Boomerang (TV Channel)

Boomerang is an American cable television network and streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Boomerang debuted in 1992 as a programming block on Cartoon Network, dedicated to classic animation from the WB library (including Warner Bros. Cartoons and Hanna-Barbera productions, among many others), and was eventually spun-off into its own separate network in 2000. In the late 2000s, Boomerang would engage in drift by airing more modern and contemporary programming, including reruns of shows that were either acquired or produced for Cartoon Network. A 2015 relaunch (which aimed to promote Boomerang as a "second flagship" brand alongside Cartoon Network) saw Boomerang begin to produce its own original programming, focusing primarily on reboots of popular franchises such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Scooby-Doo''. In 2017, Boomerang launched its own subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service.

As of September 2018, Boomerang is available to approximately 38.312 million pay television households in the United States.

History

Turner Broadcasting System built up an extensive catalogue of MGM and early Warner Brothers cartoons in the 1980s. These made up much of the extensive children's programming on TBS and TNT, which was phased out after the creation of the Cartoon Network on October 1, 1992.

''Boomerang'' was created as a new home for these and similar cartoons. It originated as a programming block on Cartoon Network that debuted on December 8, 1992. It originally aired for four hours every weekend, but the block's start time had changed frequently. The Saturday block moved to Saturday afternoons, then back to the early morning, and the Sunday block moved to Sunday evenings. Eventually, Boomerang was shortened by an hour, reducing it from four hours to three each weekend.

With Cartoon Network downplaying its archival programming in favor of newer original series, Turner Broadcasting System introduced a standalone Boomerang cable channel on April 1, 2000. The Cartoon Network block continued to run under the new Boomerang channel branding until October 3, 2004.

On February 4, 2014, as part of Turner Broadcasting's 2014 upfronts, it was announced that Boomerang would become advertising-supported, seeking additional international distribution. In October 2014, Cartoon Network unveiled a global rebranding for Boomerang, which first launched in Latin America in late September, and arrived in the United States on January 19, 2015. Alongside the previously-announced plan to introduce advertising, the network planned to introduce original programming for the first time, and place a particular focus on the archive's most well-known franchises with an explicitly family-friendly approach. Turner executives described the changes as being an effort to grow Boomerang into a "second flagship" on par with the main Cartoon Network channel.

In 2017, an online Boomerang video-on-demand service was launched. In 2018, 3rd Annual Shorty Social Good Awards nominated Boomerang and Captain Planet Foundation for Best in Entertainment. May 2020 saw the launch of HBO Max, a general entertainment video-on-demand service from Boomerang's corporate parent that includes much of Boomerang's programming.

Programming

Historically, Boomerang avoided overt channel drift and, despite adding newer content to its library, continued to air programming from the breadth of its archives. By spring 2014, however, most of its archival programming was relegated to graveyard slots while the daytime schedule became dominated by programming from the 1990s and later. This policy underwent a partial reversal in April 2017, with a larger focus on shows from the 2010s, before older Cartoon Network series returned to Boomerang's schedule from January 2018 to May 2019, and again in half-hour time slots in September 2020. ''Tom and Jerry'', ''Looney Tunes'', ''The Smurfs'', and various entries in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise have more or less had permanent places on the schedule since the rebrand, while previous network mainstays ''The Flintstones'' and ''The Jetsons'' returned in a late-night time slot in July 2018 before leaving the schedule again in November of that year.

Not all of the Warner Bros. animation library is exclusive to Boomerang. A portion of that library which includes series produced in collaboration with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment (including ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' and most of ''Animaniacs''), as well as most works involving Batman and Superman (such as the DC Animated Universe), is put out for license to other networks; those properties most recently aired on the Hub Network from late 2012 until its closure in October 2014. In addition, Warner Bros.'s collection of Christmas specials — including the latter half of the Rankin/Bass Productions library — is licensed to AMC for their Best Christmas Ever block as of 2018; those specials previously aired on Freeform and its predecessors for nearly 20 years, as part of their 25 Days of Christmas lineup. In 2019, former channel fixture ''The Flintstones'' was licensed out to MeTV; in 2021, that network introduced two morning blocks that feature Warner Bros. and Paramount Global content (including ''Looney Tunes''/''Merrie Melodies'', ''Popeye

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