Comcast Corporation (formerly registered as Comcast Holdings) is an American telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue and the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States, and the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. Comcast services U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and in the District of Columbia. As the owner of the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is a producer of feature films and television programs intended for theatrical exhibition and over-the-air and cable television broadcast, respectively.
Along with HiT Entertainment, PBS, and Sesame Workshop, Comcast is one of the four founders of PBS KIDS Sprout, and has had arguably the biggest impact on the channel. Sprout was usually Channel 128 on Comcast Digital or Xfinity, though it was 271 in the Atlanta, Georgia area.[1]
History with Sprout
2005-2010
Ad for Sprout's launch.
On October 20, 2004, it was announced that Comcast had entered a joint partnership with HiT Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, and PBS to launch a subscription-based channel aimed at preschooolers. On April 4, 2005, Comcast themselved revealed that it would be known as PBS KIDS Sprout, named after both PBS' then soon-to-be-defunct children’s space and a word that means to put forth shoots on a plant.
The linear network officially launched on September 26, 2005, with a reach of around 16 million viewers across Comcast and Insight cable providers. Unlike the other companies involved in the making of Sprout, Comcast didn't contribute any shows to the channel, at least initially. As of 2006, Sprout was ordered 7.5 million times on Comcast.[2] The channel was also the only Comcast-backed content with a CMC requirement.[3]
Sprout, along with G4, moved from digital preferred to digital starter level of service, though still remaining on the same network. on or around October 29, 2009.
2011-2015
Comcast acquired a 51% majority stake of NBCUniversal in January 2011, and would assume full ownership of the company in 2013. As a result, Comcast's interest in Sprout was turned over to the company. When Apax Partners sold HIT Entertainment to Mattel on October 24, 2011, HIT's ownership interest in Sprout was not included in the deal and was retained by Apax Partners. In 2012, Sesame Workshop sold its interest in Sprout to NBCUniversal, which in turn later acquired Apax and PBS's shares in the network on March 19, 2013 and November 13, 2013 respectively, thus giving Comcast full ownership. Its operations were then merged into its NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary, the "PBS Kids" branding was dropped from the network's name (leaving it as simply Sprout), and operations were moved from Philadelphia to New York City.
On July 7, 2012, Sprout began to produce a Saturday morning block for NBC aimed at preschoolers, NBC Kids, along with MiTelemundo, a Spanish-dubbed version of the block airing on sister network Telemundo that aired on both Saturdays and Sundays. This was replaced by a block called The More You Know, produced by the widely-reviled Litton Entertainment, on October 1, 2016.
Since NBCUniversal took over management of the network, Sprout evolved from its initial intent to serve as a home for archived content produced by the partners, and invested more heavily in original programming in order to better compete with fellow preschool-oriented pay-TV networks Disney Junior and Nick Jr., which in turn was also partly made by SW. Under NBCUniversal, programs seen on the network such as The Chica Show gained increased visibility airing on NBC as part of the NBC Kids block.
All this eventually lead to one of the most infamous moments in Sprout's history - the removal of many PBS Kids shows. In order to refresh the brand, Sprout removed classic PBS shows that aired on the channel such as Thomas & Friends. They were replaced with new shows: Sydney Sailboat, Maya The Bee, and Nina's World.
2016-present
NBCUniversal eventually got more and more involved with the network. They aired The More You Know PSAs starring the cast of The Sunny Side Up Show, and put advertisements for Sprout's new shows in front of showings of Universal movies; for example, a promo for Kody Kapow was shown before a showing of Despicable Me 3.
And then, came the most infamous moment in Sprout's history; the rebranding to Universal Kids. This was announced on May 1, 2017. It would keep the preschool programming, but would add new shows that target preteens, including spinoffs of unscripted series such as Top Chef Junior (a spinoff of Top Chef), and DreamWorks Animation series that were previously exclusive to Netflix, such as All Hail King Julien. This happened in order to compete with Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel.
This rebrand took place on September 9, 2017. The rebrand drew the ire of many longtime Sprout fans, young and old, with some even comparing it to Nick Jr's ill-fated NickMom block. The "Sprout" name was still kept as the name of the preschool show block, until January 2018, when it was renamed to Universal Kids Preschool.