Sprout
| Sprout | |
|---|---|
| Owned by | NBCUniversal Television and Streaming (NBCUniversal) (Comcast) |
| Slogan | Let's Grow! |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, New York |
| Website | sproutonline.com |
Search Sprout on Amazon. Sprout (doing business as Universal Kids and formerly PBS Kids Sprout) is an American pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel first launched on September 26, 2005, a joint venture between PBS, Comcast, Sesame Workshop, and HIT Entertainment, devoted to children's television programming aimed at a preschool audience. Following Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, the company gradually bought out the remaining owners' shares in the channel, reaching full ownership in 2013. The network's operations were subsequently relocated from Philadelphia to New York City, and the "PBS Kids" name was dropped from its branding.
History[edit]
As PBS Kids Sprout/Sprout (2005–2017)[edit]
On October 20, 2004, PBS announced that it had entered into a joint partnership with cable provider Comcast, and production companies HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop to launch a then-unnamed subscription-based channel aimed at preschool children.[1]
On April 4, 2005, Comcast announced that the network would be known as PBS Kids Sprout, launching initially as a branded video on-demand (VOD) service before launching its linear pay TV channel. The network would be advertising-supported, but ads would only air between programs in small quantities, and would be aimed towards parents and caregivers.[2]
The linear network officially launched on September 26, 2005, with a reach of around 16 million viewers across Comcast and Insight cable providers.[2] The multi-platform approach was designed to appeal to different viewing habits, with the linear channel focused on variety, and the on-demand services focused on instantaneous access to specific programs. The linear service was designed around dayparted programming blocks, featuring activities and other feature segments presented by on-air hosts. Some of these segments were designed to promote supplemental content (including activities and interactive features) on Sprout's website.[2]
Sprout chose to not follow the convention of bundling short-form series into half-hour episodes with interstitial segments for U.S. broadcast, electing to air such programs individually in their original format. Andrew Beecham, a former director of worldwide programming strategy for the Playhouse Disney brand, stated that with this practice, "you get to sample a huge variety of material. You'll get all these smaller shows that translate into something bigger." In September 2010, PBS Kids Sprout launched a high definition simulcast feed.[3]
Effects of Comcast/NBCUniversal merger[edit]
Comcast acquired a 51% majority stake of NBCUniversal in January 2011, and would assume full ownership of the company in 2013. As a result, Comcast's interest in Sprout was turned over to the company. When Apax Partners sold HIT Entertainment to Mattel on October 24, 2011, HIT's ownership interest in Sprout was never included in the deal and was retained by Apax Partners.[4] In December 2012, Sesame Workshop sold its interest in Sprout to NBCUniversal, which in turn later acquired Apax and PBS's shares in the network on March 19, 2013 and November 13, 2013 respectively, therefore giving Comcast full ownership. Its operations were then merged into its NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary.[5] As a result of Comcast earning full ownership of the brand, the "PBS Kids" branding was dropped from the network's name (leaving the network as simply Sprout), and operations were moved from Philadelphia to New York City.[6][7][8][9]
On July 7, 2012, Sprout began to produce a Saturday morning block for NBC aimed at preschoolers, NBC Kids, along with MiTelemundo, a Spanish-dubbed version of the block airing on sister network Telemundo that airs on weekend mornings, which replaced Qubo (a recent joint venture between NBCUniversal, Ion Media, Corus Entertainment, Scholastic, and Classic Media),[10][11] which had been airing on NBC and Telemundo since September 2006.[12][13]
Under NBCUniversal ownership, the channel began to shift away from its original focus on library content, and invested more heavily in original programming to displace older, licensed content to better compete with fellow preschool-oriented pay-TV networks Disney Junior and Nick Jr. Under NBCUniversal, programs seen on the network such as The Chica Show earned increased visibility airing on NBC as part of the NBC Kids block.[14][15]
In mid 2016, it was announced that Sandy Wax would be leaving NBCUniversal at the end of 2016. Deirdre Brennan, formerly of Corus Entertainment, was named the new president of Sprout.[16]
Universal Kids Preschool[edit]
Universal Kids Preschool is a daytime block on Universal Kids. It runs from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekends).[17] Up until January 26, 2018, the block utilized the network's former name, Sprout.[17][not in citation given] Deirdre Brennan emphasized that Universal Kids would continue to focus on its preschool programming, stating that "the greatest thing is, there is nothing to fix there. Sprout is a beautiful brand. If anything, we want to invest more in original production. There is more we can explore there."[18]
Prior to the Universal Kids rebranding, the network replaced its long-running morning block Sunny Side Up with Sprout House (renamed Snug's House in 2018), which debuted on August 14, 2017 and is hosted by Carly Ciarrocchi and the new character Snug, a talking dog portrayed by puppeteer Chris Palmieri, through 90-second segments throughout the block. The program was designed to be more flexible to produce than its predecessor, with a different "tiny house" set with additional areas and camera options. Unlike Sunny Side Up, the segments are pre-recorded instead of broadcast live; supervising producer Vinny Steves felt that the live format was too "limiting", and stated that the new format was also designed to enable the segments to be distributed on digital platforms such as social media. With the launch of Sprout House, the network began to downplay its longtime mascot, Chica, although she will continue to be featured in certain segments (such as Chica at School).[17]
Since 2017, the network has been bringing back older shows that aired on its channel when it was originally known as Sprout. The Wiggles on June 5, 2017, Barney & Friends on December 17, 2018 and The Chica Show on May 20, 2019.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Comcast, HIT Entertainment, PBS and Sesame Workshop Announce Plans to Launch Ground-breaking 24-hour Preschool Children's Television Channel" (Press release). Arlington, VA: PBS. 2004-10-20. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Saluting Sprout's Launch: PBS Sprouts a Kids Triumph". TVWeek. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ Goldman Getzler, Wendy (May 10, 2010). "Sprout grows with HD channel". Kidscreen. Retrieved 2020-03-20. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Braude, Jonathan (October 24, 2011). "Apax sells Hit Entertainment to Mattel". The Deal. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- ↑ Jensen, Elizabeth. "NBCUniversal Takes Full Ownership of Sprout Cable Network". New York Times. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
- ↑ "Governor Cuomo Announces that NBCUniversal's Sprout the First 24-Hour Preschool Network Will Relocate to New York City". Retrieved October 26, 2014.
- ↑ "Sprouting her wings". Philadelphia Inquirer. June 8, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
- ↑ Nordyke, Kimberly (November 13, 2013). "NBCUniversal Acquires Ownership of Kids' Channel Sprout". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
- ↑ Hagey, Keach (November 13, 2013). "NBCUniversal Buys Remainder of Sprout Network". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
- ↑ Luis Clemens (February 16, 2008). "Qubo's Rodriguez: Offering a 'Building Block' to Kids". Multichannel News. Reed Business Information. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
- ↑ James, Meg (28 April 2016). "Comcast's NBCUniversal buys DreamWorks Animation in $3.8-billion deal". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
- ↑ "NBC Will Launch NBC Kids, a New Saturday Morning Preschool Block Programmed by Sprout®, Saturday, July 7". MarketWatch. March 28, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ↑ Rubino, Lindsay (March 28, 2012). "NBC, With Assist From Sprout, to Launch Saturday Morning Preschool Block". MultiChannel News. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ↑ Jensen, Elizabeth. "NBC Universal Takes Full Ownership of Sprout Cable Network". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
- ↑ "In Brand Refresh, Children's TV Network Drops Barney and Thomas for Original Shows". Adweek. September 15, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedksn-unikids - ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Steinberg, Brian (2017-08-10). "NBCUniversal Builds 'Sprout House,' Hopes Kids Will Visit". Variety. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedthr-launchprograms
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