Scratchbuilding | SB-03: Cartoon Network 1.0 (Part Two)

Originally Posted by Jeff Harris

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Welcome back to the program. In case you're just finding yourself lost, let me recap what I've talked about in the first part:

- A new self-contained operating unit, Warner Cartoon Group, would be created, merging the animated units of Warner Bros. Entertainment (Warner Bros. Animation and Hanna-Barbera) and Turner Broadcasting (Cartoon Network, Boomerang, the Turner library titles [including Tom and Jerry, MGM, Popeye, and Fleischer shorts] and Williams Street's animation division) as well as a minority stake in DC Comics as one unit.

- The network currently calling itself Cartoon Network could remain relatively intact, only WITHOUT the Cartoon Network name. A name change is necessary to continue their road to becoming a kids network. The network would remain based in Atlanta but will become a 50/50 joint venture between Turner Broadcasting and Warner Cartoon Group.

- Williams Street, now a 50/50 joint venture between Warner Cartoon Group and Turner Broadcasting, will operate and manage the renamed network's post-9 PM (E/P) Monday - Thursday slot, post 11 PM Friday slot, post-8 PM Saturday slot, and post-10 PM Sunday slot WITHOUT interference from the management of the renamed network. A two-hour buffer between the renamed network and the Adult Swim brand will air Mondays through Thursdays and as a four-hour buffer on Saturday nights. That will become Toonami.

And now we've come to this point. We're literally building a new Cartoon Network from scratch. Let's be honest for a second.

The network currently known as Cartoon Network will never be 100% animation ever again. Therefore, the name Cartoon Network will become pointless on that network, so a rebuild is necessary. There has to be a Cartoon Network because the name is valuable and already on the public consciousness. I'm not turning Boomerang into Cartoon Network because I've already transformed Boomerang into Boomerang: The Classic Cartoon Network. In case you've been hiding under a rock these last couple of years, the US is about to enter the digital era of television in early 2009. A broader broadcast spectrum is about to be unleashed creating channel space many have dreamed of, even for cableless viewers. Higher definition channels as well as multicasting on an epic scale. The digital era is about to begin, and I feel that a new Cartoon Network is essential. The timing couldn't be better to recreate and relaunch Cartoon Network as an all-animation channel.

They've done it before and they can do it again. Here's the basic plan.