Universal Kids (formerly Sprout) (TALKBACK)

TheWolfPup2006

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Same, just... why do they play their shows SO MUCH? Mighty Mike only has 26 half-hour episodes, yet runs for 4 hours every day! They're running through their entire rotation TWICE in a single week!
IKR!? Now, I like Mighty Mike a bit. It's a pretty good show tbh. It's just.... Universal Kids totally needs to step up their game and add more variety (like add a bit more DreamWorks shows for example).
 

ThomasSirHandel

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Honestly Universal Kids needs another re-brand at this point. Maybe they can become Peacock Kids and air some of the kids stuff they have on Peacock and maybe add Sprout back as a block. Maybe also bring back Barney, the original Bob the Builder and Classic Thomas to the mix as those will get them plenty of views. They don't need to show hours of the same programs

What I would keep:
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
All Hail King Julian
DreamWorks Dragons
Puss in Boots

What I would bring back:
Barney & Friends (Seasons 1-8)
Bob the Builder (Original Series and Project Build It, all episodes in US version)
Classic Thomas the Tank Engine (Seasons 1-7, all episodes in US version)
Make Way for Noddy
Kipper
Roary the Racing Car
The Berenstain Bears (2003)
Pingu
Teletubbies (Original Series)
Play With Me Sesame
The Furchester Hotel
The Sunny Side Up Show (rebooted as a half hour program)
The Good Night Show (rebooted as a half hour program)

What I would add:
Postman Pat
Theodore Tugboat
The Penguins of Madagascar

What I would axe:
Barney & Friends (Seasons 10-14)
Cocomelon
Mighty Mike
Trolls
Masha and the Bear
 

CNC

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Someplace, USA
Meh. I’d rather see NBCU shut this whole channel down for good. No point in keeping this alive anymore.

I mean, they’re already gonna shut down NBCSN at the end of this year. So why not this channel, too? Wasting so much money on running a cable TV channel that nobody watches anymore!
 

Mandouga

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Meh. I’d rather see NBCU shut this whole channel down for good. No point in keeping this alive anymore.

I mean, they’re already gonna shut down NBCSN at the end of this year. So why not this channel, too? Wasting so much money on running a cable TV channel that nobody watches anymore!

How do you know nobody watches it?…

Anyway, if something does have to happen on this channel, then personally, I think a better idea, if anything, is to just go back to being back Sprout. I believe at heart, the way the schedules worked, at least at the beginning, was more along the lines of what Sprout’s schedules were like. I would however be against renaming it “Universal Family” or something like that. That’s ultimately asking for trouble. We already have Discovery Family, not to mention all of the Hallmark channels, as well as UPTV, and other, similar channels I might have missed. Simply put, whatever Universal Kids decides to do, if they do do anything, it’s my hope that they don’t become another part of the crowd: a “family” network that either focuses slightly more on the parents, or tries too hard to be “neutral”.


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Goldstar!

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How do you know nobody watches it?…
Not exactly nobody, but less than 1 million viewers per day isn't good.
Anyway, if something does have to happen on this channel, then personally, I think a better idea, if anything, is to just go back to being back Sprout. I believe at heart, the way the schedules worked, at least at the beginning, was more along the lines of what Sprout’s schedules were like. I would however be against renaming it “Universal Family” or something like that. That’s ultimately asking for trouble. We already have Discovery Family, not to mention all of the Hallmark channels, as well as UPTV, and other, similar channels I might have missed. Simply put, whatever Universal Kids decides to do, if they do do anything, it’s my hope that they don’t become another part of the crowd: a “family” network that either focuses slightly more on the parents, or tries too hard to be “neutral”.
We're not going to see an "all kids" linear TV channel anytime soon, for the simple fact that kids don't have control over the TV all day and all night long. After a certain hour, the kids go to bed and sponsors don't want to run kid-vid commercials during the hours when its target audience isn't awake to see them. That's considered to be a waste of advertising dollars. Even when Nickelodeon was first launched in 1979, it became Arts starting at 8PM (EST), and then after Arts spun off into its own separate channel, the Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E), that's when the Nick at Nite block was launched. Nick was never Nick 24/7.

Here's what I don't get: why doesn't Universal run it's cartoon library on this channel? Universal owns Woody Woodpecker and the other Walter Lantz cartoons, so it wouldn't cost the network a dime to air them, so why not? I'm not saying that doing this would save Univeral Kids, but honestly, what harm would such a move do?
 
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Tacomaster

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Here's what I don't get: why doesn't Universal run it's cartoon library on this channel? Universal owns Woody Woodpecker and the other Walter Lantz cartoons, so it wouldn't cost the network a dime to air them, so why not? I'm not saying that doing this would save Univeral Kids, but honestly, what harm would such a move do?
I guess it’s because kids aren’t interested in really old cartoons, though you could definitely run it on late nights targeting adults while kids themselves are asleep.
 

CartoonLover2604

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Here's what I don't get: why doesn't Universal run it's cartoon library on this channel? Universal owns Woody Woodpecker and the other Walter Lantz cartoons, so it wouldn't cost the network a dime to air them, so why not? I'm not saying that doing this would save Univeral Kids, but honestly, what harm would such a move do?
Probably because of low ratings and how unless you got a really profitable classic cartoon (Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, SpongeBob) nostalgia doesn't sell well on a kids channel during the day especially on a dying channel like this one.

though you could definitely run it on late nights targeting adults while kids themselves are asleep.
I sadly doubt Universal would consider this idea as much as I'd like to see it happen. It may actually get people interested in watching UK, (it would me).
 

Tacomaster

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Assuming Universal ACTUALLY CARED about UK… with CN becoming a wider audience family channel and abandoning its more boy-centered image it traditionally had, as well as DreamWorks being well known for numerous action shows that linear TV has a drought of… I think it would be a smart move to pivot UK more towards a boy-centered, action-heavy service along the lines of Disney XD or even Nicktoons.
 

Mandouga

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I guess it’s because kids aren’t interested in really old cartoons, though you could definitely run it on late nights targeting adults while kids themselves are asleep.

Absolutely not. The last thing this channel needs is to follow the Cartoon Network’s example (something the Nick Jr . channel tried a long time ago*). Besides, that whole “need to be in bed anyway” thing is an excuse anyway, but that’s another topic entirely…

*Especially important since, as Sprout, they were previously, a preschool channel (and again, could be one again if they wanted to).


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Tacomaster

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This is NOT the same as Adult Swim or NickMom. The cartoons being aired here are mostly child-friendly(the closest exception is some of the old Woody Woodpeckers and Rocky and Bullwinkles being aimed at adults in the same way that Looney Tunes was)- it’s only aimed at adults for nostalgia purposes. Like Qubo Night Owl.
 

Silverstar

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Absolutely not. The last thing this channel needs is to follow the Cartoon Network’s example (something the Nick Jr . channel tried a long time ago*). Besides, that whole “need to be in bed anyway” thing is an excuse anyway, but that’s another topic entirely…

*Especially important since, as Sprout, they were previously, a preschool channel (and again, could be one again if they wanted to).

What you call "an excuse" other folks (including many within the industry) call standard business combined with simple logic. I get that you have a hate-on for adult blocks on kids' channels for whatever reason, and that's fine, your prerogative., but let's keep it 100: it makes no sense to run kiddie shows after hours when the kiddos aren't in front of the TV to watch them, and just as, if not more importantly, kid-vid sponsors and advertisers don't want to run ads during those hours, and since it's ad revenue that pays for shows, well, there ya go. Why should NBCU cater to an audience that isn't there just to satiate some imaginary ideal? One, I might add, that's only held by a single person when a network wanting to stay afloat has to attract millions.

As for the prospect of UKids going back to just being Sprout. Not gonna happen. Sorry, but aside from the obvious reasons stated above, networks don't revert back to their old formats. Once a channel is changed, that's it. It may morph into something else, but it's not going to go back to a dead format. I'd love for Discovery Family to go back to being The Hub (particularly as it was in the first 2 years of The Hub) but it's not.
 

Bigawesome2000

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I feel like NBCUniversal should just put this channel out of its misery. If they actually want this to be a competitor to the other networks, they need to change a lot of things about how they are running it. Both in terms of the actual shows they are airing and the scheduling. I feel like getting rid of original shows was a big mistake. It might not be in the state it is today if they didn’t get rid of originals. Going off of what @Tacomaster said, I think it would be a good idea if UK tried to fit into that pre-teen boys category that CN was in before it started its family push. But above all else, I think the best thing to do right now, is to just end it. In my eyes, there’s no way to bring this channel up.
 

lowell

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Honestly Universal Kids needs another re-brand at this point. Maybe they can become Peacock Kids and air some of the kids stuff they have on Peacock and maybe add Sprout back as a block. Maybe also bring back Barney, the original Bob the Builder and Classic Thomas to the mix as those will get them plenty of views. They don't need to show hours of the same programs

What I would keep:
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
All Hail King Julian
DreamWorks Dragons
Puss in Boots

What I would bring back:
Barney & Friends (Seasons 1-8)
Bob the Builder (Original Series and Project Build It, all episodes in US version)
Classic Thomas the Tank Engine (Seasons 1-7, all episodes in US version)
Make Way for Noddy
Kipper
Roary the Racing Car
The Berenstain Bears (2003)
Pingu
Teletubbies (Original Series)
Play With Me Sesame
The Furchester Hotel
The Sunny Side Up Show (rebooted as a half hour program)
The Good Night Show (rebooted as a half hour program)

What I would add:
Postman Pat
Theodore Tugboat
The Penguins of Madagascar

What I would axe:
Barney & Friends (Seasons 10-14)
Cocomelon
Mighty Mike
Trolls
Masha and the Bear
Out of all that, NBCUniversal to this day actually owns:

Noddy and the rights to all the shows the character has to this day

Roary the Racing Car

Postman Pat

The Sunny Side Up Show

The Good Night Show

Other former Sprout/Universal Kids shows they owned:

Norman Picklestrips

The Land Before Time

Mighty Mustangs

Olivia

Nowhere Boys

Sprout Sharing Show

Fifi and the Flowertots

Noodle and Doodle

The Chica Show

One thing if you realize it, is that Noddy, Roary the Racing Car, Postman Pat, Olivia, Fifi and the Flowertots are actually in the ownership of DreamWorks Animation's library of acquired companies over the years pre-Comcast acquisition.

And to be fair, these are UK shows, they literally have a large catalog of US-based shows that they bought over the years as well.

Other UK-acquired properties that DreamWorks also owns are Little Charley Bear, Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, and Maisy Mouse so there's something to look at there.

The problem is not that Universal Kids should be relegated to a non-existent status but it's that NBCUniversal's powerful kids brand is now Dreamworks more than Universal.

It should literally be renamed Dreamworks Channel at this point and the entire Dreamworks library could be utilized for it at this point if it's going to be a mostly rerun-oriented channel.

Otherwise, if they're not revitalizing the shows into a new iteration or bringing those actual shows back to airing on the channel or being available for Peacock, most of that library content that NBCUniversal is just going to be collecting dust without being utilized. If Comcast didn't want that library, they would have sold it off after acquiring DreamWorks Animation.

If Dreamworks Animation Television is willing to & maybe a newly created television division for Illumination is created, they both could create an ambitious slate of shows for the network and Peacock.

Perhaps, the channel could even be a hybrid of DreamWorks and Illumination original shows and old titles from the DreamWorks library.

And beyond that, they could get original kids content that Sky's content production team in the UK actually produces for their channels and platforms, not anything that they licensed.

NBCUniversal has existing means to use its own content production capabilities and libraries to salvage this channel and Peacock's kids library. They just need to do that before looking at acquiring other shows for the network.
 

ThomasSirHandel

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I was thinking another thing they can do is revert back to Sprout (like how it was between 2005 to early 2011) but add a prime time block for their original Dreamworks shows which they can air during later night hours (similar to how Nick Jr once had Nick Mom) or even buy out the slot for Baby First and replace that with a new Sprout channel considering most find BabyFirst as invalid and the Universal Kids slot could be re-branded into Dreamworks Kids and this time air more stuff they have in their library.
 

lowell

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I was thinking another thing they can do is revert back to Sprout (like how it was between 2005 to early 2011) but add a prime time block for their original Dreamworks shows which they can air during later night hours (similar to how Nick Jr once had Nick Mom) or even buy out the slot for Baby First and replace that with a new Sprout channel considering most find BabyFirst as invalid and the Universal Kids slot could be re-branded into Dreamworks Kids and this time air more stuff they have in their library.
I think they might have permanently retired Sprout as a brand because they weren't able to realize they could implement it also elsewhere like the parks, for example.

This is why they could technically rebrand the channel to be the U.S. version of the DreamWorks Channel that's already in other countries.

It would be pulling a similar move WarnerMedia is doing with bringing the Cartoonito brand over to the U.S. (currently a block on CN but could see Discovery Family be turned into a full Cartoonito channel if it does happen).

If the channel's still going to be full of reruns all day, it wouldn't hurt to open the entire DreamWorks library full of acquired shows over the years to be aired on there.

It could just be that for NBCUniversal, overall original content for kids is primarily going to be theatrical films and exclusive shows made for Peacock by DreamWorks and Illumination from now on.

They might only just want to collect the cable/satellite distribution revenue from the channel without actually doing new programming that Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon are still doing.
 

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