Universal Kids Channel

Looks like the neglected Sprout channel is getting the axe. From The New York Times:

Starting on Sept. 9, NBCUniversal will turn one of its smallest cable properties, Sprout, into a network called Universal Kids, said Deirdre Brennan, who will oversee the effort. She said NBCUniversal wanted to create an “umbrella brand” for its family offerings — television cartoons made by the Universal-owned DreamWorks Animation, Universal-Illumination films and attractions at Universal theme parks.

Sprout is solely aimed at preschool viewers, but Universal Kids will concentrate on children 2 through 11. The revamped channel’s first series will be “Top Chef Junior,” a spinoff of the cooking show on NBCUniversal’s Bravo.

[...]

At its start, Universal Kids will also show reruns of DreamWorks Animation cartoons like “All Hail King Julien,” which is connected to the “Madagascar” movie franchise. NBCUniversal bought DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion last year, an acquisition that hinged in large part on the boutique studio’s television cartoon business.

Don't know if they're a little too late to jump into the children's cable bandwagon, but it's clear that Universal's ambitions for children's programming are dead serious.

^note Here's hoping The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat finally comes back on the air.

edited 30th Apr '17 6:24:20 PM by Mario1995

Inb4 The Minions gets a TV show on that channel, seeing as how Universal owns them too.

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about airing Netflix content on a TV Channel...

Here's to hoping they will air classic Woody Woodpecker cartoons to fill up their slots.

edited 30th Apr '17 6:31:53 PM by BigK1337

Now that's crazy talk! If we can't even get classic Pop Eye cartoons on Boomerang anymore, what are the chances of Woody getting some love? Although, I'd love to see if this spearheads the theory for a fifth Shrek movie, and a Spin-Off Babies series featuring His kids.

Never underestimate the power of nostalgia! Transformers and GI Joe (the 80s one) still airs on Discovery Family after the Hub name dropped, so chances are this Network could air shorts of this on late nights or early in the morning for nostalgtards like myself.

Speaking of shows based on Universal Studios attraction, wonder if they would air 90s shows based on some of their attractions like Back to the Future, Kong or any of the Marvel Animated Universe? Probably not the last one due to Disney and Fox.

Or maybe they could air the Fox Kids show.

Yeah I don't think this Universal Kids channel will be able to air all of the Fox Kids Shows due to licensing. Cause at this point anything Saban, DC, and Marvel related are off the table.

But hey it would be cool to see The Tick back on air.

Especially since no one remembers their Amazon series.

This could be interesting. T

I can't say that I'm opposed to the idea. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

(I do hope they take advantage of the vintage/classic/90s material in Dreamworks Classics and air that on the channel, even if it's late at night.)

I just hope this doesn't go the way of The Hub.

According to this article, Sprout will become a programming block on Universal Kids, running daily from 3:00am to 6:00pm.

edited 1st May '17 10:00:59 AM by Kartoonkid95

So I guess Sprout is becoming a preschool Jetix, then? Because that's a lot of hours they'll be eating up. So much for competing against Disney and Nickelodeon.

They will reduce the hours if they see the older crowd hours are more succesful.

Sprout: I'm not dead!

Does that really happen?

In all seriousness though, I'm pretty intrigued by this "Universal kids Channel" thing.

Mind you, my cable's kind of crap, so premium channels (which this seems to be) are out of the question for me. Though I wonder what the whole "showing Netflix DreamWorks shows on TV" thing will mean for the shows on Netflix. I hope to high heaven it doesn't mean they'll be going out of Netflix!

edited 1st May '17 11:41:47 AM by TargetmasterJoe

I heard of Sprout for years, but .... I'm kinda..... decidedly NOT a child... so I never had any intention to follow it let alone watch it. What happened with it? Why was it "neglected"?

I'm not a kid either, so I didn't pay much attention to it either.

But if I had to guess, it may have gone something like this:

PBS Kids Sprout ^note (I distinctly recall it used to have "PBS Kids" on it) — "PBS Kids" = "Sprout"

"PBS Kids" = "brand recognition" , ergo:

"Sprout" — "brand recognition" + "parents with young kids who need money to raise said young kids" = "less likely to shell out huge money for a premium channel"

"No little kids to watch the big fancy premium channel" = "nonexistent ratings"

Leading directly to:

"Nonexistent ratings" = "Screw it, nobody's watching this. Let's give it a facelift."

And now we're getting Universal Kids Channel.

@The Question made By Targetmaster Joe: I dunno, but that does make sense to me.

In short: PBS dropped Sprout and now We have Universal Kids.

...Yes? That's the summary of the situation?

Anyway, I hope this does well, There really needs to be some variety on Kids TV and we arent going to get it with only 3 channels, more if you count Disney XD or whatever.

Also, The Hub flopped due to Hasbro's utterly clueless mismanagement, Margaret Loesch had lots of cool adquisitions ideas (Third Party Shows) for The Hub but they didnt want anything to do with that because "They didnt sell or were Hasbro Products".

Because Sprout didn't have much to offer but edutainment, this is the next step.

Now that's more meat in your post.

I hope they air cool stuff alongside all the Universal/Dreamworks shows. Im not sure if they might go for anime or not so Im not holding my breath for that to happen.

If Dreamworks' Voltron series counts as anime, then possibly.

Voltron (all of the installments) would probably be the only anime series on that channel since Universal (via DreamWorks) has the licensing rights to that franchise on behalf of World Events.

So speaking on Dreamworks Shows appearing on the channel, besides All Hail King Julian, I could see them also using Puss in Boots, Turbo, Dawn of the Crood, Voltron, Dragons: Riders of Berk, Skylanders and possibly Trollhunters since they are all made by Dreamworks. I'm not sure if they would include Penguins of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness and Monsters vs. Aliens given their status as Nick shows.

Though I also wondering if they would air their movies as well? If they do, I am willing to bet it would be Shrek since that's the movie that made the company popular; cause I don't think they would admit Antz is the film that made them awesome (though it would be cool if they aired Prince of Egypt or El Dorado as their first films on the network).