Cartoon Network

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Cartoon Network is a cable television network, primarily showing animation series. It premiered in 1992 in the US, in 1993 in the UK and Latin America, and in 1995 in Australia.

Cartoon Network was created as an outlet for Turner Broadcasting's considerable library of animation, and the initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of re-runs of classic Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons, with many Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons used as time fillers. Most of the short cartoons were aired in half-hour or hour-long packages, usually sorted by character or studio.

In 1996, Time Warner purchased Turner Broadcasting, and with it the Cartoon Network. The Cartoon Network gained access to the complete Warner Bros. cartoon library, which had not been under one owner since 1957.

Time Warner changed the direction of Hanna-Barbera Productions (the production studio now known as Cartoon Network Studios), and focused the studio exclusively on creating new material for the Cartoon Network channel. These productions include: Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and The Powerpuff Girls, and more recently Codename: Kids Next Door, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Camp Lazlo. To free up air time for new shows, the listed classics were retired - in large part moved to the nostalgia-themed Boomerang sister network.

The Cartoon Network has shown cartoons from other studios such as Ed, Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Mike, Lu & Og, Sheep in the Big City and Codename: Kids Next Door.

In recent years, Cartoon Network has also made attempts to attract viewers outside its core audience (young children about 8 years old). Their Saturday-night cartoon block Toonami consists of acceptable-for-preteens and -teens anime from Japan, as well as some American animation, while a late-night cartoon block called Adult Swim shows more risqué, teenage- and adult-oriented cartoons.