4Kids TV (often stylized as 4K!DSTV and formerly known as FoxBox from September 14, 2002 to January 15, 2005) was an American
television programming block and
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
-based
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
children's network operated by
4Kids Entertainment
4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English- dub ...
. It originated as a weekly block on
Saturday mornings on the
Fox network, which was created out of a four-year agreement reached on January 22, 2002, between 4Kids Entertainment and Fox to lease the five-hour Saturday morning time slot occupied by the network's existing children's program block,
Fox Kids. It was targeted at children aged 7–11. The 4Kids TV block was part of the Fox network schedule, although it was
syndicated to other broadcast
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
s in certain markets where a Fox affiliate declined to air it.
History
The block aired a preview special on September 1, 2002, and was formally launched on September 14, 2002, under the name "FoxBox," a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
between the Fox Broadcasting Company and 4Kids Entertainment,
replacing
Fox Kids, which the network announced it would discontinue as a result of the 2001 purchase of
Fox Family Worldwide by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...
(which resulted in much of the content featured on the block moving to Disney's networks and blocks). The block was rebranded as 4Kids TV on January 22, 2005. 4Kids Entertainment was fully responsible for the content of the block and collected all of the advertising revenue accrued from it.
However, Fox's
standards and practices department still handled content approval and responsibility of editing the series to meet FCC broadcast standards.
The programming block aired on Saturday mornings in most areas of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, though some stations carried it on Sundays (often due to scheduling conflicts resulting from the block airing on stations affiliated with other minor networks that had their own older children's anime program blocks which competed with FoxBox/4Kids TV, including the
Kids' WB on
The WB and later
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
, and for its first year, the
Disney's One Too block on
UPN). On October 2, 2007, 4Kids Entertainment announced it would program a competing Saturday morning lineup for The CW, the new block, The CW4Kids (later renamed
Toonzai, with the original name becoming a secondary brand), premiered on May 24, 2008, replacing the
Kids' WB programming block, which had been carried over to The CW from one of its predecessors,
The WB, when it launched on September 23, 2006. The block was renamed as
Toonzai on August 14, 2010, and continued to air until it ended August 18, 2012, being replaced by
Vortexx a week later and the block continued to air until it ended on September 27, 2014.
On November 10, 2008, 4Kids Entertainment announced that 4Kids TV would conclude at the end of the year due to intervening conflicts between Fox and 4Kids, as the latter company had not paid the network for the time lease for some time, while the network was unable to maintain the guaranteed 90% clearance for the block due to affiliate refusals and an inability to secure secondary affiliates to carry the programming in markets where the Fox station denied clearance for the block. 4Kids TV ended on December 27, 2008. Fox announced that the four-hour time period would no longer be used for children's programming, owing that it was no longer viable due to the insurmountable competition from children's
cable channels (such as
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
,
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...
, and
Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...
). On January 3, 2009, the network gave two hours of the programming time that the 4Kids TV block occupied back to its affiliates, while the other two hours would be retained by the network for a
paid programming block titled ''
Weekend Marketplace'', which replaced 4Kids TV on January 3, 2009. The 4KidsTV logo now only exists as the closing logo for 4Kids Entertainment for shows produced by the company distributed outside of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
(particularly those made before the 2012 auction of most of 4Kids' assets to
Saban Brands).
Fox would reverse course and indirectly resume airing children's programming for the first time since 4Kids TV ended through an agreement announced on December 17, 2013, when it signed a deal with
Steve Rotfeld Productions
Steve Rotfeld Productions (SRP) is a television production, stock footage, and broadcast syndication company based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. The company was founded in 1986 by president Steve Rotfeld. SRP currently pr ...
to launch ''
Xploration Station'', a two-hour block of live-action educational programs focused on the
STEM fields, which debuted on September 13, 2014. As the block accounts for two of the three weekly hours of educational programming required by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
's
Children's Television Act
The broadcast of educational children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as the Children's Television Act (C ...
, the Fox affiliates that opted against airing 4Kids TV, Fox Kids, or ''Weekend Marketplace'' (including those
owned by the network that were acquired through its 1996 merger with
New World Communications
New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
and those acquired through that deal that were owned by
Tribune Broadcasting, now
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
) elected to run ''Xploration Station'' as it is an E/I-compliant lineup syndicated primarily to the network's affiliates, relieving them of taking on the full burden of purchasing educational programming aimed at children from the
syndication market (although some Fox stations, including those owned by the
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...
—the vast majority of its stations had carried Fox's previous children's blocks, decided to decline the block anyway due to existing commitments to syndicated programs compliant with Children's Television Act recommendations).
As of 2022, some former 4Kids TV shows such as ''
Yu-Gi-Oh!'' and ''
Sonic X'' are made available to stream on the free ad-supported
Tubi streaming service, which Fox acquired in April 2020. ''Sonic X'' is also available on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
as of December 2019, though only seasons 1 and 2. And also, ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is made available to stream on both the free ad-supported
Pluto TV and subscription-based
Paramount+ streaming services following that property's 2009 acquisition by
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
.
Programming
Former programming
Original programming
Acquired programming
Short-form programming
4KidsTV.com
Online network
4Kids launched an online video player on its website on September 8, 2007, and gradually added full-length episodes as well as additional video clips and online-exclusive content.
Relationship with Fox and broadcast ambiguities
The block had a somewhat infrequent relationship to the Fox network. The programming was produced for Fox and offered to the network's
owned-and-operated stations and
affiliates first, so the Fox station in any given area had the
right of first refusal. In the event that a Fox affiliate or in some cases, an O&O of the network—opted not to carry 4Kids TV, the block then became available for the local broadcast rights to be acquired by another television station. In fact, it was due in part to these carriage ambiguities that 4Kids dissolved the block in 2008, as they had been promised clearance on at least 90% of Fox's stations.
Most of Fox's owned-and-operated stations opted to carry 4Kids TV, these were mainly stations that had been owned by the network since Fox launched in October 1986 or were Fox charter affiliates that Fox Television Stations had acquired since that point. However dating back to the existence of the Fox Kids block, the twelve stations that Fox acquired from New World Communications in 1996 (and had earlier affiliated with the network through a
1994 multi-station affiliation deal—which prior to then, had been affiliated with
ABC,
NBC, or
CBS) generally did not air 4Kids TV. In some of the New World markets, 4Kids was not carried on any station. In a majority of these markets, an independent station carried the block; in others, it was carried by either a WB or
UPN affiliate, and later a
MyNetworkTV or CW affiliate. The only exception was in
St. Louis, Missouri, where Fox O&O (now affiliate)
KTVI carried the block (although it aired 4Kids TV two hours earlier that the network's recommended scheduling for the block, beginning at 5:00 a.m., due to the station's Saturday morning newscast).
Some of 4Kids TV's programming (such as ''
Winx Club'', ''
The Adrenaline Project'', ''
Magical DoReMi
, alternatively titled ''Magical DoReMi'' in English, is a Japanese magical girl anime television series created by Toei Animation. It focuses on a group of elementary school girls, led by Doremi Harukaze, who become witch appren ...
'', ''
Stargate Infinity'', reruns of ''
Back to the Future: the Animated Series'', and ''
Cubix'') met the criteria to be considered
educational and informational under the requirements defined by the Children's Television Act, and counted toward the three-hour-per-week mandatory educational children's programming quotas outlined by the Federal Communications Commission. Outside of Fox, 4Kids TV's programming aired reruns on
The WB every Sunday morning after a new episode aired on Saturday on Fox, and new episodes on The WB's children block
Kids' WB.
Markets where 4Kids TV did not run
Markets where 4Kids TV ran on a MyNetworkTV affiliate
Markets where 4Kids TV ran on a CW affiliate
''Note: These CW affiliates ran 4Kids TV on Sundays, due to their obligation to carry The CW4Kids Saturday block (or, as in the case of Atlanta CW affiliate WUPA, which ran The CW4Kids on Sundays
because of other programming airing on Saturdays).''
Markets where 4Kids TV ran on an independent station
See also
*
4Licensing Corporation
4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English- dub ...
– formerly known as 4Kids Entertainment.
*
Toonzai – children's program block produced by 4Kids for The CW from May 24, 2008 to August 18, 2012.
References
External links
FoxIMDb pagefor "The Fight for the Fox Box": a half-hour television special featuring multiple crossovers from various FoxBox shows.
{{DEFAULTSORT:4kids Tv
2002 American television series debuts
2005 American television series endings
2005 American television series debuts
2008 American television series endings
4Kids Entertainment
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2008
Television channels and stations established in 2002
Television programming blocks in the United States
Windows games