Sprout (TV channel) (Johnsonverse)

Sprout (formerly known as PBS Kids Sprout) is an American pay television channel owned by WBC Networks.
The channel first launched on September 26, 2005, originally a joint venture between PBS, Comcast, Sesame Workshop, and Johnson Industries (via its HiT Entertainment division), devoted to children's television programming aimed at a preschool (and a bit later, primary school) audience. Following Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, Johnson 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 San Jose, and the "PBS Kids" name was dropped from its branding.
It is available to approximately 56 million American pay television households (48.2% of households with television) in the United States as of January 2016.
== Background ==
Sprout traces its origins to the PBS Kids network (referred to as the PBS Kids Channel in press materials), which launched on September 6, 1999 coinciding with the rebranding of PTV, PBS’ children's programming block, to PBS Kids that day. The PBS Kids feed was available on high-tier subscription providers, and was also offered to PBS member stations for use on a "cablecast" service (a subscription-based local channel provided by the member station) or for use on the member station's free-to-air analog channel to provide a portion of the daytime PBS Kids programming on the station. Participating stations were required to pay an annual fee of $1,000 to use the feed. At launch, 32 PBS member stations had signed up to use the service. The channel was partly created to compete against Nick Jr. and its sister network Noggin; at the time, Noggin was co-owned by the Children's Television Workshop (the production company behind Sesame Street) and Nickelodeon. Because the pay-TV rights to the Children's Television Workshop's programs were owned by Noggin, the channel did not broadcast any CTW programming, including longtime PBS staple Sesame Street, though an exception was made with Dragon Tales (which premiered on the same day as the launch of the PBS Kids Channel).
The channel was unsuccessful and had only reached 9 million households as of 2002, compared to Noggin's 23.3 million households at the time. Once the channel shut down on September 26, 2005 (alongside PBS YOU), many member stations which had been using the PBS Kids channel on their cablecast channels or free-to-air digital subchannels continued to operate their children's channels as local services scheduled independently of a satellite feed, while other member stations shut down their kids channels entirely and redirected viewers of those channels to the newly launched PBS Kids Sprout. PBS later revived the PBS Kids Channel on January 16, 2017, this time being structured as a multi-platform service with an online streaming option in addition to utilizing largely the same distribution methods that had been used for the original channel.
== History ==
=== PBS era ===
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 (formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop) to launch a then-unnamed subscription-based channel aimed at preschool children.
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 ad-supported, but ads would only air between programs in small quantities, and would be aimed towards parents and caregivers.
The linear network officially launched on September 26, 2005, with a reach of around 16 million viewers across Comcast and Insight cable providers. 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.
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."
As plans for a channel version of PBS Kids’ “PBS Kids GO!” block were cancelled, Sprout slowly began widening its daytime audience by airing shows (including several from PBS Kids) that target slightly older audiences (while still not as old as the nightly “One for the Big Sprouts” block).
A high-definition simulcast feed launched in September 2010 on Comcast's default 1080i resolution format. Currently, the network's entire original programming roster post-2010 is carried in high definition, along with most airings of films. Available on the vast majority of pay television providers, it is downscaled at the provider headend level to provide a standard definition equivalent for those systems.
=== Johnson era ===
In December 2012, Sesame Workshop sold its interest in Sprout to Johnson, which in turn later acquired PBS's and Comcast's shares in the network on November 13, 2013, therefore giving Johnson full ownership. Its operations were then merged into its Johnson Television subsidiary. As a result of Johnson 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 San Jose.
In 2014, the Sprout Sharing Show block was phased out in favor of the somewhat older-skewing Growing Sproutlets Show. (Characters from the former block, etc. are still in the Sprout canon) With this block being a live block, this marks the first time Sprout has had two live blocks on air at once. Johnson worked to make sure that the hosts of this new block didn’t come off as condescending or too excited to the slightly older audience of this block.
Under Johnson, aside from acquiring several older-skewing PBS Kids shows, Sprout saw a greater push towards shows from outside the US, most notably at least somewhat older shows. It also began expanding internationally in 2013 after Johnson's acquisition of Sprout with the Cartoonito name and branding from Cartoon Network gradually replaced with Sprout. Its on-air graphics package was changed as well.
== Programming ==
The network primarily airs primary/preschool-oriented shows, with an evening programming block known as "One for the Big Sprouts" airing shows aimed at older children in the overnight hours after The Good Night Show.
=== Programming blocks ===
==== Current ====
* The Good Night Show
* The Let's Go Show
* The Sunny Side Up Show
*The Super Sproutlets Show
==== Former ====
*Sprout Sharing Show
*etc.
=== Original/PBS Kids shows ===
* Bob the Builder
* Clifford the Big Red Dog
* Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat
* Dragon Tales
* Thomas & Friends
* Sesame Street
* George Shrinks
* The Berenstain Bears (2003 series)
* Seven Little Monsters
* Teletubbies
* Caillou (seasons 2-5 only)
* Barney & Friends
* Wishbone
* Super Why!
* Sid the Science Kid
* Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
* Theodore Tugboat
* The Electric Company (classic series; pulled from reruns after the Bill Cosby allegations)
* Arthur
* Zoboomafoo
* Cyberchase
* WordGirl
* Marlene
* The Big Comfy Couch (excluding season 7)
* Curious George
* The Puzzle Place
* Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
* Shining Time Station
* Reading Rainbow
* The Mini-Munks
* Made By Maddie
=== Acquired programming ===
* Bluey
* Kipper
* Maisy
* Fireman Sam
* Angelina Ballerina (original series only)
* The Rubbadubbers
* Dick Spanner, PI
* Pingu (original series only)
* Postman Pat (first two seasons and 1991 specials only)
* The Magic School Bus (1994-97 and 2017-2022 runs)
* Muppet Babies (1984-91 run)
* Shaun the Sheep
* Fraggle Rock
* Bear in the Big Blue House
* Morph
* Captain Pugwash
* The Magic Roundabout (original Eric Thompson episodes only)
* The Busy World of Richard Scarry
* George and Martha
* The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
* Bod
* What’s Your News?
* Stella and Sam
=== One for the Big Sprouts ===
* Thunderbirds
* Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
* The Transformers
* G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
* Danger Mouse
* Wacky Races
* The Rock-afire Explosion Show
* TUGS
* Ultra Q
* Ultraman
* Zone Fighter
* Dinosaur Squadron Zyuranger
* Five-Star Squadron Dairanger
* Ninja Squadron Kaukranger
* Redwall
* Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (first two seasons only)
* Trap Door
Category:Johnsonverse