Spirited by its first president, Betty Cohen, and a core of creative talent, as well as the financial backing of the Turner Broadcasting System, Cartoon Network has grown exponentially in its short history. In the early years, before establishing its own original programming, Cartoon Network was able to challenge Nickelodeon, its greatest competition for the young-audience demographic, with little more than repackaged classic Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Within two and a half years of its launch, the network had already begun to turn a profit and was attracting double the viewing time of any other new basic cable network. In November 1994, after the adoption of the FCC’s “going forward” rules, virtually all basic cable channels increased their number of subscribers, but in 1995, Cartoon Network saw one of the largest increases in subscriptions. In 1994, Cartoon Network had 12.4 million viewers; in 2002, ten years after its launch, the network reached 80 million viewers nationally.

The network has had success internationally, as well, and in its first years the network often shared its international feeds with other Turner networks. In 1993 the network began broadcasting in Europe and Latin America. Already by 1994, Cartoon Network was broadcasting to 22 million homes in 29 countries in Europe alone. By 2001 Cartoon Network was running 24 hours and distributing internationally in 14 languages in 145 countries. International expansion has been easier for Cartoon Network than for many other American broadcast networks because its main programming products—animated shows—can be dubbed simply and inexpensively into a variety of languages.

Cartoon Network’s core audience is children, ages two through 11. Like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network quickly became known by children and their parents as a safe, 24-hour kid-friendly place on the dial. Some of its programs cater more to “tweens” (preteen children, approximately 9 through 12), an increasingly popular demographic for advertisers. And since its inception, a third of the network’s viewers have been adults (18–34). While some of these are parents, a number of adults turn to Cartoon Network as loyal cult followers of classic favorites or of the network’s more recent, innovative programming.

In 1991 Ted Turner purchased the Hanna-Barbera library, increasing a collection of animated programming that already included the MGM library, the Tom and Jerry cartoons, and pre-1950 Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons. In its first few years, Cartoon Network filled its schedule with programs from Turner’s vintage cartoon library. The network invested the profits from library programming into original production, and in April 1994, Cartoon Network’s first original program aired, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Still in production, Space Ghost Coast to Coast is not a series built around original cartoon characters and their adventures but a “talk show” hosted by a 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon superhero and modeled on major television networks’ late-night interview programs.

Cartoon Network’s original programming has continued to aim for the fearless, zany, and visually compelling, but programs have ultimately been chosen for their success and their marketability. In 1995 Cartoon Network began World Premiere Toons, a program of original cartoon shorts created as pilots for original series. Using its own audience as a focus group, the network hosted a contest in which viewers voted for their favorite cartoons. The top four shorts picked by viewers—Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, and Cow and Chicken—were the first half-hour series launched by the network. Dexter’s Laboratory, the network’s first original series, has remained among the network’s highest-rated programs since its debut in 1996. The series has been nominated for four Emmy Awards and has inspired a profitable line of licensed merchandise. The network has continued to use the Friday 7:30–11:00 P.M. time period as a key day-part for the launch and promotion of original programming.

The network’s greatest success has come with its original series The Powerpuff Girls, created and coproduced by Craig McCracken. The program stars three doe-eyed, six-year-old sisters with super powers who frequently excuse themselves from kindergarten in order to save their city, Townsville, from an array of nefarious villains. Since its premiere in November 1998, The Powerpuff Girls has been one of the network’s highest-rated programs among all its target demographics. The series has also become famous as a merchandising powerhouse: sales of Powerpuff merchandise exceeded $350 million in 2000 alone. A film based on the series, The Powerpuff Girls: The Movie, is the first full-length feature based on a Cartoon Network original series; it was produced at the Cartoon Network Studios.

In 1995 Turner Broadcasting System, Cartoon Network’s parent company, merged with Time Warner, which was itself purchased in 2000 by AOL. These mergers required an adjustment for Cartoon Network and for the entire TBS family of networks. Management changes included a structure in which network executives no longer reported directly to Ted Turner, and other changes affected programming and marketing possibilities. Still, the first merger gave Cartoon Network access to new Warner Brothers animation, and both transitions provided new avenues for joint advertisement deals and programming diversity, including cross-platform entertainment.

The network’s profitability can be attributed as much to its marketing strategies as its programming. By strongly branding itself through the use of extensive on- and off-air promotions, the treatment of its animated characters as celebrities, and the use of programming franchises, Cartoon Network has continued to increase its audience share. Through the use of savvy on-air promotions and franchised tie-ins, Cartoon Network has focused on making its audience dedicated, active fans. One campaign, “Dexter’s Duplication Summer,” garnered 35 million calls when the network asked audiences to vote by phone about whether to shift the program to a five-nights-a-week strip. The network has also put great effort into marketing campaigns with a number of its advertisers, tying its characters to packaged goods, fast food, clothing, and toys. Indeed, most Cartoon Network characters have their own line of licensed merchandise and many are used in promotions for the network or for tie-ins with commercial partners. Other marketing strategies for the network have focused on the treatment of animated characters as celebrities and the marketing of each program as an integrated entertainment experience. In recent years, the network has merged its advertising sales and promotions departments to provide a synergistic relationship for sponsors who may also wish to become promotional partners. In 1998 the same year its on-air promotional budget exceed $53 million, the network was named Advertising Age’s Cable TV Marketer of the Year.

In 2000 the network introduced “Cartoon Campaign 2000,” a mock presidential campaign promoted as a way to teach kids about the electoral process but that also served as a method for the network to gauge the popularity of its programs and characters. Another strategy, the “Total Immersion Cartoon” events, use games and prizes to attract viewers onto the network’s website. Cartoon Network has also been successful in using franchises, or particular packages of programming, to lure in viewers for a block of time, typically two to four hours. By combining a variety of programs from different studios, decades, and countries under a central theme and title, the network brands the programs as its own. “Toonami,” Cartoon Network’s weekday afternoon action-adventure lineup, for example, features a rotating series of Japanese animé. “Cartoon Theatre” is a twice-weekly presentation for contemporary animated films. And “Cartoon Cartoon Fridays,” the network’s Friday-night programming block, is designed to showcase back-to-back episodes of the network’s original animated series.

The most recent franchise, “Adult Swim,” is a new block of programming aimed at Cartoon Network’s adult audience. This block, which premiered in September 2001 and airs on Saturday and Sunday nights, takes advantage of the one-third of its audience falling into the adult demographic. Saturday evening features a variety of action-adventure programming and Japanese animé series. Sunday nights are dedicated to comedy, including several original programs and popular acquisitions. This block is marketed as distinct from the rest of the network’s programming, and often the types of advertisers represented reflect this more adult audience. With the help of “Adult Swim,” Cartoon Network has recently jumped up two ranks, to number eight among all advertising-supported basic cable networks delivering adult audiences, ages 18 to 34.

Some of Cartoon Network’s most recent original series have also earned both critical praise and ratings success, in part as the result of a $500 million investment in 2001 to develop and expand its original programming over a five-year period. Two of its most popular new programs are Samurai Jack and Justice League. Conceived by Cartoon Network veteran Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and coproducer of The Powerpuff Girls), Samurai Jack debuted in August 2001 and follows the adventures of an ancient warrior stuck in a time portal. Witty and rife with action, like many Cartoon Network programs, this series is distinctive for its cinematic storytelling and highly stylized visual design. Justice League, which premiered in November 2001, follows the premise and storyline of the DC Comics series of the same title. Beautifully stylized, the program brings together classic superheroes, including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, to fight crime and quash evildoers.

Cartoon Network has more recently integrated some of its programming and promotions with its sibling station, Kids’ WB, sharing programs and allowing certain franchises to migrate between the two networks. The network also continues to expand into the digital realm on its official website, and in April 2000 launched Boomerang, a companion digital network showing only classic cartoons from its expansive library of Hollywood-produced animation. This new network, which has attracted 4.5 million subscribers since its launch, is designed to target the baby-boomer generation eager to watch favorite cartoons from childhood. Cartoon Network also spent $50 million redesigning its website in 2000 and expanded its presence within the America Online portal. For each of its series the website features unique areas that include short animations and games. Visitors to the site can also enter the “Department of Cartoons” and view storyboards, model sheets, and an animation primer explaining how cartoons are created. The Powerpuff Girls section is the most popular area of the site, averaging more than 6 million page views a month in early 2002.

In July 2000, Betty Cohen, who first began at Turner Broadcasting System in 1988 as senior vice president/general manager of TNT, left her position as president of Cartoon Network Worldwide. Bradley Sigel, previously the president of general entertainment networks for TBS Inc., is currently president of Cartoon Network Worldwide.