GENIUS BRANDS ANNOUNCED KARTOON CHANNEL!’S SLATE OF PROGRAMMING

Following the Monday launch of its new free digital Kartoon Channel! across multiple AVOD and OTT platforms, Genius Brands International announced the new programming slate of premium content for children 2 – 11 years-old and their families set to debut on the channel.

“Kartoon Channel!, our 24-hour, free, video on demand, children’s program service, went live with unprecedented distribution reach, and an unprecedented initial content lineup,”  said Andy Heyward, CEO of Genius Brands. “I am not aware of seeing another channel launch with such a volume of content, across such a broad range of platforms, penetrating virtually the entire United States TV household universe. We are loading our episodes as fast as possible across all platforms and expect to have over 4,000 episodes available by the end of this month. Similarly, we will expect all of our platforms to be rolling out with full delivery in the coming days,”  he added.

Among the initial 1,000 episodes of entertaining and enriching content offered on Kartoon Channel! is the animated short feature, “The Pig On The Hill”; the hugely successful “Angry Birds” series; “Baby Einstein” and the “Baby Einstein” shorts; as well as “Llama Llama” shorts, and the Minecraft-themed show, “Journey to the End”. The upcoming comedy-adventure series, “Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten,” currently in pre-production and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, will debut on Kartoon Channel! In the first quarter of 2021.

“A volume of content this large is not simply ‘flipping a light switch’. That is particularly so when we vet every single episode to make sure that it is compliant with our programming code developed by Stanford University Professor Emeritus Don Roberts, with whom Kartoon Channel!’s Program Code was developed in order to ensure the delivery of positive purposeful content that parents can always know will provide safe viewing for their children,”  Heyward continued.

Margaret Loesch, Executive Chairman of Kartoon Channel!, added: “Having produced and broadcasted thousands of children’s episodes across a number of the kids networks, we wanted to make Kartoon Channel! stand out as a brand, not just because it is free and available to everyone, but by putting on shows which tell positive stories. That is very very important to us”.