Cartoon Network is a Latin American pay television channel distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery for the Latin American audience, and the Caribbean. It is the Latin American version of the original Cartoon Network television channel in the United States. It is divided into five feeds, all originating from its central headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, United States; four are in Spanish (Mexico, Argentina/Uruguay, Chile/Peru, Colombia/Venezuela/Central America), and the other is in Portuguese for Brazil. The feeds have different schedules.
It primarily airs cartoons and animated programming, marketed towards children and teens. Operated in Argentina by Turner Broadcasting System Latin America, it began broadcasting on April 30, 1993, as the first children-oriented cable channel available in the region. Argentina and Mexico had previously launched children's cable channels (The Big Channel and Cablín in Argentina, and ZAZ in Mexico; all of which are now defunct), but they were only available in their respective countries.
History
Cartoon Network began broadcasting in Latin America on April 30, 1993, becoming the first 24-hour children's animation channel in the region. Although much is not known about its first broadcast in the region, its beginnings were similar to its U.S. counterpart, whose programming focused solely on the classic cartoons of the Turner Entertainment film library, made up of studios Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Warner Bros. and Fleischer Studios. Its programming and graphics used at that time were the same as the U.S. feed, with the difference that between 1993 and 1995, the Latin American feed was just a Spanish-language feed from the United States, which was broadcast exclusively to the region. It was not until 1996 that this feed became completely independent of the US feed, and this began to have its own programming with its own schedules, as well as new worldwide acquisitions for the channel.
In 1996, it began broadcasting its first original series, beginning with Space Ghost Coast to Coast, an original reinvention of Hanna-Barbera's superhero, which gained the popularity of adult audiences. In addition, new original channel series were incorporated at that time, known as Cartoon Cartoons: Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls and Ed, Edd and Eddy, which became the channel's flagship series.
In 2001, Cartoon Network made the first edition of Copa Toon, a soccer special featuring the cast of Space Ghost, whose theme was to interview several personalities from the world of sports and soccer, in addition to presenting a fictional tournament between the teams of the channel series. In that same year, it launched its new sister channel Boomerang, at that time, a new channel that would be dedicated solely to broadcast of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons that no longer aired in the programming of the main channel due to the arrival of new series. This channel had already been launched in 2000 in the United States, and until then, it was also a block broadcast in the main channel.
In January 2005, Cartoon Network introduced a new logo along with a new visual branding known as the "CN City", with a new slogan We know what you really like (Spanish: Sabemos lo que realmente te gusta; Portuguese: Nós sabemos do que você realmente gosta). and with this rebrand, Cartoon Network introduced new original series such as Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, besides new acquisitions and programming blocks. In October of the same year, the Adult Swim block was released in Latin America after 4 years of being released in the United States, The block debuted due to the popularity of the TV Series Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
In March 2008, Cartoon Network presented its new locally produced content, a new campaign with a new image and a complete redesign of its websites. After these changes, the Adult Swim block was removed from the channel due to Jim Samples resigning in 2007 and the Programming Manager Cindy Kerr also leaving being succeeded by Pablo Zuccarino. However, the block continued to be broadcast by I.Sat until December 2010; years later, the block returned to the same channel in April 2015 until April 2020, when this block was moved to Warner Channel.