Scholastic Channel

The Scholastic Channel is an entertainment brand for children between 2 to 14, with 40% owned by Scholastic Media, which in turn is owned by Scholastic Corporation, and 60% owned by 9 Story Media Group. (originally in cooperation with Crown Media Holdings, Inc.) The channel's programming is primarily targeted at children between the ages of 2 to 14, and features a mix of original and acquired television series from the Scholastic catalog. Scholastic Channel originally only aired in the US and Canada, but started to unveil Scholastic Channel in the UK, Ireland, and Latin America.

Early History with Qubo
In May 2006, Scholastic Media joined the Qubo brand along with Ion Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Corus Entertainment, and Classic Media. (now DreamWorks Animation) Qubo later launched on September 9th, 2006 as part of Qubo on NBC. Scholastic would bring many of their shows to the table, including some of Qubo’s only original programming. Among all of Qubo’s shows, VeggieTales was the one show gathering the most attention and controversy to the Qubo brand, leaving most of Scholastic’s programming unnoticed. Scholastic later left the Qubo brand after 2013 with the last Scholastic show to air on Qubo being Animorphs, which would usually air late at night. After Scholastic’s leaving from Qubo, the catalog would be brought over to Netflix, after the early success of The Magic School Bus and Goosebumps in the US and Canada. Scholastic Media president Deborah Forte announced that a Scholastic Channel would be made after the positive reviews from Scholastic programs on Netflix, and was advertised in various Scholastic products, such as Scholastic Book Fairs, Scholastic News, and was covered by the Scholastic News Kids Press. It was rumored that Scholastic would make a new Harry Potter series for the channel, however that was proven false.

Launch
Scholastic Channel launched on January 14th, 2014, as a cable channel. At launch, programming included much of the catalog it sold to Netflix, such as The Magic School Bus, Goosebumps, I SPY, and several Weston Woods shorts as interstitials since Scholastic Channel didn’t initially use commercials. A lot of Scholastic material used on Qubo would be reused by Scholastic Channel. However by 2015, they started airing commercials. On February 20th that same year, Scholastic Channel launched as a website and an on-demand service, both functioned the same as the cable channel version. Scholastic Channel was quite popular, thanks to the attention from promotion and classroom use. Shows like Animorphs, The Baby Sitters Club, and Goosebumps were not included until popular demand by fans in 2015. Around early 2016, the cable version shut down after viewership decline, as well as the on-demand service in 2017, leaving only the website version available. Originally before the 2016 shutdown, Scholastic Media was planning a Saturday morning version of Scholastic Channel on The Hub called “Scholastic’s Possible World” after it’s slogan.

2019-present
Not much happened to Scholastic Channel between 2017 to 2019. However, on April 1, 2019, 9 Story Media Group acquired the distribution rights to many of Scholastic Media’s shows, thus having an impact on Scholastic Channel. 9 Story got a 60% share of Scholastic Channel, with Scholastic Media getting a 40% share. In 2020, Scholastic started to promote Scholastic Channel when schools were being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and started unvailing more products for schools and homes across the country.

Programming

 * Animorphs (2015-present)
 * The Baby Sitters Club (2015-present)
 * Dear America (2014-present)
 * Dragon (2014-present)
 * Goosebumps (2015-present)
 * I Spy (2014-present)
 * Royal Diaries (2014-present)
 * Sammy’s Story Shop (2014-present)
 * The Magic School Bus (2014-present)
 * The Magic School Bus Rides Again (2017-present)
 * Turbo Dogs (2014-present)
 * Weston Woods Shorts (airing in between shows; 2014-present)