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Variety

Cable Channel Launches Micro-Network for Smartphones

Oct 9, 2014  •  Post A Comment

A popular cable channel has a new service aimed at retaining viewers as they go mobile.

“Turner’s Cartoon Network has debuted Cartoon Network Anything, a recasting of the network’s brand for smartphones stocked with micro-bursts of snackable content — an effort to hang on to its core audience of kids as they increasingly shift toward mobile and watch less traditional TV,” Variety reports.

The new content service, offered for iOS and Android smartphones, focuses on “bite-size” programming of 10 to 15 seconds in length, the story notes. “The mix includes video snippets from the net’s shows, including ‘Adventure Time,’ ‘Regular Show,’ ‘Gumball’ and ‘Teen Titans Go,’ along with an array of games, videos, polls, quizzes, trivia and puzzles,” the piece reports.

The Variety report adds: “The new micro-network is targeted at Cartoon’s core demo of boys 6-11. One of the goals is to drive kids back to the core TV channel by promoting on-air properties. But there’s also an opportunity to grow digital revenue through the offshoot, according to Cartoon Network VP of digital Chris Waldron.”

Said Waldron: “We had the idea of taking content and miniaturizing it.” He adds: “This is more focused for that smaller time window — it’s for a different moment.”

McDonald’s has signed on as the launch sponsor for the free app, which came out today on the iTunes App Store and Google Play, the report notes.

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One Comment

  1. Argh… I’ve kids in that core demo. They DON’T want snippets! They want to watch entire episodes, which are already “bite-sized” as they’re only 11-22 minutes long. They feast on Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and On Demand for them and even download them off iTunes for when they’re away from wifi, so why would they show any interest in something that’s as short as a network bump to commercial?

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