Not long ago, their U.S. counterpart had an interview followed by an upfront where they unveiled an expanded kids lineup which included families and girls with Cartoonito handling preschool.
Cartoonito was available in Europe, Middle East and Africa back in 2011 and ran for four years on Boomerang. After it was discontinued, the content remained on Boomerang for the time being.
It makes perfect sense for them to take an existing brand since other countries have it in a form of a programming block and a linear channel so they can just expand from that.
HBO Max (their streaming service)is included in this project which increases it's success rate. Perhaps streaming is another reason, WarnerMedia wants to create content for the whole family and they don't have a stable archive for preschoolers - that answers the 50 preschool series in 2 years goal. Older kids have plenty of content to binge on as opposed to preschoolers.
Getting back to other markets, Cartoonito returned to the Middle East and North African region not only that it was also launched in Turkey but why hasn't it returned to EMEA as yet that's simple, Boomerang.
After the channel's rebrand in 2018, there's been more preschool content added to the channel and less family. The last family based show is Scooby-Doo And Guess Who?
Last year, I did approach someone at WarnerMedia about Boomerang's introduction to the preschool market and they basically told me that it's pretty much a preschool channel at this point.
So if you look at it Cartoonito has more of an affect on Boomerang than it does with Cartoon Network. Boomerang's upcoming shows such as Lucas The Spider and Mush Mush And The Mushables are also confirmed shows for Cartoonito.
You have to wonder how WarnerMedia plans to keep Cartoonito afloat without affecting Boomerang. I can see some markets use Boomerang for reruns again while others which is likely EMEA replace it.
WarnerMedia International has other kids brands which dwell on repeats like Boing and Toonami perhaps those could be swapped for Boomerang.
From the longest I've followed Cartoon Network and Boomerang, they've never clashed with each other when it comes to entertainment and viewership.
After WarnerMedia USA announcement I emailed the EMEA office over the possibility of relaunching Cartoonito and whether it will replace a brand like Boomerang and this was their response:
We are truly excited about our expanded Kids and Family vision and the move into pre-school, girls and family content announced by our WarnerMedia colleagues in the US. In particular, we are looking forward to an even bigger and broader range of incredible content with which to inspire and delight kids and families across our EMEA channels and brands. We look forward to sharing more details further ahead – Vanessa Brookman, Head of Kids, WarnerMedia EMEA.
It seems there's more to be announced by them
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I hope they don't get rid of Boomerang, they have Scooby Doo and Guess Who, Tom And Jerry Show And New Looney Tunes, We can expect shows like Tom And Jerry: In The Big City, Jellystone!, Animaniacs 2020, Looney Tunes Cartoons and Tiny Toons Looniversity. This is due to the fact That HBO MAX isn't launching in The UK, France, Italy, Middle East and North Africa, Africa and Australia. We end up getting the Max Originals on their respective channels, this can be observed by seeing that only Regions which have some presence of HBO Like Latin America, Spain, Northern, Scandinavian and Also Central Eastern Europe, South East Asia are getting HBO MAX cause all they'll do is upgrade existing systems to HBO MAX. Like the HBO Nordic, HBO GO, HBO Now, HBO Espanol to HBO MAX. But all the other regions are keeping those Shows Like Fungies or Adventure Time: Distant Lands on the live channels, We Might Most likely see Looney Tunes Cartoons or Tiny Toons Looniversity headed to Boomerang like Boomerang Australia has already announced that alongside Cartoon Network Australia. Cartoonito however, might return to Europe, Africa and Australia as A Linear Channel like in the UK. We don't have MAX so those originals all definitely won't be crammed onto another Channel. It's most likely to be a Channel Especially in Africa cause Warner Africa does prefer to Have Channels over dedicated blocks the days. Anyway over to you Mate.
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