Fox Kids
Fox Kids was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a joint venture between News Corporation and their Fox affiliated stations, they were later partnered with Saban Entertainment under the Fox Family Worldwide joint venture.
The Fox Kids brand originated on a programming block that launched on the Fox network from September 8, 1990 to September 7, 2002. The block aired on Saturday mornings throughout its existence, with an additional lineup on Monday through Friday afternoons airing until January 2002. Fox Kids is the only form of daytime television programming, outside of sports, aired by the Fox network to date. Following then-Fox parent News Corporation's sale of Fox Kids Worldwide to The Walt Disney Company in July 2001, Fox put the remaining Saturday morning timeslot up for bidding, with 4Kids Entertainment winning and securing the rights to program that period. The Fox Kids block continued to air until September 7, 2002, and was replaced the following week by the 4Kids-programmed FoxBox block.
Fox Kids was best known for airing the most-popular programs on the network, such as Bobby's World and the Power Rangers series, with the latter dominating the block's schedule with increased ratings and creating a franchise, resulting in Fox Kids frequently using Power Rangers for its promotions due to the shows' popularity.
Outside the United States, the first Fox Kids-branded television channel was launched in Australia on October 1, 1995, on cable and satellite television provider Foxtel. It then expanded to the United Kingdom and Ireland, launching on BSkyB in 1996, and after that it started broadcasts in Latin America on November of that same year. The channel expanded between 1997 and 2001 in Europe and Middle East, and beginning in 2004, the international Fox Kids channels were gradually relaunched under the Jetix brand following Disney's acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide.
History
According to James B. Stewart's book DisneyWar, Fox Kids' history is intertwined with that of the syndicated children's program block The Disney Afternoon. DuckTales, the series that served as the launching pad for The Disney Afternoon, premiered in syndication in September 1987, airing on Fox's owned-and-operated stations as well as various Fox affiliates in many markets. This may have been due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company's chief operating officer at the time, Michael Eisner, and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together at ABC and at Paramount Pictures.In 1988, Disney purchased independent television station KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, changing its call letters to KCAL-TV the next year. The station's new owners wanted DuckTales to be shown on KCAL, effectively taking the local television rights to the animated series away from Fox-owned KTTV. Furious at the breach of contract, Diller pulled DuckTales from all of Fox's other owned-and-operated stations in the fall of 1989. Diller also encouraged the network's affiliates to do the same, though most did not initially. As Disney went forward in developing The Disney Afternoon, Fox began the process of launching its own children's programming lineup.
Fox Kids was launched on September 8, 1990, as the Fox Children's Network, a joint venture between the Fox Broadcasting Company and its affiliates. Originally headed by division president Margaret Loesch, its programming aired for 30 minutes per day on Monday through Fridays, and for 3 hours on Saturday mornings.
In September 1991, the block was rebranded as the Fox Kids Network, with its programming expanding to 90 minutes on weekdays and 4 hours on Saturday mornings. The weekday editions of the block grew to three hours the following year.
In 1994, the Fox Kids brand extended to home video, where Fox Video launched a line, Fox Kids Video, initially releasing titles based on Bobby's World, and it was extended in 1995 to add three more shows based on the three series on the same network, Eek! the Cat, The Tick and Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. Two years later, it was extended further in 1997 to add shows from the CBS, Marvel and Saban libraries.
Scheduling
Throughout most of its history, Fox Kids aired several promos for its programs during commercial breaks, with no exact time slots announced for the shows. This was due to the programs airing at different times depending on the local Fox-affiliated station's schedule in the viewer's television market.By the fall of 1992, Fox Kids increased its schedule to three hours on Monday through Fridays, airing usually from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM local time, and four hours on Saturdays from 8:00 AM to noon Eastern and Pacific Time. Many stations split the weekday lineup programming into a one-hour block in the morning and a two-hour block in the afternoon, when network programs intertwined with syndicated children's lineups. Other stations aired all three hours combined in the afternoon due to their carriage of local morning newscasts and/or syndicated talk shows; stations that aired such programming in this case had dropped children's programs acquired via the syndication market, moving them to other "independent" stations. Very few Fox stations aired all three hours of the weekday block in the morning.
In 1992, Fox Kids began holding a "TV Takeover" event on Thanksgiving afternoon.
Broadcasting ambiguities
When Fox Kids launched, it was carried on virtually all of Fox's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates, with few declining to carry it. The first Fox station to drop the block was Miami affiliate WSVN, the network's first station to maintain a news-intensive format, in 1993.The following year, in May 1994, Fox signed a multi-station affiliation agreement with New World Communications to switch that company's CBS, ABC and NBC affiliates to the network between September 1994, and July 1995, in order to improve its affiliate coverage in certain markets after the National Football League awarded Fox the contract to the National Football Conference television package. Many of the stations owned by New World declined to carry the block in order to air syndicated programs aimed at older audiences or local newscasts. In certain cities with an independent station, or beginning with the launches of those networks in January 1995, affiliates of UPN and The WB, Fox contracted the Fox Kids block to air on one of these stations if a Fox owned-and-operated station or affiliate chose not to carry it. In some cases, Fox Kids would be carried on the same station as one of its two competing children's blocks, The WB's Kids' WB and UPN's UPN Kids block.
Between 1995 and early 1996, Fox acquired three former ABC-affiliated stations. Meanwhile, SF Broadcasting acquired three former NBC affiliates and one ABC affiliate during the summer of 1994. Those stations all aired early evening local newscasts, but wanted to continue to run general entertainment syndicated programming to lead into their news programs instead of cartoons; these stations opted to run Fox Kids one hour early, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. WGHP stopped airing the block in March 1996 after the station agreed to move it to WBFX. In August 1995, religious independent station KNLC assumed the rights to Fox Kids from KDNL-TV after KPLR-TV turned down; however, due to the station's decision to air public service messages from its owner's ministry about controversial topics in lieu of local advertisements, Fox pulled the block from KNLC in mid-1996. As a result, KTVI became the only Fox station that was involved in the network's 1994 deal with New World Communications to carry the block.
Much of the Fox Kids lineup's early programming was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, calling Fox Children's Network a "one-stop shop", essentially pulling out of the children's syndication market by signing a $100-million deal with Fox in May 1991. This meant they moved all their existing programming to Fox Kids. Two of Fox Kids' most popular programs, Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series, moved to The WB after that network launched in January 1995, though Batman: The Animated Series would remain on Fox Kids until 1997. Both Animaniacs and a slightly revamped Batman served as the linchpin of The WB's new children's block, Kids' WB, when it launched in September of that year.
In 1996, after having established a "strategic alliance" with Fox, Saban Entertainment merged with Fox Children's Productions to form a new company, Fox Kids Worldwide, with aims to become a public company and pursue international expansion. In 1997, the venture was renamed Fox Family Worldwide after it acquired International Family Entertainment—owner of the cable network The Family Channel, seeking a cable outlet for the Fox Kids programs to compete with services such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.
In 1998, Fox bought out its affiliates' interest in Fox Kids as part of a deal to help pay for the network's NFL package. The Fox Kids weekday block was reduced to two hours, and in an effort to help its affiliates comply with the recently implemented educational programming mandates defined by the Children's Television Act, reruns of former PBS series The Magic School Bus were added to the lineup. In 2000, affiliates were given the option of pushing the block up one hour to air from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM rather than 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM In the six or so markets where a Fox affiliate carried Fox Kids and carried an early evening newscast at 5:00 PM, the station was already running the block an hour early by 1996. Some affiliates would tape delay the block to air between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, one of the lowest-rated time periods on U.S. television. A few only aired The Magic School Bus in this sort of daytime slot as an act of malicious compliance with the Children's Television Act. Fox Kids fought vehemently against the E/I rule during its development.