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 1990s. 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 live action, animation and preschool content, but would also utilise its own made interstitial segments, bumpers and commercials. The official segments and bumpers would be produced, created and broadcast in a similar vein to the one's from Kids WB which feature edited crossovers of certain shows (compiled with official VA's) in certain scenarios, skits, games and promotions compiled with other effects. The most notable and recurring segment from BFF-TV would be "BFF-Live!". An interstitial series of segments hosted by two CGI animated girls with fantasy themes. The fun loving, optimistic and carefree fairy of nature Gladiola (Voiced By: Tracey Hoyt) and the introverted, intelligent and level-headed princess of gemstones Topaz (Voiced By: Shannon Chan-Kent). The two when appearing in their interstitials would use the airtime they had before the next airing of a certain piece of media by providing their audience with comedic antics and skits as well as activities and fun tidbits for certain things with some hilarious results. The two would become very popular throughout the channel's broadcast and would have frequent appearances until the shutdown. They were also utilised for website content, merchandise and further promotion.

BFF-TV followed a basic schedule for the programming of the content they acquire. From 6 A.M to 10 A.M, content primarily for a preschool audience would air, and from 10 A.M onwards, basic content for ages 5 to 12 would air. On Fridays and Saturdays, a channel block called "Sleepover Movie Night" would run from 7 P.M to 11:30 P.M, which consisted of airing TV specials and movies for the target demographic. Broadcast content would be acquired from multiple sources for, including sources from Canadian and Australian television (Which also included content from Teletoon and ABC, their respective sister channels). Content ranging from multiple sources would be acquired for BFF-TV and used for international syndication. This would also include content that was only exclusively released direct to video, with copyright permissions from owners. Outside of Sleepover Movie Night, there were also other channel blocks and marathons for different holiday seasons and/or to promote certain events and broadcasts. The channel was a success, gaining lots of viewer attraction, ratings and widespread attention from Canadian and Australian audiences, prompting many international properties to use the channel as a means for a small international wave of success through promotional services such as merchandise and international syndication. International marketing that became involved with BFF-TV from late 2002 to 2014 were the United Kingdom, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Phillipines, New Zealand and South Africa.

From then on, new additions would be made for the television block to gain more attraction as well as to expand the channel's wide range of ideas up until the shutdown. Beginning in mid 2003, BFF-TV would acquire original programming that from the beginning would be set to air on their channel. BFF-TV would also partner with small television companies to produce original movies for their target demographic, which would air on the Sleepover Movie Night television block. Most of these movies would receive mixed to average reviews. This would also be the year where BFF-TV would finally gain extensive promotion and merchandise services. Because of the popularity of BFF-Live and it's characters, BFF-TV would partner with several North American and Asia-Pacific manufacturing companies to create merchandise including small toys, stationery, paperback items, beauty items, clothing, music and other items for the television channel. The most prominent and ongoing piece of merchandise until the shutdown was the "BFF-2GO" magazine series. The magazine would be published as a collaboration between Teletoon's BFF-TV and Puffin Books and would be sold throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada and United Kingdom. The Phillipines would also receive the magazine, but under the Summit Media publishing. The Magazine would have many elements from both the television channel and the BFF-Live segments and would include a small selection of items as well as a variety of activities, DIY's, recipes, games, quizzes, tips and tricks, stories, interviews and latest news about upcoming events. The magazine would also be under the motto "Every Girl's Go 2 4 Fun!" and would have a few appearances and promotions from Gladiola and Topaz. The magazine would release its first issue in September of 2003 and would run for 122 issues up its last issue November of 2013, when the magazine discontinued. In October of 2003, BFF-TV would acquire a flash operated website to use as both a promotional outsource and a secondary hub for it's target audience. The website was under the name "BFF-WEB!" and would be a fully flash functional and interactive website. BFF-WEB would have a large variety of games from it's programs as well as video clips, music videos, activities, downloadable items and news. The website also hosted a merchandise shop and a collection of their programs.

In 2004, a new television block called "Blast From The Past" would run on Monday's from 4 P.M to 7 P.M. This television block would consist of airing "Retro" television shows, specials and movies for its target demographic from the 1980s and early to mid 1990s. From 2004 onwards, the channel would receive no new updates on new television blocks, but still hosted and used other new material in both their channel and magazine, as well as occasionally updating the website. Beginning in late 2008 however, ratings and viewership for the channel would begin to slowly decline compared to the ratings prior to 2008. BFF-TV would as a result of this attempt to boost ratings by promoting new merchandise, new series, new television blocks and introducing new strategies to keep their audience. While on some capacity this retained some of their viewership, it did not increase it to the number it did back in the early to mid 2000s. In 2010, BFF-TV would receive a small update to their channel's visuals and format, in an effort to appeal to a modern crowd for a ratings boost. However, it would still keep many of its other ideas, including BFF-Live. This upgrade was met with mixed reception and once again, did not meet back their expectations. This decline in viewership would continue until 2014.

On February 7th 2014, it was announced by the head developers at Teletoon Canada that due to the poor, declining viewership and ratings and lack of interest from new company branching that BFF-TV would be shutting down it's broadcasting and would be taken off of television after 12 years of providing quality entertainment and service to it's target demographic, and for a period of time succeeding in it's goal, with shut down date being confirmed to be May 17th. It would also be confirmed that due to the shut-down, all merchandise and marketing including the website would also conclude development and release. They would further state in a March 2014 interview that:

"As time went on, things began to change. BFF-TV rose to the top for a period of time in the previous decade, but as time changed its downfall began. Its failure was due to the fact that kids were being introduced to new technology that would enhance entertainment. Even with all of these new channels aimed for kids, they seem more focused on viewing things outside of the TV screen like internet apps and streaming platforms. BFF-TV had to have the same thing happen to it's channel too, where one of the reasons for it's viewership decline was that kids just became uninterested. It wasn't fun to see but it just seemed normal, and we had to face reality. And so, we just decided it wasn't worth keeping things up anymore."

On May 17th of 2014, BFF-TV would shut down and be taken off Canadian and Australian television after 12 years of broadcasting. All merchandise to promote the channel would also stop being released to store shelves, and be taken away from stores entirely. However, many pieces of merchandise still reside on Ebay and Etsy. 5 months later on October 20th, the website would shut down and be sold off to a different domain. The full website for a period of time was archived and could be viewable with Adobe Flash. However, the shut down of Flash in 2021 would make the website no longer accessible without an emulator, Pale Moon or Flashpoint. In 2016, an interview with an artist from Thailand would confirm that Gladiola and Topaz, the 2 hosts of BFF-Live had their copyright licensing sold to the artist in October of 2015, over a year after the shut down of BFF -TV so the two could be used for clothing items unrelated to BFF-TV. In 2018, ABC Iview would place a large portion of the broadcasting they provided for BFF-TV to their streaming service. However, it would be under the license of ABC Kids and ABC Me. In 2019 Corus Entertainment's new streaming service StackTV would move all of the broadcasting from BFF-TV to their platform, still under copyright. Since 2019, StackTV holds the rights to BFF-TV programming.

2002

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