La Chaîne Disney
Defunct Canadian-French television channel (2015–2025)
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La Chaîne Disney was a Canadian French-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment under license from The Walt Disney Company, and launched on September 1, 2015, replacing Télétoon Rétro. It was a localized version of the American television network Disney Channel, broadcasting live-action and animated programming aimed at French-speaking children in Canada.
Final logo used from September 1, 2015 to September 1, 2025 | |
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Network | Disney Channel |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec |
| Programming | |
| Language | French |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Teletoon Canada, Inc. (Corus Entertainment) (branding licensed from Disney Branded Television) |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched | September 1, 2015 |
| Replaced | Télétoon Rétro |
| Closed | September 1, 2025 |
| Links | |
| Website | La Chaîne Disney (archived July 2025) |
The launch of the network came alongside a licensing deal reached between Disney and Corus, who acquired Canadian rights to Disney Channel's programming library, and the announcement of a Canadian version of Disney Channel broadcasting in English that launched concurrently. Previous rightsholder DHX Media never operated any Disney Channel-branded services in English or French, and its only French-language Disney-branded property was a French-language Canadian version of the preschool children's channel Disney Junior.
History
Before the channel's launch, French-language dubs of Disney Channel programs were broadcast by Radio-Canada and later Vrak.TV, which was co-owned with Family Channel. Vrak.TV was separated from Family with the acquisition of Astral Media by Bell Media; in an attempt to relieve concerns surrounding Bell's total market share in English-language television following the merger, Bell chose to divest Family Channel and its sister networks to DHX Media, which included Astral's French-language version of Disney Junior.[1]
On April 16, 2015, Corus Entertainment announced that it had acquired long-term, Canadian multi-platform rights to Disney Channel's programming library; the cost and duration of the licensing deal were not disclosed. Alongside the licensing deal, Corus announced that it would launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel; the service consisted of linear television channels in English and French, along with TV Everywhere and video-on-demand services for digital platforms.[2][1]
The French-language service, La Chaîne Disney, launched concurrently with its English-language counterpart on September 1, 2015. It replaced Télétoon Rétro in its previous channel allotments, operating under the same CRTC license.[3][4]
In 2018, the channel was rebranded to match its English-language counterpart and slightly modified its logo.
Closure
On July 10, 2025, Corus announced that they would close La Chaîne Disney alongside a selection of children's channels (Nickelodeon, Disney XD, Disney Jr. and ABC Spark) at midnight on September 1, 2025, exactly ten years after La Chaîne Disney's launch.[5] Despite the closure, Corus confirmed that it would continue to air Disney content on its other channels, with its English-language counterpart not affected. The last program to air on the channel before the closure was the French dub of 3 Amigonauts, with the episode "Glasses Half Fail/Burt's Biggest Boom", after which the channel switched to a slate stating "Cette chaîne n'est plus disponible" ("This channel is no longer available"). This does not just leave the channel's English-language counterpart as the only Disney-related channel airing in Canada, but also Télétoon the only French-language children's channel owned by Corus.[6]
Programming
La Chaîne Disney's programming mainly consisted of French-language dubs of programs from Disney Channel. As there was no French-language version of Disney XD in Canada and Disney Junior's French-language channel closed when La Chaîne Disney launched, programs from both brands were also included as part of their respective programming blocks, Disney Junior sur la chaîne Disney[7] and XD Zone (shown on air as Disney XD Zone). They also aired Disney Channel shows on blocks based on their respective themes.[8][9]
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