The Cartoon Network is launched.
Cartoon Network is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by The Cartoon Network, Inc., a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, itself being a subsidiary of Time Warner. It was founded by Betty Cohen and launched on October 1, 1992.
The channel primarily broadcasts children’s shows, mostly animated programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It is primarily aimed at children and young teenagers between the ages of 7 to 15, and targets older teens and adults with mature content during its late night daypart Adult Swim, which is treated as a separate entity for promotional purposes and as a separate channel by Nielsen for ratings purposes. It operates daily from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. A Spanish language audio track for select programs is accessible via second audio programing; some cable and satellite companies offer the Spanish feed as a separate channel by removing the main English-language audio track. It is also the related channel of Turner-owned Boomerang.As of January 2016, Cartoon Network is available to approximately 94.0 million pay television households in the United States.
On October 1, 1992, Cartoon Network played “The Star Spangled Banner” and a video of a person placing a dynamite in a field and then blowing the dynamite up, the channel’s launch then occurred on that day and was hosted by the MGM cartoon character Droopy in a special event called Droopy’s Guide to the Cartoon Network, during which the first cartoon on the network, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, was shown.
Initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros. cartoons, the 1933–1957 Popeye cartoons, MGM cartoons, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. At first, cable providers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Detroit carried the channel. By the time the network launched, Cartoon Network had an 8,500-hour cartoon library.From its launch until 1995, the network’s announcers said the network’s name with the word “The” added before “Cartoon Network”, thus calling the network “The Cartoon Network”. By the time that the network debuted, Cartoon Network also operated a programming block that aired on TNT, entitled “Cartoon Network on TNT”.