Zannen, Canada - Bionix gets hosed in July - Comments

Damn, I had hoped they would

lycao — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:13:29 -0700

Damn, I had hoped they would be getting new anime series to replace the ones already aired a few times over now, and to replace death note after it finishes, for their summer schedule, but it looks like their going the opposite way and cutting it down instead. Now while this does suck, it doesn't mean that anime is gone forever, just means their summer schedule isn't going to be as good as it could be =P.

I'll wait until the fall for their new schedule before I start worrying that they're slowly dropping anime.

Now... all I have to do is

KingRoxas — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:35:00 -0700

Now... all I have to do is hope that YTV will follow-up with Nick's week-long Avatar ending (with the 2 hour finale special on the Saturday which Bionix is supposed to move-i think).

Though if they don't, it's not necessary to groan about it... the last DVD would be released the following week.

I get the impression YTV has

writerpatrick — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:21:31 -0700

I get the impression YTV has been making a lot of last minute changes to it's schedule. Best to just tape the whole block and pick out what one wants to watch later. I wouldn't put too much faith in their schedule either considering their Bionix page is hopelessly out-of-date and the "more show times" shows one on at 10pm next week when the "next time on" doesn't. They do list two for the 4th. Still, I'd say it's safe to say that they'll finish Death Note before they move Bionix to Saturday.

And it would have made more sense to put Batman on June 27th because it disrupts the schedule, although they may not be able to get the final Death Note in time.

They aired the OVA/OAV

Kefka_Pallazo — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:16:29 -0700

They aired the OVA/OAV tonight, then the movie. Oddly enough, they aired it without discretion warnings, and gave both entries a "G" rating as opposed to a "PG" or "14+" one. Really off the ball there - laziness abound(I even saw a Treehouse sponsor bump)! So Bell Expressvu and Rogers Cable on-screen schedule listings for YTV have were inaccurate...as they sometimes are.

A (complete) schedule update now:
On July 4th, as per YTV's More Show Times listing for the show, they're airing TWO episodes of Death Note as opposed to one. (EDIT: As of this morning, Zap2It confirms this.) This means we're getting the finale first. This is probably having to do with Batman (1989) airing on July 11th 2008 and with it probably airing in excess of 2 hours. In any case, if this is true, we'e getting the finale before Adult Swim does, unless they're intending on doing something similar.
So the schedule for July 4th 2008, as per YTV.com(EDIT: and Zap2It), should go like this:
8:00PM: Naruto EP144 "A New Squad: Two People and a Dog"
8:30PM: Naruto EP145 "A New Formation: Ino-Shika-Cho"
9:00PM: Zatch Bell EP87 presumeably(Zap2It doesn't give detailed ep info nor does YTV - yet)
9:30PM: Bleach repeat
10:00PM: Death Note EP36 "1.28"
10:30PM: Death Note EP37/Final EP "New World"
Oddly enough, DN's repeat will only be for "1.28". So if you have a west coast feed for YTV(which doesn't have those annoying digital skips) you'll have only one "official" chance at seeing the series finale on Canadian TV(seeing as they repeat EP01 of any of the shows which get pre-empted by movies).
Sources: YTV.com schedule entries for the shows in question and [EDIT] Zap2It listings(which accuratley represent the YTV schedule again).

I'd agree with Peppy here.

Primus — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:31:33 -0700

I'd agree with Peppy here. When YTV announced they were taking TAC to the CRTC, I said it was a double edged sword, and it still is.

Lanisatu wrote:I hope that

Pep — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:41:00 -0700

Lanisatu wrote:

I hope that this change in schedule for Bionix and anime shows is more likely an indication of TAC being launched sooner rather than later.

I don't understand why people see the possibility of all focus being moved over to the anime channel as a good thing. It would essentially mean that anime is finished on conventional television in Canada, and there's just no reason for that.

It is possible that YTV

writerpatrick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:00:03 -0700

It is possible that YTV couldn't get the OAV and had to make a last minute change, although YTV is listing the OAV on their schedule. I guess it's just a matter of waiting and seeing.

Rogers Digital's on-screen

Kefka_Pallazo — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:52:35 -0700

Rogers Digital's on-screen liting also shows this completely inaccuarate entry. Due to the actual promotion by YTV for the airing of the OVA and the reairing of the movie(station commercials promote the 7PM-10PM runthrough as 'Narutastic'), both of these satellite/cable listings are completely inaccurate and should not be trusted in this matter.

Also it should be noted that the Corus press release for July suggests that (tween sensation) movies will follow in the hour after The Next Star. Assumedly this is an enforcement of what kind of target demographic they want for this show(general tween audiences, for the most part). That extra hour inbetween the show and the movie will probably be reality show Cancon, and the time following the movie will probably be repeats of the Cancon shows. Or it could be DN and GSD repeats, but I don't see that happening at all, given the climate.

I just checked the ExpressVu

writerpatrick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:44:18 -0700

I just checked the ExpressVu on-screen guide and it lists Fairy Godmother 2 instead of the Naruto OAV. It still shows the Natruto movie. Zap2it still has the OAV listed for tomorrow as well as the movie.

Zap2it is also showing Prank

writerpatrick — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:33:25 -0700

Zap2it is also showing Prank Patrol and Mystery Hunters for June 27th, but it's possible that these are shows that will be run when Bionix moves to Saturday and they mistook the change for earlier. The only real difference is whether we'll get Zatch for the extra weeks.

YTV has said before that

Lanisatu — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:49:28 -0700

YTV has said before that they only notify television service providers of their listings. They do not notify zap2it.com of anything. Rather, when I asked them why there was a discrepancy, they didn't seem to be aware of the existence of zap2it.com

Granted, this was prior to Tivo boxes actually being sold in Canada. But I doubt that they've made changes.

I hope that this change in schedule for Bionix and anime shows is more likely an indication of TAC being launched sooner rather than later.

But we'll see, I guess.

Dayspring wrote:I'm too

EmperorFred — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:01:08 -0700

Dayspring wrote:

I'm too complacent? Dude, you pretty much just called YTV the Canadian response to Cartoon Network. Two totally different markets. Although I'll acknowledge that they often let CN's success act as a test market, it makes sense to: is there ANY Canadian company that picks up anime?

Personally, I don't think the markets are as different as some people like to think they are. (YTV just has a better grasp on the target demo.) What I'm saying is that YTV takes a lot of its cues for picking up and handling anime straight from Cartoon Network - and that this move to Saturday may be sadly staying true to form.

Perhaps it's simply indicative of the hard times the anime industry is going through in general, but I don't think it's unreasonable to hold Cartoon Network's recent treatment of anime up as a sign of what may very well also happen here.

This Friday, as promoted by

Kefka_Pallazo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:01:14 -0700

This Friday, as promoted by their "Naru-tastic" promos(they showed commercials of it during the Naruto fillers last night - one as an actual commercial and one over the end credits of one of the episodes), the schedule will be as follows:
7:00PM: Naruto OVA - Mission: Protect The Waterfall Village!
8:00PM: Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash In The Land Of Snow
10:00PM: Death Note
10:30PM: Gundam SEED Destiny
11:00PM onward: Latenight schedule as before, except Bleach is going to be a repeat of EP01.
Source: YTV.com schedule, Zap2It schedule

I think all the online schedule sites did a copy-paste job with their Monday-Thursday 8:30PM-10:00PM lineup for YTV's Friday lineup. Who knows for sure?
And yet again, Zap2it gives us this same erstaz "copy-and-paste job" for Friday June 27th. YTV's More Show Times listings(which in the past 24 hours has become 'trustable' again) gives out the normal airtimes for Naruto, Zatch Bell, and Bleach for that night. To attempt to further explain this, every Thursday-Friday(12:00AM-12:10AM roughly) the YTV.com episode listing page for Naruto gets updated by the amount of episodes which will be airing the following week(the same goes for Death Note).
So going by that logic, EP142 & EP143 should be airing on June 27th, and EP144 & EP145 should be listed on the show's YTV.com episode listing page on June 20th(for airing on July 4th). In that case, those episodes will be the last Naruto episodes aired as a twosome before the Bionix schedule is compacted and moved to Saturdays from 8PM-10PM, as on July 11th everything upto the Death Note finale will be pre-empted for Batman(the 1989 Tim Burton one). The YTV press release for July confirms the date and time.

I can't say that much for Zatch Bell, given it's rushed revival in the YTV schedule - it's listing only goes upto the episode which aired this week. So there's still a bit of confusion as to what exactly will transpire on June 27th and, ostensibly, July 4th.

Zap2it did update their

writerpatrick — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:13:13 -0700

Zap2it did update their listings by yesterday to show the correct schedule. It's possible that YTV made a change and hadn't informed anyone yet. It will be interesting to see what's going on after this Friday (the 20th).

Also of note in scheduling is that now that Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is moving to CW, (starting with an episode that ran a couple months ago) to be replaced by Kirby on FOX.

I just attempted to say that

Kefka_Pallazo — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:16:08 -0700

I just attempted to say that Zap2It and Canada.com's schedules(which suggested the additional Naruto filler ep, Zatch Bell, and Bleach rerun were being dropped) are both completely inaccurate based on what was airing on YTV from 8PM-10PM. Basically, the YTV website schedule was giving out the right listings this whole time. I also listed the schedule for those who didn't know it by now.

I then made a confusing attempt to explain about how YTV's website schedule was going to be the right one this whole time(which indeed it was/is), and made a reminder that next week the Naruto OVA and the first Naruto movie are going to be airng next week from 7PM-10PM.
I apologize for not making a whole lot of sense earlier. A lot of the post above this was written as I was watching the lineup.

Bionix gets hosed in July

Pep — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:01:14 -0700

According to the latest press release from Corus Entertainment, YTV's Bionix block will be pushed back to Saturday nights starting July 19 in order to make way for the debut of The New Star the night prior. In addition, the block will be cut down to two hours, consisting only of new episodes for Avatar, Naruto, Zatch Bell, and Bleach. It would be nice if this move were reversible, but with thirteen episodes, The New Star will be running into the first week of October.

Given how low Saturday ratings figures tend to be and the complete lack of Death Note in the line up, this is not a good sign for the block.