YTV 2

''This article is about the channel soon to be rebranded as the second Canadian English-language Aura network. For the first iteration of Aura Canada, see Aura (Canadian TV channel). For the upcoming French-language feed, see Aura (French Canadian TV channel).''



YTV 2 (previously known as YTV Family from 2016 until 2021) is a Canadian English-language discretionary service that is owned by Corus Entertainment. The service launched on July 18th, 2016 as a Category B television station.

History
The channel launched on July 18th, 2016, offering little first-run programming at the time and was focused on airing content from Corus Entertainment's various output deals.

In October 2016, the channel struck a deal with Nickelodeon Family International for its original series to be broadcast internationally. As of November 2017, only Chloe, WarioWare Popples, and Recess: Canada have yet to air on Nickelodeon Family International.

In November 2017, YTV Family announced a deal with Much, Bell Media, and Viacom for YTV Family to broadcast reruns of Comedy Central's South Park during AuraNightfall. The deal went into effect in mid-November 2017. This deal was extended to allow Jeff & Some Aliens to be streamed on the "AuraNightfall" section of YTV Family's mobile app in January 2018. In March 2019, YTV Family disclosed that the deal was set to expire sometime in April 2019 and that they would not renew the deal, due to shifting AuraNightfall Canada to an anime-based format, which would air anime and anime-influenced animation (such as AniComi).

YTV Family revealed a new schedule a new schedule by the end of July 2018; AuraNightfall and Toonami's schedules only either had a minor change or were not affected.

In November 2018, Corus, through YTV Family, and Aura International launched a bid for AniDigital, including AniSeed and most of AniSeed's broadcast rights. They announced that if they won the bid, YTV Family and Aura International would sell AniSeed Classics to SurgeAnime Broadcasting. However, they have since dropped their bid upon learning that Axiom was selling V Fuel.

In the wake of the Kyoto Animation arson attack, YTV Family staff donated $100,000 USD to Kyoto Animation.

In January 2020, YTV Family announced that it was writing-off Metal Rabbit Band due to rising production costs (leading to financial losses) and excessive delays to getting it on television. YTV Family later clarified that only the full series was affected, and that the completed episodes would be released to DVD via NickFamily DVD Distribution in March 2020.

Owing to YTV Family co-producing several anime series, among them Go! Tennia Queen, Go-chan: The Animation, Go-Go! Music Club, Nano Invaders II, Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Wolf Girl and Black Prince II, and Robot Warriors, Bionix Animation was formed by its parent network and Firebasket Media in 2020 and will assist YTV Family, NickFamily Studios, and OverFlare with co-production of Heroes of Light: A Story about Magic.

Restructuring as YTV 2


On March 22nd, 2020, YTV Family has announced that its staff and Corus were filing an application for a rename of the channel space to YTV 2, with YTV Family to be reduced to a 12-hour block.

Under the new channel structure, YTV Family would continue to largely air programming from its American counterpart and Nicktoons Family, as well as reruns of past originals, while YTV 2 would air new episodes of series acquired from NickFamily, Nicktoons Family, SurgeAnime Extra (which was since renamed to AnimeCore Extra), and Beta Cartoon in the US.

Initially, YTV Family planned for original series still airing new episodes, such as Islands of Wakfu and Wunschpunsch, to have the channel credited as "YTV 2" beginning with their next seasons. YTV Family later announced that the channel would be credited as both YTV Family and YTV 2 beginning with the next seasons.

It was also reported that YTV Family staff have ruled out airing reruns of Jewelpet: Sparkle! on YTV 2.

On April 30th, 2020, it was reported that the relaunch was pushed back to July 2020 as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, all remaining Teletoon original programming were removed from YTV Family's schedule as a part of YTV Family focusing its Canadian content obligations on original series.

On January 15th, 2021, the YTV Family block was cut to six hours, from 6AM to 12PM. On May 3rd, 2021, YTV 2 staff stated that they would completely phase out YTV Family branding by the end of June 2021.

On June 26th, 2021, YTV 2 unveiled a new anime project that would be co-produced with AnimeCore Extra and Bridge, titled Galaxy Quest (renamed to Galactic Quest during production).

On July 15th, 2021, YTV 2 revealed that they had dropped the anime series Sweets: Successor Fairies from their lineup before it was set to air, citing massive delays in its release as well as YTV 2's overall restructuring; the anime would subsequently be burned-off on Nickelodeon Family in the United States.

In November 2021, YTV 2 announced a late-night programming block dedicated to burning-off television series that the network has the rights to but had previously gone unaired in Canada.

YTV 2 announced they were co-funding multiple anime titles for 2023 at Anime Expo 2022. Additionally, they announced a four-block of classic anime titles, with launch programs to be announced at Montreal Comiccon 2022.

In October 2022, YTV 2 announced that it was partnering up with Nelvana and Aura to found a new CGI animation studio (initially announced as YTV 2nimation but was later officially named "Aura CGIWorks" to avoid heavy ties with YTV 2 and a hasty rename should YTV 2 rebrand again). Their first overseas animation project would be Leonardo and Nicholas (co-animated with Studio YanYan) for Nickelodeon Family in the United States; however, the series was moved to NFCartoons and confirmed to only run for a single 26-episode season before its premiere.

On November 1st, 2022, YTV 2 staff announced that they would most likely not be involved with any continuation of Chloe if announced. On November 4th, 2022, YTV 2 announced it had partnered with Nickelodeon Family for a game show co-production.

As Aura Canada


When Teletoon was announced to be rebranded as Cartoon Network, YTV 2 staff also confirmed that YTV 2 may also receive a rebrand as Aura in 2024. In March 2023, more information about the relaunch was confirmed, with Beta Fridays becoming Aura Fridays as a result of the re-launch; alongside this, one of the first original series for the re-launched channel space, Time Force: The Other Story, was announced. The tentative launch date was later scheduled for sometime in June 2024.

In April 2023, following its current namesake being rumored to switch back to its previous logo and branding, YTV 2 staff confirmed that their current branding would stick around until the Aura rebrand.

Before the premiere of PuniRunes! (which YTV 2 had licensed the broadcast rights for from AuraAnime), it was announced that, due to its short run (25 12-minute episodes), the series would likely air up to one run a year (with the first run beginning in October and the second to start the week of the Aura Canada re-branding in June).

Ahead of the re-launch, YTV 2 announced the launch of an Aura-branded block for Saturday evenings, beginning June 6th, 2023.

On May 16th, 2023, YTV 2 announced that they would partner with several animation studios based in the Philippines to co-produce Anime-influenced animation.

April Fool's Day stunts
Similar to Adult Swim, YTV Family/YTV 2 has also programmed April Fool's Day stunts on April 1st of every year since 2017:


 * In 2017, an episode of Time Force, "An Old Guitar Without Rust", was aired. Nicktoons Family, Time Force's US broadcaster, has said that they didn't intend for the episode to be an April Fool's joke.
 * In 2018, all regular programming (excluding Crayon Shin-chan on Toonami, which instead aired in English with hard-subbed English subtitles) was aired dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles, with all CanCon aired that day dubbed in Japanese by seiyuus Ayaka Saitou, Kappei Yamaguchi, and Kanae Itō. Detective Conan was also switched out with Cocotama for the night.
 * In 2019, they aired the first few episodes of the English dub of the 2014 anime Nami and the Age of Superheroes. The rest of the day's programming was treated like a "Spot the Jewelpet" event, with Jewelpets hidden in-between episodes (the only exceptions being Jewelpet itself, which was replaced with Astro Boy that day, and CNN 10, due to contractual obligations with WarnerMedia to air the program unedited).
 * For April Fool's 2020, YTV Family replaced regular programming, beginning at midnight, with a six-hour marathon of Jewelpet: Sparkle! (other portions of the franchise couldn't be played due to being written-off in the months prior). The rest of the day was devoted to a marathon of Islands of Wakfu, Time Force, and Cottonsweet. EXO_Weekdays and the AnimeNation block still played as usual.
 * For April Fool's 2021, YTV 2 ran the first episode for Studio Aura's then-unannounced Magical Aichi anime series before EXO_Weekdays; a three-hour marathon of the French dub for Islands of Wakfu (with English subtitles) would be shown later in the day.
 * For April Fool's 2022, YTV 2 aired the first two episodes of Ayane's High Kick (2022) (itself made for AuraNightfall's own April Fool's Day prank) as well as the first (subtitled) episode of Magical Aichi Mixin!. A marathon of the French dub for Islands of Wakfu (with English subtitles) would be shown later in the day as a nod to the previous year's prank.
 * For April Fool's 2023:
 * YTV 2 aired the final two hours of that night's Beta Fridays (HyperFormula, Dark Phantom, The Night Shift, and Singapore Nights) with French subtitles (the channel reportedly originally planned to air the four series in French with English subtitles just for that night; however, YTV 2 didn't have the rights to the French audio tracks for the four shows).
 * Following Beta Fridays, the network aired reruns of former Teletoon original series for the rest of the day (some of which had not been aired on YTV 2's channel space before). EXO, MarbleArena, and YTV2Anime also still aired as scheduled, the former to fulfill contractual obligations.
 * The closed captions for the MarbleArena episode in question (the first season's mid-season finale) were provided in French via CC1 (despite the episode itself being aired in its original English audio), with the English closed captions being moved to CC3.

Programming
Main article: List of programs broadcast by YTV 2

YTV 2 currently airs programming from NF and its sister network NFCartoons, as well as programming from AnimeCore Extra and Beta Cartoon; most pre-2020 Cartoon Network series have also been aired on the channel. Most of the channel's CanCon was formerly derived from sister networks Teletoon and YTV; the channel has since begun to rely on its original series and co-productions for Canadian content. The channel also airs anime; as of January 2023, their anime lineup includes shows such as Magical DoReMi, Crush Gear Turbo, Pokémon: XY, and Kiratto Pri Chan.

Starting with the launch of the French-language feed and the subsequent rebranding of YTV 2 to Aura, most YTV 2/Aura Canada original series would be aired on both the English and French channels in both English and French; however, some original programming (such as the edited dub of Heroes of Light: A Story about Magic) would only appear on the English feed due to licensing. In addition, blocks such as EXO, AnimeNation and Beta Fridays would also only be run on the English feed due to licensing.

Programming blocks
Note: None of the blocks save Countdown to Spring have their own screen bugs, and instead use YTV Family/YTV 2's regular screen bug.


 * YFN (2016): Modeled after NF@Nite on Nickelodeon Family, the block aired various mature anime programs. On Christmas Day 2016, the block was replaced with Disney XD on YTV Family.
 * Disney XD on YTV Family (2016 - 2017): An overnight block of various programs from the American Disney XD network, including programs that have been taken off Disney XD's schedule. The block replaced YFN in December 2016.
 * Toonami (2017 - 2019): Named after the American television block of the same name, Toonami broadcast various action programs and anime series. The block only aired on weekends. In 2019, after the block was split into two with the non-action anime moved to AuraNightfall Canada, the block was moved to Adult Swim.
 * Spot the Jewelpet (2017-2018): A collection of marathons that aired occasionally between 2017 and 2018. Four were aired: Spot the Jewelpet: The July Event, a 12-hour marathon of Kill la Kill which aired between July 5th-6th, 2017 from 8PM EST to 8AM EST and omitted the OVA (content warnings were shown before and during the block, and episodes before and after the watershed were edited for content), Spot the Jewelpet: The February Event, a weekend night-long marathon of Guilty Crown using the same technique (albeit was split into two parts, aired between February 3rd-4th, 2018 for the entirety of the weekend Toonami broadcast and omitted episodes 21 and 22), Spot the Jewelpet: The Pokémon Event, a 7-hour marathon of Pokémon (specifically the XY season) that aired from 10AM to 5PM on July 18th, 2018, and Spot the Jewelpet: The Christmas Event, a weekend night-long marathon of the first Naruto anime (specifically, the first twenty episodes of season three) that aired between December 1st-2nd, 2018 during Toonami. All of the marathons featured Jewelpets hidden within episodes a la Spot the Doof. None of the marathons are repeated due to rights issues.
 * YTV Family Premiere Week (August 1st-4th, 2017): A block hosted by Edd leading up to the premiere of YTV Family Fridays.
 * YTV Family Fridays (August 4th, 2017 - December 29th, 2018): A five-hour (formerly three-hour) block featuring series from Cartoon Network, mainly Cartoon Cartoons. The block was hosted by various characters, mainly from Cartoon Cartoons. In 2019, the block was retooled.
 * Twister (2017): A block where reruns of shows otherwise no longer on Canadian television air at random. The block only airs on Sunday mornings / afternoons. Some shows on the block were also seen on Nickelodeon Family. The block was cancelled in September 2017 due to low ratings.
 * Disney on YTV Family (2017): An hour-long block showcasing reruns of Lloyd in Space and The Emperor's New School. The block aired on Thursday nights.
 * AuraNightfall Canada (2017 - 2020): The Canadian localization of AuraNightfall. Originally broadcasting Mondays through Fridays, it broadcast from Sundays through Thursdays by the time it was merged into YTV 2 proper. Since November 13th, 2017, the block broadcast from 11PM - 2AM. Because of the relaunch of Action as Adult Swim, YTV Family began to shift AuraNightfall Canada towards airing anime and anime-influenced animation on April 1st, 2019. Because of this, Rick and Morty left the lineup after March 28th, 2019 to move exclusively to Adult Swim and Vision, with South Park and The Simpsons leaving the lineup by the end of July due to expiring secondary syndication contracts.
 * YTV Family Friday Nights (2017 - 2018): A two-hour Friday-night block airing after YTV Family Fridays.
 * EXO (2017 - present): A syndicated block programmed by Typewriter Japan. The block was originally aired on Nicktoons Family from the block's launch until October 28th, 2017.
 * Get Set for YTV Family (2017 - 2018): A two-hour block running from 6AM to 8AM showcasing series targeted at the early elementary school demographic. The block was cancelled in September 2018, leaving Chloe the only show featured on the block to continue in reruns on the network until it was removed near the end of 2022.
 * Countdown to Spot the Jewelpet (February 1st, 2018): A 3-hour marathon of South Park with Jewelpets hidden within episodes during AuraNightfall to promote Spot the Jewelpet: The February Event.
 * YTV Family Late-Night (2018 - present): A late-night block that airs every night after either AuraNightfall Canada, Saturday Night Anime, or Beta Cartoon Fridays.
 * Countdown to Spring (March 25th - 31st, 2018): A week-long event counting down to Easter 2018, hosted by Luna.
 * April Fools on YTV Family (April 1st, 2018): The unofficial name for YTV Family's April Fools' 2018 prank.
 * YTV Family's Monday Extravaganza (May 28th, 2018): A Memorial Day-esque marathon including the Canadian television premiere of Rilu Rilu Fairilu: The Magic Mirror.
 * YTV Family Anniversary (June-July): An annual celebration of YTV Family's anniversary, held between June and July of every year since 2018.
 * Surge (2018 - 2019): A former three-hour block based off of the then-defunct SurgeAnime Canada and the Canadian counterpart to SurgeAnime on Nickelodeon Family.
 * YTV Family Fridays' Last Day (December 28th, 2018): A countdown preshow to the final broadcast of the original YTV Family Fridays. As Surge Canada was included as part of the preshow, the entire preshow was made unavailable in the United States (unlike the final YTV Family Fridays episode it promoted) due to rights issues.
 * Cartoon Network on YTV Family (December 29th, 2018 - November 30th, 2019): The successor to the previous YTV Family Fridays block.
 * Beta Fridays (January 4th, 2019 - present): A block featuring anime, as well as series from Beta Cartoon and SurgeAnime Japan (that are not already licensed by NickFamily Studios). The block was previously called YTV Family Fridays until October 2020.
 * AnimeNation/AnimeNation Action/Girl Power (2019 - present): Two-hour blocks programmed by Firebasket. The blocks are mostly aired in pattern with the United States airings on Nickelodeon Family, who picked up the US rights to the block, with the exception of Fridays, when YTV 2 airs the block earlier than the US broadcast due to prior committments.
 * Saturday Night Anime from YTV 2 (2019 - 2021): A Saturday-night anime block, intended as a replacement for Saturday-night Toonami. Programming would come from the US' SurgeAnime Extra and other distributors, such as AuraAnime Licensing. In 2021, YTV 2 staff commented that the block would likely be cancelled by the end of the year due to lowering ratings in contrast with Toonami Canada.
 * YTV ActionZone (December 26th, 2019 - 2022): An hour-long block of action-oriented series, most of which are commissioned by YTV Family. The starting lineup consists of new episodes of Islands of Wakfu as well as a Max Steel rerun. Previously called YTV Family Action. The block was cancelled in April 2022 due to a lack of newer non-anime action programs being made specifically for the network; Islands of Wakfu continues to air reruns on YTV 2 even after the cancellation of ActionZone.
 * YTV 2 (scrapped): A nighttime block aimed at older teens and adults that would air from 9PM to 4AM from Saturdays through Thursdays, and 2AM to 4AM on Fridays, replacing AuraNightfall Canada and the earlier half of YTV Family Late-Night. In March 2020, this proposal was scrapped as YTV Family itself was eventually renamed YTV 2.
 * YTV Family (October 2020 - June 2021): The temporary name for the morning portion of YTV 2, and named after the channel space's former name.
 * YTV 2 Classic (January 2023 - present): A four-hour block of classic anime programs from the 1970s-2000s, loosely based on the AnimeCore Retro block in the United States. Upon the channel space's re-launch as Aura, the block would be re-launched as a localized version of AnimeCore Retro.
 * YTV2Anime (January 2023 - present): A reboot and relaunch of Saturday Night Anime from YTV 2, mainly featuring programming produced as part of original anime incentives from AuraNightfall and the United States feed of AnimeCore Extra. It is not yet known if the block will take on a new name or be shut down upon the channel space's re-launch as Aura.
 * Aura (also known as Aura Saturdays) (starting June 2023): A three-hour block consisting of various programs that would air on the relaunched Aura channel in the future. The initial launch lineup for the block would include Time Force, Mars Street, the Nicktoons Family run of CodeScan, Ninjala (in Japanese with English subtitles- the first time outside of YTV 2 Classic that the network has regularly aired subtitled programming), Redakai: Enter the Storm, and Go-Go! Music Club.

Mobile app
On June 27th, 2017, Corus Entertainment launched an app for streaming YTV Family original series and acquired programming shown on the network. A separate mobile app for Toonami Canada was launched on the same day. On January 12th, 2018, a section for the app, which streams shows from AuraNightfall, was launched.

As of January 2018, series featured within the app include Wayside, Transformers: Animated, My Life Me, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Chloe, Ben 10, Happy Happy Clover, and Jewelpet (which was later removed in August 2019).

In August 2019, the app rebranded as FlareApp.

On September 9th, 2022, FlareApp was shut down; first-party content previously available on FlareApp would be moved to Teletoon+ following the shutdown of FlareApp.

Tax write-offs
Following Seikunime reporting a financial loss of $6,790,500 USD regarding YTV Family co-produced anime series Nano Invaders II, it was announced that Seikunime was planning to write the show off for tax purposes once the series completed its North American broadcast runs (Shout! Factory would continue to release the series to home video). YTV Family was the only network airing the edited version to air all 24 episodes, as Nickelodeon Family, the series' US broadcaster, had moved episodes 14-24 to SurgeAnime Extra following the announcement.

In 2020, Corus noted that YTV 2 (then known as YTV Family), which held the broadcast rights to Jewelpet in Canada at the time, was losing money due to the amount of times it was broadcast between 2017 (when the show began airing on YTV Family) and 2020. As a result, YTV Family lost the broadcast rights to the original anime, Jewelpet Academy, and Jewelpet Story (with YTV 2 also losing the broadcast rights to Jewelpet: Sparkle! due to a rights expiration after April Fool's Day 2020). In April 2023, it was reported that YTV 2 managed to get the Canadian broadcast rights back, but have decided against bringing it back to the network until at least 2025 or later (pending Aura's license renewal), presumably to save money.

Despite this, Aura DVD Authoring still occasionally releases the show to home video in the region, in addition to Aura Games continuing to sell physical copies of the Nintendo Switch port of the videogame adaptation of Academy until ending regular retail for it at the end of 2022 (the Nintendo 3DS port ended regular retail in 2021 following Nintendo discontinuing the 3DS hardware).