When the (original) PBS Kids channel was shutdown, some PBS affiliated stations helped to promote the newly announced PBS Kids Sprout, with some affiliates replacing the PBS Kids channel for Sprout later down the line. HIT characters, including Barney, Angelina Ballerina and Bob the Builder, appearing at the Sprout Launch Party in 2005, among other guests. The announcement of the channel and partnerships were made on October 20, 2004. The parties eventually compromised: allow commercials to bookend but not interrupt shows, and the advertisements are required to be targeted at parents, not children. Comcast, on the other hand, is a for-profit company that sells ads. Because PBS is a nonprofit organization that is also noncommercial, it airs only short spots identifying program underwriters before and after shows. Among the sticking points was whether to air commercials. Negotiations for the channel took more than a year. Both HIT and PBS soon approached Comcast about starting a 24/7 children's channel with Sesame Workshop eventually joining. At this time, PBS had an unsuccessful PBS Kids channel. Soon HIT executives approached PBS, which had been considering the same idea. It was concluded that if there were channels that stuck to one topic, such as golf, then there should be a market for children's programming. Slocum, who worked for HIT Entertainment at the time, and another company executive were discussing the difficulty for producers like HIT to find distribution platforms when companies such as Disney and Nickelodeon did both and had incentives to air their own shows. The origins of the channel emerged in early 2004 during an executive meeting in New York City. "A lot happens when you Sprout" ad Origins The channel eventually was rebranded to Universal Kids as a result of Comcast gaining full control. Sesame Workshop and PBS followed suit, giving NBC Universal full control of the network. Mattel, the current owners of HIT Entertainment, did not take said share when it bought the company a year earlier. Īpax Partners, the former owners of HIT Entertainment, sold their share of the network in 2013. Sprout was available to approximately 58 million pay television households (49.8% of households with television) in the United States. Featuring a complimentary video-on-demand (VOD) service and website, Sprout replaced the PBS Kids Channel that originally was available prior to the channel's debut. Sprout was available on many major cable networks, as well as DirectTV. ![]() Sprout was originally formed by Comcast in conjunction with Sesame Workshop, PBS and HIT Entertainment. Its lineup featured a mix of originally-produced programming, along with acquired programming. The channel launched on Septemand primarily targeted preschoolers. During its final years, it was solely owned by the NBCUniversal Cable subsidiary of NBCUniversal which is owned by Comcast. Sprout (formerly PBS Kids Sprout) was an independent American digital cable and satellite television network that was originally spun-off from the children's programming block, PBS Kids.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |