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 (sports, socio-cultural leisure, senior citizens, students, children, etc.). 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 ("Télévision des Jeunes du Québec") 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 (via a touchtone telephone), 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. 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 in the name.|100px|thumb|left 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. 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. 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 (50% new features, 25% new episodes) 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.
Removal from Videotron, closure On August 16, 2023, Vrak and
Z were removed from Vidéotron, the company that created the original channel it was based on 41 years earlier, while Bell removed
Yoopa from all of their TV services a day later. Yoopa shut down on January 11, 2024, and was replaced by a video simulcast of Groupe TVA's
Qub Radio. Two days later on August 18, 2023, Bell Media announced that the channel would be closing on October 1, 2023, owing to "challenges" in the broadcasting sector, lack of viewers and regulatory affairs deemed "outdated" by Bell Media. On October 1, 2023, at midnight ET, the channel quietly shutdown without ceremony after an episode of
Entre deux draps. Two years later, its former English counterpart shuttered on October 22, 2025. ==Programming==