Tiny Vision

Tiny Vision was a Kuboian entertainment brand owned by TVVC that launched on 12th August 1996. It first began as a programming block on Vision One (then named Vision 1) before expanding into its own television channel a year later. The brand was marketed towards children aged nine and under, and broadcast a variety of pre-school programmes, both original and acquired from mostly European sources.

Early history
Before its launch, Tiny Vision was preceded by an unbranded children's programming block on Vision One (then named Vision Network) that ran on weekday and weekend mornings. TVVC later launched a Saturday evening programming strand Bumper's Block in 1991, which was more family-orientated.

Tiny Vision officially launched on 12th August 1996, airing on Vision Network on weekdays from 6:00a.m. to 9:25a.m. and Sundays from 6:00a.m. to 12:00p.m., effectively replacing the unbranded children's block that aired beforehand.

Channel launch
Following the discontinuation of Bumper's Block in June 1997, TVVC announced that Tiny Vision would be launched as a channel. The channel officially launched on 11th August 1997, airing everyday from 10:00a.m. to 8:00p.m., though the block continued to air from 6:00a.m. to 9:25a.m.

On 4th January 1999, Tiny Vision altered its airing hours. The block's runtime was shortened to end at 9:00a.m., and the main channel now began at 6:00a.m., with the block now being a simulcast of the channel.

Closure
In September 2007, TVVC announced that it would close Tiny Vision in early 2008 following a reshuffle of the company's television output. Both the block and channel ended their final run on 27th January 2008. Another children's block with a shorter runtime, Junior Vision, was launched in its place the following day - unlike Tiny Vision, it did not feature in-vision presenters, which TVVC cited as a cheaper alternative. Several former presenters of Bumper's Block and Tiny Vision criticised TVVC's decision to axe the latter.

Programming
Tiny Vision's programming consisted of both retro and contemporary preschool programming from mostly European origins, although it did occasionally acquire non-European programming. A majority of Bumper's Block's original programming was carried over to Tiny Vision after the former was axed.

Original programming
This list is not complete.
 * Bubble and Tea
 * Charlie Karma and Company
 * Cindi and Friends
 * Detective Tricky
 * Melanie
 * Olly
 * Ouraine (series 2)
 * Polly Kettle
 * Puzzle Palace
 * Tip's Nursery
 * The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu (later episodes)
 * Video Tape

Acquired programming
As they were both owned by TVVC to some degree at the time, some of Tiny Vision's programming also later aired on Nick Jr. Kuboia, typically with the former airing newer episodes and the latter airing older episodes. When Bob the Builder premiered on Tiny Vision in the spring of 2002, it was only licensed to air episodes from the fifth series and earlier, and as such the first four series never aired as part of the strand. The channel also had exclusive rights for new episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, meaning Nick Jr. Kuboia could only air episodes a year after their original Tiny Vision air date.

Blocks and stranded segments
The channel occasionally had different blocks on certain times and days of the week. Upon the channel's launch, the last hour of broadcast each day featured "bedtime" idents and presentation. From Spring 1999, the 6:00a.m. to 9:00a.m. slot each morning was called the "Tiny Vision Breakfast Show" on-air. In January 2006, Tiny Vision introduced a block called "Old-School Zone", which ran on Sundays from 4:00p.m. to 7:00p.m. and was dedicated to older programming.

Tiny Vision also mixed up its schedule for special occasions. A notable example is its tenth anniversary on 12th August 2006, in which it aired "the best" of its programming.

Presentation
Tiny Vision's presentation was achieved through in-vision continuity, although this was not introduced until the launch of the channel. Presenters that hosted Tiny Vision throughout its ten-year history included (but were not limited to) Charlie Karma, Caroline Weaver, Ericka Streets, Helen Duplooy, Spy Fandel and Cue Gilson. Out of all of them, Karma was the only presenter to be active for the entire ten-year period.

Additionally, Tiny Vision had a variety of puppets which were featured in its links. Although these were initially just generic animal stuffed toys, puppets who spoke and interacted with the human hosts were later introduced. Amongst the most notable puppets include Orange the Owl, who was introduced in 1998 and was later followed by Miss Tulip in late 2004. Another puppet, Blocky the Rock, was also introduced in 1999, but usually only appeared alongside Ericka Streets.

Because the channel was structured to only air two advertisement breaks an hour, interstitial segments such as birthday cards were put in place to fill up time of longer breaks.

1996 ident package
Tiny Vision's 1996 idents, created by Open Eyes Media, were done in traditional animation. These featured a light pink background, and had a variety of different activities happening, such as a magical brush splatting black paint on a piece of paper, or dark grey bubbles floating up from the bottom of the screen and popping to reveal the logo. Each ident had two variants: a normal length version, and another one-second "sting". Over twenty idents were made for the strand. Objects were created with a large black outline, which according to Open Eyes Media, was supposed to appear as if a child was drawing and animating everything with a felt tip pen.

Upon the launch of the channel in August 1997, the idents were remade to include smoother animation and different music.

2004 ident package
A new ident packaging was launched on 19th April 2004 to coincide with the new logo. In contrast to the 1996 idents, these were produced in 3D computer animation, and involved a large amount of toys and objects animating in a dark blue environment.

The 'Next' idents during this time period had a television screen coming out of a jack-in-the-box to reveal what programme was coming up next. Originally, the instrumental of the upcoming show's theme played in the background, though this was changed in the autumn of 2004 to instead play Tiny Vision's main overture instead.

Home media releases
Vision Video released several VHS and DVDs featuring shows that aired on Tiny Vision.

Schedules

 * Autumn 1997
 * Spring 2001