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Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Prediction: The Future Of Cartoon Network And WarnerMedia's Other Kids Channels


Last month, Cartoon Network USA viewership continued to plummet and now channels such as Nick Jr and Disney Junior pull in more viewers than them. Even the Adult Swim block on the channel which airs at 10pm to 5am pulls more viewers than the channel.

This is due to the fact that more people are opting to streaming and also that WarnerMedia stopped putting much effort towards the channel and proved that ratings don't matter anymore.

If you look at Cartoon Network now, the channel lacks variety and is flooded with constant reruns of Teen Titans GO! at some point viewers enjoyed the show now they're irritated over the fact that it's the only thing available there.

The decrease is not only coming through Cartoon Network but other kids brands such as Disney Channel and Nickelodeon which are dealing with a similar situation. Except it seems like WarnerMedia doesn't intend to recover from that.

Since HBO Max inception in 2020, most of Cartoon Network's programs became HBO Max exclusives and for the first time in many years the channel had no original programming.

Later in that year, WarnerMedia greenlit a bunch of programming under Cartoon Network most of them were tagged with HBO Max.

Now the question remains on how long this format will go on. WarnerMedia has been doing a lot of reconstructing part of it may include putting their focus on less brands even aligning them together and perhaps scrapping Cartoon Network to some extent and converting it to HBO Kids or Family.

HBO Kids runs as a programming block on HBO Family in the United States and also the Family brand has a 24/7 channel in Asia. None of which have any original content but since HBO Max is around chances are they'll use these brands for reruns.

Perhaps HBO will revive the kids block on their channel and use it for all the original content and launch a seperate kids channel for reruns. To do this they'd probably take HBO Family and change the name to HBO Kids.

HBO Kids launches as a replacement channel for Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Adult Swim will only have animation under the HBO Max branding everything else remains to some extent.

I'm not expecting it to happen out of the blue perhaps the objective now is put as much HBO Kids titles on HBO Max and Cartoon Network. So them airing it on Cartoon Network is their way off trying to make viewers familiarise HBO on the kids space so they don't pull a Universal Kids and fans are completely turned off by the brand.

The change could only occur when WarnerMedia feels they got enough HBO Kids titles to fill up the channel and less Cartoon Network originals. Right now there's like 5 pending CN originals and 1 that's coming from Europe.

WarnerMedia International operates Cartoon Network, Boomerang and a bunch of other regional channels such as ToonCast, Cartoonito, Pogo, Boing and Toonami. The regional part feels a little pinch while Cartoon Network and Boomerang adapt to the U.S. counterpart.

Toonami functions as a 24/7 channel perhaps they'll change it to DC Kids if you look at the the overload of DC Animation perhaps Cartoon Network will incorporate itself there for selected shows that aren't DC while Toonami gets the anime. That's one way to follow the U.S. counterpart.

Then ToonCast and Boing use the Cartoon Network branding since all they're doing there is airing reruns perhaps Boomerang will manage the non-English feeds. Pogo has regional content so they'll likely use the HBO Kids branding leaving Cartoonito unscathed.

Cartoon Network could get back up and salvage the little viewers left on the brand but since cable is becoming expensive is it worth saving. The only thing they can do now is reduce TTG's airtime perhaps that's what will get viewers engaged again but before this mess popped up and after the variety was gone the brand reserved itself for 2-3 shows, do you think that's what their future will be when TTG ends or something much different.

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3 comments:

  1. You're talking from an American standpoint, how the hell does any of this relate to anything in the EMEA (UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa) Region!? I feel that HBO MAX Will launch in Africa and Europe late this year due to the fact that many of the HBO MAX originals have been slotted to air on Cartoon Network and Boomerang instead. If we where quote on quote "adjusting" to the US feeds we wouldn't have had the Boomerang 2018 Rebrand, CN Africa Wouldn't be a 24 hour feed anymore (Thou it's proven that adult swim Africa would be placed on TNT than Cartoon Network), we wouldn't have new things like Summer Camp Island and Fungies! Airing on the Channel, plus the fact that HBO Kids is a block on HBO Family means HBO Family would have to launch as a Channel on DStv next to TNT. And how can you say there's an influx of DC Cartoons on Toonami Africa when that's the whole reason the block was founded back in 2004 in the United States, mmmmhmmmm..... Yeah, the fact that Warner Media's Cartoon Network and Boomerang Africa are DStv Biggest Cartoon Channels. Also who the heck you think you're fooling with the Teen Titans Go Over Schedulind that was in 2017 in the US and here in Africa Sure TTG is airing alot but trust me we are far better off than the US Despite them having the modern Mash up 2.0 era. Sorry but their too many inconsistencies with this report. :/ :/

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  2. Haven't we learnt anything from Disney XD demise I get what you're stating but just think about it for a second. I'm aware that Cartoon Network has HBO Max titles and what about Boomerang has it gotten anything from HBO Max as yet is there official news that Jellystone and Tom And Jerry Into The Big City is coming to the channel. Look at Disney XD they had BCG, DuckTales and BH6 now all that has gone to Disney Channel. "Adjusting to feeds" here's another example Discovery Inc. in Africa had ID Xtra and TLC Entertainment before dropping Xtra out of ID and Entertainment from TLC. To be honest I don't know why they'd do that if you're getting the same programs from the main counterpart.

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