Time Warner is banking on some of its oldest stars to breathe new life into a cable network that has aired only reruns over the course of its 15-year history.
Scooby Doo first appeared on TV in 1969 and Bugs Bunny debuted in 1938 and 1940, but the company believes the two characters have enough strength in their limbs to carry a retooled version of Boomerang, the kids network that is part of Time Warner’s Turner unit, to new levels in an extremely competitive arena.
Sister unit Warner Bros. will develop 450 half-hours of original programming for Boomerang, in an agreement that marks the first time original programming has been developed exclusively for the network, which was borne out of a programming block on Turner’s Cartoon Network in the 1990s. The content will appear on all Boomerang channels worldwide and on some Cartoon Network channels internationally, along with potential crossover with Turner Broadcasting outlets like Pogo, Boing, Toonami and the U.S. version of Cartoon Network.
Time Warner in October said it would relaunch Boomerang by offering original programming while continuing to rely on vintage cartoons featuring such stars as Tom and Jerry as well as older Cartoon Network fare like “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.” The network is also selling advertising for the first time in its history.
Efforts to lend more wind to Boomerang reflect the furious scrum among media companies to lure the youngest viewers — kids and pre-teens — to their fare. The rise of new kinds of digital media, including subscription-video-on-demand and streaming video, has given rise to new habits for viewing content, many of them adopted very quickly by younger consumers.
