Turner Broadcasting is to launch brand new channel Cartoon Network TOO, introducing a whole variety of modern classics and familiar favourites to a new generation of viewers when it launches in the UK next year. The company will also introduce Boomerang +1 so increasing its kids portfolio and boosting its penetration in the UK market. Turner Broadcasting owns the premiere group of UK kids channels and these new launches will bolster its position and improve its audience share in an increasingly fragmented and fiercely competitive market.
On Cartoon Network TOO the hugely popular Hanna Barbera library including Yogi Bear, Wacky Races and Hong Kong Phooey will be presented alongside popular Cartoon Network Original properties such as Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls. The channel will be a funny and safe destination for kids aged 4-9 as well as their parents, and will support Cartoon Network's on and off-air activities.
In terms of its content and personality Cartoon Network TOO will sit between Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Whereas Cartoon Network is the home of brand new cartoons introducing the cartoon stars of the future and Boomerang is the place for all the family to watch familiar faces from Bugs Bunny to Scooby-Doo, Cartoon Network TOO will air modern classics and familiar favourites to an audience that will not have seen most of them before.
"With the largest cartoon library in the world as its basis and having invested an average of $100 million a year on new shows internationally, Cartoon Network has now reached a point in its development where it has a treasure trove of back catalogue content crying out for a channel of its own," said Dee Forbes, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Turner Broadcasting System UK and Ireland.
"The launch of Cartoon Network TOO will allow the company's flagship channel Cartoon Network to focus on the many new and upcoming Cartoon Network Originals and co-productions including Robotboy, Camp Lazlo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. Its rebranding earlier this year, incorporating a brand new logo and the futuristic 3D CGI on-air 'world', reinforces its position as the home of the best cartoons," said Dom Gardiner, Channel Manager of Cartoon Network and Cartoon Network TOO.
In 2006 Turner will also launch Boomerang +1, the popular cartoon channel for all the family, which is home to favourites including Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry and the Looney Tunes library, set at a one-hour time shift.
The boys' action animation channel Toonami has seen a tremendous third quarter in which the channel launched several successful interactive initiatives and recorded its highest ever rating.
With these moves Turner Broadcasting is aiming to provide both a wider and clearer entertainment proposition to kids and families.
EDITOR'S NOTES:
Cartoon Network is the home of the cartoon stars and the best place for comedy, games and fun. On TV it offers the best entertainment 24 hour a day from its own major hit shows including Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Robotboy, Camp Lazlo, Codename: Kids Next Door, Ed, Edd n Eddy and The Cramp Twins. The Cartoon Network experience is also available on its multi-award winning website, with games on digital cable and satellite, on mobiles and from its best selling comics. Since launching as a pan-European channel in 1993 Cartoon Network now has localised services throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 13 languages, where it is available in 39.85 million homes. Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) Europe, delivers some of the world's most successful and well-known news and entertainment brands - Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Toonami, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and CNN International - across approximately 100 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Turner Broadcasting System Europe Limited is a Time Warner Company.
Contact Info:
Nick Hart
020 7693 1228
nick.hart@turner.com
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