The first season of Degrassi: The Next Generation commenced airing in Canada on 14 October 2001, concluded on 3 March 2002, and contains fifteen episodes. Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian serial teen drama television series. It introduces a group of seventh and eighth grade school children, and follows their lives as they deal with the typical issues and challenges of teenage life, such as online predators, sibling relationships, peer pressure, sex, rumours, stress, self image and drug use. The first season was broadcast on the Canadian terrestrial television network CTV, on Sundays at 7:00 p.m. It debuted with a one hour movie of the week special, "Mother and Child Reunion", which form the first two episodes of season one. In the United States, it was broadcast on The N, a digital cable network aimed at teenagers and young adults. The season was released domestically on DVD as a three disc boxed set on 19 October 2004 by Alliance Atlantis Home Entertainment, although it was released to the US market almost a month earlier, on 28 September 2004. Registered users of the Canadian and US iTunes Stores are also able purchase and download the season for playback on home computers and certain iPods.