BFF-TV

BFF-TV (Standing for Best Friends Forever TV), was a Canadian-Australian free-to-air television channel, television block and franchise line that was targeted to a female/girls demographic, mainly for ages 3 - 12 and was designed to be "The first all girl TV Network." It first launched on March 3rd 2002 and broadcasted from 6 A.M until 11:30 P.M. The channel also earned it's own merchandise and interactive Flash based website complete with a large variety of games, videos, activities and news. The network would continue to run for 12 more years on Canadian and Australian TV to wide success, before the popularity began to slowly drop in the late 2000s to early 2010s. The network would finally shut down on May 17th 2014. The website would also shut down just 5 months later on October 20th. After the shutdown, a majority of the content once broadcasted on the channel would move over to respective countries streaming services such as StackTV and ABC Iview.

HISTORY
In Canada, Ideas for a television block for a specific target audience were pitched around Teletoon headquarters as far back as late 2000. The plans were an attempt to expand the channel's popularity and appearances after their first launch in 1997. A worker at the headquarters would notice a large majority of kids oriented networks had many programs that were made for a more masculine oriented demographic instead of a feminine one. As a result, they would propose the idea of creating a network channel targeted for young girls as a way to provide a modern gender based balance. Many people would get involved with the idea and soon, the project was green lit. Before promotion, many names and ideas were proposed on what the name of the channel would be called, but eventually "BFF-TV" was settled on the finalised name. An October 2001 interview with a set of network executives for Teletoon would further emphasise on the target and purpose of BFF-TV stating:

"We plan on making this the first all girl TV network not just because it is. We want this network to be a place where a girl can be a girl. This means a fun, hilarious and quirky place for them. We want to show television that girls have a place for them where they can feel like they truly belong and be happy. And not just for themselves, for their best friends too, hence the name BFF-TV."

To further promote the channel, a set of promotional posters and art would be released as material to promote the launch date. In December 2001, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation would sign on a partnership with Corus Entertainment to acquire the channel and broadcasting their own media for international broadcasts and marketing. Plans from Teletoon and subsidiaries interviews and reports between January to February of 2002 also stated that development was in place to acquire not only the respective programming needed, but also to develop the television channel's own merchandise and other promotional materials, including a website.

On March 3rd 2002, the BFF-TV channel and television block would launch on Canadian television, though it wouldn't be until 2 weeks later on March 17th when the channel would launch on Australian television. This would also be when the channel would get a signature slogan that would last until the shut down, being "What A Time To Shine Together!". The channel would be able air in all locations of Canada and Australia. All of its programming would broadcast from 6 A.M until 11:30 P.M. and after that, the channel would shut off for the night until 6 the next morning. Not only would the channel provide children's media for girls including tween shows, animation and preschool content, but would also utilise it's own made interstitial segments, bumpers and commercials.