Qubo
Qubo was an American television brand for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, and previously a joint venture that also included NBCUniversal, Corus Entertainment, Scholastic Corporation, and DreamWorks Classics, the brand consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often referred to as Qubo Channel, an associated website with games and programs available through video on demand, and a series of programming blocks on Ion Television, Ion Plus, NBC and Telemundo.
Following Ion Media's acquisition by the E. W. Scripps Company, Qubo Channel closed on February 28, 2021.
History
Formation
On May 8, 2006, Ion Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Corus Entertainment, Scholastic Corporation and Classic Media announced plans to launch a new, multi-platform children's entertainment brand oriented towards providing "educational, values-oriented programming" targeted towards children between 5 and 14 years of age. Originally announced under the name Smart Place for Kids, the official name Qubo was announced in August 2006. The brand would encompass programming blocks on NBCUniversal and Ion's respective flagship broadcast television networks, a video on demand service, a website, and a standalone 24-hour network carried as a digital subchannel on terrestrial television stations owned by Ion Media Networks and by pay TV providers.Qubo president Rick Rodríguez stated in a 2008 interview with Multichannel News that Qubo was designed as a bilingual brand, offering programming in both English and Spanish. While Qubo would initially carry Spanish-language dubs of its programming for its Telemundo block, Rodríguez did not rule out the possibility of developing original children's programming aimed at Hispanic and Latino audiences through Qubo. He felt that the market for Spanish-language children's programming had been underserved by existing outlets, and envisioned the possibility of programming which could "bridge the gap" and educate Spanish-speaking children on the English language, and vice versa.
The Qubo brand was intended to represent a "building block for kids," as reflected by its logo. The name "Qubo" was chosen because it had a "fun" sound, and the root word, "cube", was nearly crosslingual in both English and Spanish.
Launch of programming blocks
Qubo launched on September 9, 2006, with the premiere of weekend morning blocks on both NBC and Telemundo. This was followed by the September 15 introduction of a three-hour daytime block on Ion Television, which initially aired on Friday afternoons and marked the return of children's programming to the network for the first time since the discontinuation of the Pax Kids block in 2000. At launch, its programming included the first-run animated series Dragon, Jacob Two-Two, Babar, and Jane and the Dragon, alongside VeggieTales and its two spin-offs, 3-2-1 Penguins! and Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures, marking the first time that VeggieTales had been broadcast as a television program.Four of the seven shows listed on the inaugural schedule premiered on American television for the first time. The Babar television series originally aired on HBO in the 1990s, though its brief sixth season revival would only debut on American television via Qubo. Prior to the television series' American run on HBO, NBC also aired two standalone Babar specials narrated by Peter Ustinov and produced by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez: The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant on October 21, 1968, and Babar Comes to America on September 7, 1971. In addition, though VeggieTales aired as a television program on Qubo, there were two VeggieTales specials that were previously broadcast on television beforehand: VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular! on Ion's precursor, PAX TV, on December 19, 1998, and VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas on PBS on November 24, 2002, with repeat broadcasts of the latter airing until 2006. Jacob Two-Two originally premiered on American television on January 9, 2005 with its Spanish dub on Telemundo through its predecessor block, Telemundo Kids, making it the only show from that block to immediately transition to Qubo en Telemundo. The companion Qubo blocks on both NBC and Ion did, however, premiere Jacob Two-Two in English for the first time on American television.
Edits to Big Idea’s programming
VeggieTales and its spin-offs incorporated lessons related to Christian values; initially, this religious content was edited out of the original VeggieTales broadcasts on Qubo at the request of NBC's standards and practices department. The move, however, drew criticism from the conservative watchdog group Parents Television Council, which filed a complaint against NBC. A representative for NBC replied in a statement that the editing conformed to guidelines within the network's broadcast standards "not to advocate any one religious point of view". VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer also expressed discontent with the edits, stating that he was not informed that religious content would be removed from the series, and that he would have refused to sign a contract with Qubo if he had known of the decision beforehand. Vischer said, "I would have declined partly because I knew a lot of fans would feel like it was a sellout or it was done for money." Still, Vischer added that he understood NBC's wish to remain religiously neutral, and said, "VeggieTales is religious, NBC is not. I want to focus people more on 'Isn't it cool that Bob and Larry are on television?'".When 3-2-1 Penguins! and Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures were initially aired on Qubo, they were presented together under the title 3-2-1 Penguins! and Larryboy Stories, with episodes alternating between the two shows. This arrangement was made because Larryboy had only four episodes, while 3-2-1 Penguins! had six episodes at the time. Additional material, including “Larryboy and the Bad Apple” from the original VeggieTales series, and a new episode titled “Songs from Cosmic Café”, brought the total episode count to 13. This lineup continued to be broadcast in reruns until September 29, 2007, when it was replaced by the second season premiere of 3-2-1 Penguins! the following week. Subsequently, the combined series ceased broadcasting, leading to the original six direct-to-video episodes of 3-2-1 Penguins! and the entire Larryboy series being dropped from Qubo's lineup.
The main VeggieTales series continued to air on all of Qubo’s platforms until 2009, while the second and third seasons of 3-2-1 Penguins! remained on each of the respective Qubo blocks until 2010, and on the standalone Qubo Channel until 2014.
Launch of standalone network and expanded carriage agreements
In December 2006, a Spanish-language version of the Qubo website was launched. The 24-hour standalone Qubo Channel launched on the DT2 subchannel of Ion Media Networks' terrestrial stations on January 8, 2007, replacing Ion's timeshift channel. The network initially included a schedule of children's programming in rolling four-hour blocks; Ion intended to attempt carriage of the channel on pay TV providers. In May of that year, NBCUniversal sold its minority stake in Ion Media Networks to Citadel LLC. On December 3, 2007, Qubo expanded its programming offerings to include shows from other producers, as well as some programs that were already airing on each of the Qubo blocks. In addition, the rolling schedule was expanded to a six-hour block, which repeated four times per day. By 2010, the channel adopted a more traditional schedule featuring a larger array of programs.In January 2008, Ion Media Networks and Comcast reached an agreement to continue carrying Ion's digital terrestrial channels, including Qubo and Ion Life. In August 2008, Qubo introduced guidelines for advertisers in an effort to help fight childhood obesity, committing to only accept advertisements for products which meet nutritional guidelines determined by the network in partnership with childhood obesity expert Goutham Rao. Qubo also began to air a series of public service announcements featuring characters from its programs in association with the Ad Council, the United States Olympic Committee and the Department of Health and Human Services, advocating exercise and healthy living.
In May 2009, Ion Media Networks filed an inquiry with the Federal Communications Commission to attempt must-carry subscription television carriage to expand Qubo's distribution to other providers. Later in May 2010, Ion signed carriage agreements with Advanced Cable Communications and Blue Ridge Communications, as well as a deal with Comcast's Colorado Springs system to add Qubo on the providers' digital tiers.
Ion acquisition of partner stakes
In 2012, NBCUniversal withdrew from the joint venture following its acquisition by Comcast, resulting in Ion Media Networks acquiring NBCUniversal's interest in the venture. On March 28 of that year, it was announced that NBC and Telemundo would discontinue their Qubo blocks and replace them with NBC Kids and MiTelemundo on July 7. Both blocks would be programmed by Sprout, a preschool-oriented television network that originated from a previous joint venture between Comcast, PBS, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop, and later came under NBCUniversal ownership as part of the Comcast merger. The Qubo block ended its run on NBC on June 30, followed by Telemundo on July 1, leaving Ion Television as the only remaining network with a Qubo-branded programming block. The standalone Qubo Channel also continued to operate.Ion Media Networks later acquired the remaining stakes in Qubo held by Classic Media, Scholastic Corporation and Corus Entertainment in 2013, with all three companies retaining program distribution partnerships with the network.
The Qubo block on Ion Television has seen numerous schedule changes throughout its run, switching to a one-hour afternoon slot each Wednesday through Friday, and later to a three-hour Friday morning slot. The block was later rebranded as the "Qubo Kids Corner" on January 4, 2015, concurrent with the block's initial move to Sunday mornings. On September 8, 2020, the block also began airing on Ion Plus during Monday mornings due to E/I commitments, since they had eight stations in the network that had DT1 main-channel carriage rather than subchannel carriage.