Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network, television network, launched in 1992 by the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), that was the first channel to offer 24/7 broadcast of animated programming. It is considered an innovator for both its original cartoon series and its programming blocks that introduced American audiences to Japanese animation, or anime, and that pioneered animated series for adult viewers.

Development

In the mid- to late 1980s television entrepreneur and TBS founder Ted Turner identified cartoon programming as a growth opportunity for his TV empire. In 1986 TBS acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Although Turner sold MGM’s production and distribution divisions just over two months later, TBS retained the rights to its valuable libraries. This included its cartoon library, which notably contained Popeye cartoons and the Looney Tunes shorts up to 1948. In late 1991 TBS purchased the rights to the entire Hanna-Barbera program library for about $320 million. This meant that the company owned a large number of animated shows from the 1960s, which included such early animated TV classics as The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and The Jetsons.

History

Cartoon Network launched in October 1992, offering a constant stream of reruns of classic Hanna-Barbera and MGM cartoons but reaching only about 2 million households, compared with more than 6 million households for the Disney Channel and more than 55 million households for Nickelodeon. Soon after its launch the network began developing original animated shows on its limited budget. In 1993 it premiered The Moxy Pirate Show (later called The Moxy Show and The Moxy and Flea Show), which featured a computer-animated dog (Moxy) and flea (Flea) in interstitial segments between cartoons from the network’s library. The next year Cartoon Network began airing its first fully produced animated series, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which largely reused old Space Ghost animation spliced with live-action interviews.

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Perhaps the most influential show in this early batch of programming first aired in February 1995 as a segment called “World Premiere Toon In” in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode “President’s Day Nightmare.” Later known as World Premiere Toons and What a Cartoon!, the program introduced 48 original animated shorts over three years. Several of the shorts that premiered on this program became Cartoon Network classics, including Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and Powerpuff Girls. The combination of classic reruns and original programming was wildly successful; in 1994 Cartoon Network became the fifth most popular cable channel in the United States, and in 1995 the network had 22 million subscribers.

The network continued to expand its programming in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 1996 TBS merged with Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery), giving Cartoon Network access to the Warner Brothers cartoon library. In 1997 Cartoon Network introduced Toonami, a programming block featuring western action cartoons and anime shows, such as Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. This programming brought Japanese animation to American audiences with greater success than other broadcasters. In 1998 the network launched its website, which hosted clips and episodes of Cartoon Network shows and games based on its content.

There was a problem, however, that the network had yet to solve as the 1990s drew to a close: what to do about its ad space at night, when companies did not want to spend money on advertising to children, who were likely asleep. Cartoon Network’s solution was to create a programming block aimed at childless adults, who already made up about a third of their audience. The result was Adult Swim, which launched in 2001 and quickly became a home for experimental and often strange animation. In 2005 the block became a separate network in ratings data collected by the A.C. Nielsen Co. The Nielsen ratings firm could then track viewership patterns separately and thereby allow Cartoon Network and Adult Swim to set different rates for advertisers despite sharing the same channel. The Adult Swim network ultimately gave rise to some of television’s most popular animated shows, such as Rick and Morty, The Boondocks, and Robot Chicken.

In the mid-2000s Cartoon Network experimented for several years with live-action programming, trying out a variety of sitcoms, game shows, and reality shows that were not well received. After reaching record numbers in 2012, Cartoon Network’s viewership declined over the 2010s as the network struggled to compete with streaming services and signed licensing agreements allowing Netflix to stream some of its programming. The decline continued into the 2020s.

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Ownership shakeups

In 2018, after 20 years without a significant change in Cartoon Network’s ownership, telecommunications giant AT&T acquired Time Warner (which was renamed WarnerMedia after the acquisition) and Cartoon Network along with it. Ownership changed again in 2022 when AT&T and Discovery, Inc., finalized a transaction that combined WarnerMedia with Discovery to create Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. HBO Max, an HBO streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, became the official streaming home of Cartoon Network content. In 2022, however, HBO Max began pulling segments of its Cartoon Network library from its streaming platform, to the great dismay of Cartoon Network fans. Fans of the Cartoon Network oeuvre were dealt another blow in 2024 when Warner Bros. Discovery shut down the Cartoon Network website.