The 11-year-old, youth-focused specialty channel ytv kicked off its new season Sept. 13 with 41 new programs, 14 of which are Canadian. Exceeding its overall 60% Canadian content quota, ytv boasts 80% of its primetime schedule comes from Canadian producers and that in the 1999/2000 season, the channel has triggered more than $124 million for the Canadian production industry.

Some new Canadian series in the ytv fall lineup include Monster By Mistake (13 cgi-animated half-hours from Catapult Productions/Cambium Film and Video Production), I Was A Sixth Grade Alien (22 live-action half-hours from Alliance Atlantis), Watership Down (26 animated half-hours from Decode Entertainment/Alltime Entertainment) and Big Wolf on Campus (22 live-action half-hours from Telescene Film Group).

According to Peter Moss, ytv’s vp of programming and production, although the number of new series for ’99/2000 dropped from 57 in 1998, it was only because ytv was reluctant to infringe on the good thing it had going from last season.

‘With our new positioning and our really strong schedule last year, we are complementing that schedule rather than remaking the schedule,’ says Moss.

Also new at ytv is Snit Station, a Saturday morning programming block hosted by a robot named Snit. The lineup will feature primarily Japanese anime-style shows (including Digimon, Dragon Ball Z and the exceedingly popular Pokemon) and newly acquired Nickelodeon programming like CatDog and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Among the series returning to ytv for the new season are Panda Bear Daycare, Rugrats and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.