History
Gulli was created as a result of a partnership between a kids-television pioneer Lagardère Active and the public service France Télévisions. The former is known due to its children's channel, Canal J, while the latter has a long history investing in kids programming through its youth-oriented division on its generalist networks.
The channel was launched on 18 November 2005 on the digital terrestrial television platform in France. On 1 July 2015, Gulli launched its own HD simulcast feed on the Astra 1 satellite as part of Canalsat's complete transition to HD. On 5 April 2016, its HD feed was launched on DTT.
In 2011, the first Gulli indoor playground opened. Developed since 2009 and operated by La Boîte aux Enfants, the number of Gulli Parcs rose to 15 in October 2024.
On 23 December 2013, a deal was reached between Lagardère and France Télévisions to purchase the latter's shares in Gulli. Until then, the two groups were bound by a shareholders' agreement with a non-competition clause, which made it impossible for France Télévisions to create a public youth channel, as the Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti had hoped. By exiting Gulli, France Télévisions was able to create its own children's channel on France 4. As part of the negotiations for the purchase of the public service's 34% stake in Gulli, the total volume of advertising was capped in the children's programming slots on France 4 during 3 years so as not to compete in advertising with Gulli. The deal was finalised on 29 October 2014 with the transfer of 34% of France Télévisions's shares to Lagardère for €25 million.
La Grande enquête des marques préférées des familles 2018 designated Gulli as the favorite channel for parents regarding programming aimed at kids. CSA revealed in its annual reports that Gulli was one of the three national private free-to-air channels that, in 2016, was seen as profitable, behind TF1 and M6. Most private channels, however, were in the red, largely due to the growth in offer in 2012.
In 2019, Lagardère Active sold its television division to Groupe M6 in a €215 million deal, effective from 2 September.
On 3 January 2022, the new time-slot brand Gulli Prime was launched for evenings, targeting all family with a focus on adults. It was a move to revitalize Gulli despite its declining audience due to the lowering consumption of linear TV among children, to consolidate its value as the channel was considered to be sold as part of the planned merger of Groupe M6 with Groupe TF1 initiated in September 2021. As Gulli is the only consistently profitable digital channel, M6 was hoping to sell it at a good price along with Tiji and Canal J. In February, it was decided not to sell Gulli but 6ter (along with TFX), and the sale was even signed in April to Altice Média in the event of the merger being completed, which was cancelled in September due to the concessions demanded by the Competition Authority, in particular the sale of the TF1 or M6 channel. Bertelsmann then considered selling Groupe M6 for a few weeks but the timing was too tight before M6's frequency renewal.
The channel was launched in Brazil on 9 August 2020, on the newly established satellite TV provider BluTV, which went bankrupt by 2022, and the channel went inactive in 2023.
In 2024, Gulli candidated for the decennial renewal of its terrestrial license, which was on the verge of ending in 2025. The channel was auditioned on 8 July 2024 by Arcom. As part of the non-renewal of the terrestrial license from two channels, Arcom wanted to change the numbering in order to regroup channels coherently, considering a block of kids channels. As announced on 13 January 2025, its initial slot (channel 18) got reassigned to T18, while the channel moved to a higher slot, channel 12, on 6 June 2025, vacated following the closure of NRJ 12.
Branding
At the French media regulator CSA's hearings for the new DTT channels, the channel was presented under the name of Gulliver, named after Jonathan Swift's character from Gulliver's Travels, before being renamed and shortened to Gulli.
Gulli launched on 18 November 2005, with their first branding and logo designed by Dream On.
On 8 April 2010, Gulli decided to use a new on-the-air branding designed by Gédéon. The same day, the logo has changed, becoming darker and 3D. They also switched to widescreen in a somewhat dynamic way, with both the 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.
In September 2013, Gulli introduced a new branding, again designed by Gédéon.
On 28 August 2017, Gulli changed its branding again and introduced a new logo. This time, their branding was designed by 17MARS. The 2017 branding received very positive reviews and gave a lot of color to the channel.
On 4 September 2023, Gulli changes its branding once again and introduced a new logo. This new branding was designed by Gédéon, who also did the 2010 and 2013 brandings.
Logos
Original logo used from 18 November 2005 to 28 August 2017.
Second logo from 28 August 2017 to 4 September 2023.
Current logo since 4 September 2023.
Logos of derived channels
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