agreement on the aspect ratio was achieved. Initially the existing 5:3 aspect ratio had been the main candidate but, due to the influence of widescreen cinema, the aspect ratio 16:9 (1.78) eventually emerged as being a reasonable compromise between 5:3 (1.67) and the common 1.85 widescreen cinema format. An aspect ratio of 16:9 was duly agreed upon at

747-718: A digital format from DVB. The first regular broadcasts began on January 1, 2004, when the Belgian company Euro1080 launched the HD1 channel with the traditional Vienna New Year's Concert . Test transmissions had been active since the IBC exhibition in September 2003, but the New Year's Day broadcast marked the official launch of the HD1 channel, and the official start of direct-to-home HDTV in Europe. Euro1080,

830-404: A division of the later defunct Belgian TV services company Alfacam, broadcast HDTV channels to break the pan-European stalemate of "no HD broadcasts mean no HD TVs bought means no HD broadcasts ..." and kick-start HDTV interest in Europe. The HD1 channel was initially free-to-air and mainly comprised sporting, dramatic, musical and other cultural events broadcast with a multi-lingual soundtrack on

913-732: A few (national) TV stations addressing all interest groups and demographics became increasingly outmoded, as it already had been for some time in several countries. About 65% of today's satellite channels are specialty channels . Types of specialty services may include, but by no means are limited to: (These categories are provided for convenience and do not necessarily represent industry-accepted or otherwise legally binding names or categories for these types of services.) Some specialty channels may not be free-to-air or may not be available through conventional broadcast or terrestrial television , and are only distributed via multichannel television services such as cable or satellite television . In

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996-556: A global recommendation for Analog HDTV. These recommendations, however, did not fit in the broadcasting bands which could reach home users. The standardization of MPEG-1 in 1993 led to the acceptance of recommendations ITU-R BT.709 . In anticipation of these standards, the DVB organization was formed. It was alliance of broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers and regulatory bodies. The DVB develops and agrees upon specifications which are formally standardised by ETSI . DVB created first

1079-400: A much wider set of frame rates: 59.94i, 60i, 23.976p, 24p, 29.97p, 30p, 59.94p and 60p. In the days of standard-definition television, the fractional rates were often rounded up to whole numbers, e.g. 23.976p was often called 24p, or 59.94i was often called 60i. Sixty Hertz high definition television supports both fractional and slightly different integer rates, therefore strict usage of notation

1162-432: A per-licence basis, and a category system granting exclusive rights to specific categories of channels. These restrictions were imposed to discourage networks from deviating from the programming format which they were licensed to broadcast . Under a deregulation scheme, the CRTC has since replaced these with streamlined, standard terms for most specialty channels ( discretionary services ), whose only major restrictions are on

1245-434: A rolling schedule of four or five hours per day. These first European HDTV broadcasts used the 1080i format with MPEG-2 compression on a DVB-S signal from SES 's Astra 1H satellite. Euro1080 transmissions later changed to MPEG-4/AVC compression on a DVB-S2 signal in line with subsequent broadcast channels in Europe. Despite delays in some countries, the number of European HD channels and viewers has risen steadily since

1328-406: A single Discretionary service category using standardized conditions of license, and ruled that current premium services may operate under these deregulated policies effective immediately. This decision allowed Family Channel to begin operating under an advertising-supported format. Tedesco commended the CRTC for the decision, stating that it "represents the next logical step in the implementation of

1411-551: A top broadcasting administrator in Japan admitted failure of its analog-based HDTV system, saying the U.S. digital format would be more likely a worldwide standard. However this announcement drew angry protests from broadcasters and electronic companies who invested heavily into the analog system. As a result, he took back his statement the next day saying that the government will continue to promote Hi-Vision/MUSE. That year NHK started development of digital television in an attempt to catch back up to America and Europe. This resulted in

1494-507: A variety of video codecs , some of which are also used for internet video . The term high definition once described a series of television systems first announced in 1933 and launched starting in August 1936; however, these systems were only high definition when compared to earlier systems that were based on mechanical systems with as few as 30 lines of resolution. The ongoing competition between companies and nations to create true HDTV spanned

1577-509: Is aimed at children, youth, and teenagers, while its primetime programs are aimed at an older teenage and family audience. The channel airs films on Friday and Saturday evenings and on weekend afternoons. As previously mandated for premium services, Family, historically, did not air traditional commercial advertising, besides promotions in between (or sometimes during) programs for its own programming and sponsored contests, along with interstitial segments (such as teen pop music videos under

1660-486: Is no single standard for HDTV color support. Colors are typically broadcast using a (10-bits per channel) YUV color space but, depending on the underlying image generating technologies of the receiver, are then subsequently converted to a RGB color space using standardized algorithms. When transmitted directly through the Internet, the colors are typically pre-converted to 8-bit RGB channels for additional storage savings with

1743-491: Is not the first HDTV service over digital terrestrial television in Europe; Italy's RAI started broadcasting in 1080i on April 24, 2008, using the DVB-T transmission standard. In October 2008, France deployed five high definition channels using DVB-T transmission standard on digital terrestrial distribution. HDTV broadcast systems are identified with three major parameters: If all three parameters are used, they are specified in

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1826-437: Is required to avoid ambiguity. Nevertheless, 29.97p/59.94i is almost universally called 60i, likewise 23.976p is called 24p. For the commercial naming of a product, the frame rate is often dropped and is implied from context (e.g., a 1080i television set ). A frame rate can also be specified without a resolution. For example, 24p means 24 progressive scan frames per second, and 50i means 25 interlaced frames per second. There

1909-499: Is the use of highly efficient modulation techniques for further reducing bandwidth, and foremost for reducing receiver-hardware and antenna requirements. In 1983, the International Telecommunication Union's radio telecommunications sector (ITU-R) set up a working party (IWP11/6) with the aim of setting a single international HDTV standard. One of the thornier issues concerned a suitable frame/field refresh rate,

1992-468: Is used in all digital HDTV storage and transmission systems will distort the received picture when compared to the uncompressed source. ATSC and DVB define the following frame rates for use with the various broadcast standards: The optimum format for a broadcast depends upon the type of videographic recording medium used and the image's characteristics. For best fidelity to the source, the transmitted field ratio, lines, and frame rate should match those of

2075-506: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because of their higher bandwidth requirements. At this time, the number of television channels was growing rapidly and bandwidth was already a problem. A new standard had to be more efficient, needing less bandwidth for HDTV than the existing NTSC. The limited standardization of analog HDTV in the 1990s did not lead to global HDTV adoption as technical and economic constraints at

2158-535: The ISDB format. Japan started digital satellite and HDTV broadcasting in December 2000. High-definition digital television was not possible with uncompressed video , which requires a bandwidth exceeding 1   Gbit/s for studio-quality HD digital video . Digital HDTV was made possible by the development of discrete cosine transform (DCT) video compression . DCT coding is a lossy image compression technique that

2241-494: The multiplex channel was made available at no additional charge to television providers and subscribers who receive its parent network. It was rebranded as Disney Junior on May 6, 2011, following the launch of the brand in the United States earlier that year. On September 18, 2015, due to Corus Entertainment's acquisition of rights to Disney's children's programming and brands, the channel was re-branded as Family Jr. As Family

2324-480: The transition from analog broadcasting ), which usually focus on library programming catering to specific themes, genres, or demographics. The term "specialty channel" has been used most frequently in Canada , having been used as a marketing term by the cable industry for various simultaneous launches of new channels throughout the 1990s. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) term for such

2407-519: The 2013 acquisition of Astral by Bell Media , the network and its sister channels were divested to DHX Media (now WildBrain) in 2014. From its launch in 1988 until 2015, Family's programming heavily mirrored that of the American cable network Disney Channel , with which Family held a licensing agreement. Family Channel's programming lineup consisted mainly of domestic and foreign-imported live-action and animated series from Disney Channel, feature films from

2490-457: The 240-line with its 25 Hz frame rate. The 240-line system could have doubled its frame rate but this would have meant that the transmitted signal would have doubled in bandwidth, an unacceptable option as the video baseband bandwidth was required to be not more than 3 MHz. Color broadcasts started at similar line counts, first with the US NTSC color system in 1953, which was compatible with

2573-526: The American Disney Channel and its sibling brands; Disney Junior and Disney XD . The channel also co-produced the 2010 film 16 Wishes , in association with Disney Channel and MarVista Entertainment . Family would begin to phase out Disney programming in late 2015, after Corus Entertainment acquired exclusive rights to Disney Channel and its associated brands in Canada. Since then, Family acquired

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2656-537: The American network Universal Kids , owned by DreamWorks' parent company NBCUniversal , which had previously acquired the rights to the Family original series The Next Step and provided additional funding for its sixth season due to reduced financial commitments by DHX. Family also co-commissioned the children's horror anthology Creeped Out with British children's channel CBBC . Along with Family, Vrak launched on September 1, 1988 as Le Canal Famillie , which began as

2739-448: The CMTT and ETSI, along with research by Italian broadcaster RAI , developed a DCT video codec that broadcast near-studio-quality HDTV transmission at about 70–140 Mbit/s. The first HDTV transmissions in Europe, albeit not direct-to-home, began in 1990, when RAI broadcast the 1990 FIFA World Cup using several experimental HDTV technologies, including the digital DCT-based EU 256 codec,

2822-564: The CRTC over Corus's near-monopoly position in children's specialty channels (accounting for its stakes in YTV , Treehouse , and Teletoon ), Corus traded its stake in Family Channel to Astral Media in exchange for its stake in The Comedy Network for $ 126.9 million, giving them full ownership. On July 1, 2007, Family became the last English language children's network in Canada to switch to

2905-450: The CRTC's "Let's Talk TV" initiative, DHX Media expressed concern that the elimination of genre protection for Category A specialty channels would put services licensed as premium services at an unfair disadvantage, especially due to their inability to air advertising. On November 2, 2016, the CRTC approved the implementation of new categories for licensed television services, replacing the separate specialty and pay television categories with

2988-590: The Disney film library, classic films from other Canadian and American film studios, and specials. Astral also used this relationship to launch Canadian versions of Disney Junior and Disney XD . After the DHX acquisition, the license agreement ended in 2015; Disney then entered into a new licensing agreement with Corus and launched new Canadian versions of Disney Channel , Disney XD and Disney Junior . Since then, Family Channel has acquired programming from other sources. Family

3071-503: The English-language television market following the completion of the sale. The CRTC approved the sale on June 27, 2013, with Family Channel and its related networks concurrently placed in a blind trust held by businessman and former Montreal Canadiens president Pierre Boivin , pending their sale to a third-party. On November 28, 2013, DHX Media announced that it would acquire Family and its sister networks for $ 170 million. While

3154-517: The Japanese public broadcaster NHK first developed consumer high-definition television with a 5:3 display aspect ratio. The system, known as Hi-Vision or MUSE after its multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding (MUSE) for encoding the signal, required about twice the bandwidth of the existing NTSC system but provided about four times the resolution (1035i/1125 lines). In 1981, the MUSE system was demonstrated for

3237-466: The Let's Talk TV decision, when genre protection was eliminated, and it ensures that pay and specialty channels will now be on a level field." Family's current programming is aimed towards children, teenagers and young adults aged 6–25 and encompasses original and acquired children's television series , teen dramas , sitcoms , and both theatrically released and made-for-television movies . Its daytime lineup

3320-673: The United Kingdom became the first European country to deploy high-definition content using the new DVB-T2 transmission standard, as specified in the Digital TV Group (DTG) D-book , on digital terrestrial television. The Freeview HD service contains 13 HD channels (as of April 2016 ) and was rolled out region by region across the UK in accordance with the digital switchover process, finally being completed in October 2012. However, Freeview HD

3403-686: The United States occurred on July 23, 1996, when the Raleigh, North Carolina television station WRAL-HD began broadcasting from the existing tower of WRAL-TV southeast of Raleigh, winning a race to be first with the HD Model Station in Washington, D.C. , which began broadcasting July 31, 1996 with the callsign WHD-TV, based out of the facilities of NBC owned and operated station WRC-TV . The American Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) HDTV system had its public launch on October 29, 1998, during

Family Channel (Canadian TV channel) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3486-465: The United States saw Hi-Vision/MUSE as an outdated system and had already made it clear that it would develop an all-digital system. Experts thought the commercial Hi-Vision system in 1992 was already eclipsed by digital technology developed in the U.S. since 1990. This was an American victory against the Japanese in terms of technological dominance. By mid-1993 prices of receivers were still as high as 1.5 million yen (US$ 15,000). On February 23, 1994,

3569-460: The United States, such networks are colloquially referred to as cable channels or cable networks (regardless of distribution method), with the most widely distributed referred to as "basic cable" networks (as opposed to those in higher service tiers, or premium services). In the U.S., specialty channels also operate as broadcast television networks designed to be carried on digital subchannels of terrestrial stations (which proliferated following

3652-514: The assumption that it will only be viewed only on a ( sRGB ) computer screen. As an added benefit to the original broadcasters, the losses of the pre-conversion essentially make these files unsuitable for professional TV re-broadcasting. Most HDTV systems support resolutions and frame rates defined either in the ATSC table 3, or in EBU specification. The most common are noted below. At a minimum, HDTV has twice

3735-515: The banner "Fam Jam", features on upcoming family films that were produced by The Movie Network , and interstitial series from Disney Channel). After changes in CRTC policies and the network's licensing in November 2016, Family switched to a conventional, commercial-supported format for its non-preschool programs. Historically, Family and its spin-offs had been the main Canadian outlets for programming from

3818-464: The broadcast of live sports programming. Contrarily, a service licensed as a mainstream sports network is restricted in their carriage of non-sport programming. High-definition television High-definition television ( HDTV ) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it refers to

3901-446: The broadcasting sector, lack of viewers and regulatory affairs deemed "outdated" by Bell Media. On September 25, the CRTC confirmed it had revoked Vrak's licence at the request of Bell Media, with the channel shut down on October 1, 2023. On November 30, 2007, Family launched Playhouse Disney Channel , a separate channel featuring programming aimed at a preschool audience, based on Disney's Playhouse Disney brand. Subject to carriage,

3984-521: The bulk of its programming from AwesomenessTV and DreamWorks Animation , as well as other syndicated and off-network programming targeting a family audience. Although YTV sources most of its programming from US-based Nickelodeon , Family aired a few series, for example, The Amanda Show and All That had aired on Family for a few years, along with Zoey 101 and Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide . The latter series would move to YTV later. Family has also co-commissioned programming with

4067-416: The channel is transmitted from Corus Quay . Launched on September 1, 1988, it was originally a joint venture between the owners of the premium television services First Choice and Superchannel ; due to the breakup of Western International Communications , the network became a joint venture between Astral Media and Corus Entertainment . By 2001, Astral had acquired full ownership of the network; after

4150-593: The company already distributed and produced a large library of children's television series (particularly through its 2012 purchase of the Cookie Jar Entertainment , which gave it ownership of the program libraries of Cinar and DIC Entertainment ), the purchase marked DHX's first foray into broadcasting. DHX has indicated that it would leverage its resources and library to add more original, Canadian-produced programming to Family under its ownership. The acquisition of Family Channel and its sister networks by DHX

4233-506: The company had original series in development for Family in case it ever did lose its output deal with Disney, and that these decisions were based on a goal to build a "strong lineup" of programs, and was not financially motivated. Tedesco went on to explain that the F2N block was meant to create a "meaningful destination" for teens and, in the case of Degrassi —a series that has historically dealt with teen issues, encourage family viewing. As part of

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4316-438: The company that created the original channel it was based on 41 years earlier, whilst Bell removed Yoopa from all of their TV services a day later. Yoopa is now scheduled to shut down on January 11, 2024, and will be replaced with a TV broadcast version of its parent company 's QUB Radio channel. Two days later on August 18, 2023, Bell Media announced that the channel would be closing on October 1, 2023, owing to "challenges" in

4399-702: The earlier monochrome systems and therefore had the same 525 lines per frame. European standards did not follow until the 1960s, when the PAL and SECAM color systems were added to the monochrome 625-line broadcasts. The NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) began researching to "unlock the fundamental mechanism of video and sound interactions with the five human senses" in 1964, after the Tokyo Olympics. NHK set out to create an HDTV system that scored much higher in subjective tests than NTSC's previously dubbed HDTV . This new system, NHK Color, created in 1972, included 1125 lines,

4482-457: The entire 20th century, as each new system became higher definition than the last. In the early 21st century, this race has continued with 4K , 5K and 8K systems. The British high-definition TV service started trials in August 1936 and a regular service on 2 November 1936 using both the (mechanical) Baird 240 line sequential scan (later referred to as progressive ) and the (electronic) Marconi-EMI 405 line interlaced systems. The Baird system

4565-453: The first HDTV broadcasts, with SES's annual Satellite Monitor market survey for 2010 reporting more than 200 commercial channels broadcasting in HD from Astra satellites, 185 million HD capable TVs sold in Europe (£60 million in 2010 alone), and 20 million households (27% of all European digital satellite TV homes) watching HD satellite broadcasts (16 million via Astra satellites). In December 2009,

4648-536: The first daily high-definition programs in the world, with regular testing starting on November 25, 1991, or "Hi-Vision Day" – dated exactly to refer to its 1,125-lines resolution. Regular broadcasting of BS -9ch commenced on November 25, 1994, which featured commercial and NHK programming. Several systems were proposed as the new standard for the US, including the Japanese MUSE system, but all were rejected by

4731-631: The first meeting of the IWP11/6 working party at the BBC's Research and Development establishment in Kingswood Warren. The resulting ITU-R Recommendation ITU-R BT.709-2 (" Rec. 709 ") includes the 16:9 aspect ratio, a specified colorimetry , and the scan modes 1080i (1,080 actively interlaced lines of resolution) and 1080p (1,080 progressively scanned lines). The British Freeview HD trials used MBAFF , which contains both progressive and interlaced content in

4814-465: The first time in the United States, using the same 5:3 aspect ratio as the Japanese system. Upon visiting a demonstration of MUSE in Washington, US President Ronald Reagan was impressed and officially declared it "a matter of national interest" to introduce HDTV to the US. NHK taped the 1984 Summer Olympics with a Hi-Vision camera, weighing 40 kg. Satellite test broadcasts started June 4, 1989,

4897-1084: The following form: [frame size][scanning system][frame or field rate] or [frame size]/[frame or field rate][scanning system] . Often, frame size or frame rate can be dropped if its value is implied from context. In this case, the remaining numeric parameter is specified first, followed by the scanning system. For example, 1920×1080p25 identifies progressive scanning format with 25 frames per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The 1080i25 or 1080i50 notation identifies interlaced scanning format with 25 frames (50 fields) per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The 1080i30 or 1080i60 notation identifies interlaced scanning format with 30 frames (60 fields) per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The 720p60 notation identifies progressive scanning format with 60 frames per second, each frame being 720 pixels high; 1,280 pixels horizontally are implied. Systems using 50 Hz support three scanning rates: 50i, 25p and 50p, while 60 Hz systems support

4980-420: The generation following standard-definition television (SDTV). It is the standard video format used in most broadcasts: terrestrial broadcast television , cable television , satellite television . HDTV may be transmitted in various formats: When transmitted at two megapixels per frame, HDTV provides about five times as many pixels as SD (standard-definition television). The increased resolution provides for

5063-411: The intended definition. All of these systems used interlacing and a 4:3 aspect ratio except the 240-line system which was progressive (actually described at the time by the technically correct term sequential ) and the 405-line system which started as 5:4 and later changed to 4:3. The 405-line system adopted the (at that time) revolutionary idea of interlaced scanning to overcome the flicker problem of

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5146-507: The late 1970s, and in 1979 an SMPTE study group released A Study of High Definition Television Systems : Since the formal adoption of Digital Video Broadcasting's (DVB) widescreen HDTV transmission modes in the mid to late 2000s; the 525-line NTSC (and PAL-M ) systems, as well as the European 625-line PAL and SECAM systems, have been regarded as standard definition television systems. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog technology that

5229-491: The linear resolution of standard-definition television (SDTV), thus showing greater detail than either analog television or regular DVD . The technical standards for broadcasting HDTV also handle the 16:9 aspect ratio images without using letterboxing or anamorphic stretching, thus increasing the effective image resolution. A very high-resolution source may require more bandwidth than available in order to be transmitted without loss of fidelity. The lossy compression that

5312-543: The live coverage of astronaut John Glenn 's return mission to space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery . The signal was transmitted coast-to-coast, and was seen by the public in science centers, and other public theaters specially equipped to receive and display the broadcast. Between 1988 and 1991, several European organizations were working on discrete cosine transform (DCT) based digital video coding standards for both SDTV and HDTV. The EU 256 project by

5395-579: The mixed analog-digital HD-MAC technology, and the analog MUSE technology. The matches were shown in 8 cinemas in Italy, where the tournament was played, and 2 in Spain. The connection with Spain was made via the Olympus satellite link from Rome to Barcelona and then with a fiber optic connection from Barcelona to Madrid . After some HDTV transmissions in Europe, the standard was abandoned in 1993, to be replaced by

5478-491: The same encoding. It also includes the alternative 1440×1152 HDMAC scan format. (According to some reports, a mooted 750-line (720p) format (720 progressively scanned lines) was viewed by some at the ITU as an enhanced television format rather than a true HDTV format, and so was not included, although 1920×1080i and 1280×720p systems for a range of frame and field rates were defined by several US SMPTE standards.) HDTV technology

5561-573: The standard for DVB-S digital satellite TV, DVB-C digital cable TV and DVB-T digital terrestrial TV. These broadcasting systems can be used for both SDTV and HDTV. In the US the Grand Alliance proposed ATSC as the new standard for SDTV and HDTV. Both ATSC and DVB were based on the MPEG-2 standard, although DVB systems may also be used to transmit video using the newer and more efficient H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression standards. Common for all DVB standards

5644-551: The standardized discretionary service license. As of March 2013, Family Channel is available to approximately six million pay television households in Canada. It broadcasts Eastern Time Zone feeds in both standard definition and high definition , and a Pacific Time Zone feed solely in standard definition. Family Channel was licensed as a premium television service by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on December 1, 1987; it

5727-539: The time did not permit HDTV to use bandwidths greater than normal television. Early HDTV commercial experiments, such as NHK's MUSE, required over four times the bandwidth of a standard-definition broadcast. Despite efforts made to reduce analog HDTV to about twice the bandwidth of SDTV, these television formats were still distributable only by satellite. In Europe too, the HD-MAC standard was considered not technically viable. In addition, recording and reproducing an HDTV signal

5810-424: The world already having split into two camps, 25/50 Hz and 30/60 Hz, largely due to the differences in mains frequency. The IWP11/6 working party considered many views and throughout the 1980s served to encourage development in a number of video digital processing areas, not least conversion between the two main frame/field rates using motion vectors , which led to further developments in other areas. While

5893-532: Was a research project and the system was never deployed by either the military or consumer broadcasting. In 1986, the European Community proposed HD-MAC , an analog HDTV system with 1,152 lines. A public demonstration took place for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. However HD-MAC was scrapped in 1993 and the DVB project was formed, which would foresee development of a digital HDTV standard. In 1979,

5976-677: Was a significant technical challenge in the early years of HDTV ( Sony HDVS ). Japan remained the only country with successful public broadcasting of analog HDTV, with seven broadcasters sharing a single channel. However, the Hi-Vision/MUSE system also faced commercial issues when it launched on November 25, 1991. Only 2,000 HDTV sets were sold by that day, rather than the enthusiastic 1.32 million estimation. Hi-Vision sets were very expensive, up to US$ 30,000 each, which contributed to its low consumer adaption. A Hi-Vision VCR from NEC released at Christmas time retailed for US$ 115,000. In addition,

6059-874: Was announced that Corus Entertainment had acquired Canadian rights to Disney Channel's programming library, and that it would launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel in September 2015. DHX's programming agreement with Disney would end in January 2016. As a result of these changes, Disney programming was phased out of Family Channel's lineup throughout the remainder of 2015, and its sister Disney Junior and Disney XD-branded networks were rebranded as Family Jr. , Télémagino , and Family Chrgd . Corus would also launch new Disney Junior and Disney XD channels on December 1, 2015. Alongside new and original productions, DHX reached new output deals with AwesomenessTV , DreamWorks Animation , and Mattel in 2015 for programming based on their properties across its networks. On June 9, 2015, it

6142-533: Was announced that a new incarnation of the Degrassi franchise, Degrassi: Next Class , would premiere on Family in 2016. The show is produced by Epitome Pictures , a studio DHX acquired in 2014. Next Class premiered on January 4, 2016 as part of a new primetime block known as "F2N". The F2N block was positioned towards an older teenage audience than the " tween " audience that Family has typically targeted; DHX Television senior vice-president Joe Tedesco explained that

6225-438: Was approved by the CRTC on July 24, 2014. As a condition of the sale, the CRTC imposed licensing conditions requiring that at least 60% of the Canadian programming broadcast by the network on an annual basis be produced by companies other than DHX. The acquisition was finalized on July 31, 2014, with Family and its sister networks becoming part of a newly formed division of the company known as DHX Television. On April 16, 2015, it

6308-489: Was discontinued in February 1937. In 1938 France followed with its own 441-line system, variants of which were also used by a number of other countries. The US NTSC 525-line system joined in 1941. In 1949 France introduced an even higher-resolution standard at 819 lines , a system that would have been high definition even by modern standards, but was monochrome only and had technical limitations that prevented it from achieving

6391-578: Was first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972, and was later adapted into a motion-compensated DCT algorithm for video coding standards such as the H.26x formats from 1988 onwards and the MPEG formats from 1993 onwards. Motion-compensated DCT compression significantly reduces the amount of bandwidth required for a digital TV signal. By 1991, it had achieved data compression ratios from 8:1 to 14:1 for near-studio-quality HDTV transmission, down to 70–140  Mbit/s . Between 1988 and 1991, DCT video compression

6474-594: Was introduced in the United States in the early 1990s and made official in 1993 by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance , a group of television, electronic equipment, communications companies consisting of AT&T Bell Labs , General Instrument , Philips , Sarnoff , Thomson , Zenith and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Field testing of HDTV at 199 sites in the United States was completed August 14, 1994. The first public HDTV broadcast in

6557-630: Was later converted to digital television with video compression . In 1949, France started its transmissions with an 819 lines system (with 737 active lines). The system was monochrome only and was used only on VHF for the first French TV channel. It was discontinued in 1983. In 1958, the Soviet Union developed Тransformator ( Russian : Трансформатор , meaning Transformer ), the first high-resolution (definition) television system capable of producing an image composed of 1,125 lines of resolution aimed at providing teleconferencing for military command. It

6640-404: Was licensed as a premium service, it is allowed to operate multiplex channels that carry additional programming consistent with its licensing and nature of service. A French-language version of the channel, now known as Télémagino , was launched on July 5, 2010 as Playhouse Disney Télé. Unlike Family Jr., Télémagino operates under a separate Category B license. On June 1, 2011, Family launched

6723-437: 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 (particularly the aforementioned Disney Junior, now Family Jr. ). Nevertheless, television providers typically distributed Family as a conventional specialty channel. In 2016, Family was relieved of this mandate after the CRTC transitioned premium specialty services to

6806-465: Was originally operated as a joint venture between Allarcom Pay Television Limited and First Choice Canadian Communications Corporation (owners of both Superchannel and First Choice ), with both companies owning a 50% stake in the service. In October 1999, as part of the break-up of Western International Communications (which had bought Allarcom), its stake in Family Channel was sold to Corus Entertainment . In March 2001, in response to concerns from

6889-530: Was widely adopted as the video coding standard for HDTV implementations, enabling the development of practical digital HDTV. Dynamic random-access memory ( DRAM ) was also adopted as framebuffer semiconductor memory, with the DRAM semiconductor industry 's increased manufacturing and reducing prices important to the commercialization of HDTV. Since 1972, International Telecommunication Union 's radio telecommunications sector ( ITU-R ) had been working on creating

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