Universal Kids

Logo as of 2019.

Original logo.

Universal Kids was a cable channel aimed at children aged two to eleven, owned by NBCUniversal and launching on September 9th, 2017.

The channel was announced by Deirdre Brennan in 2017. Sprout would now become a part of the then-fledgling new Universal Kids channel as its preschool block which ran from 3AM to 6PM, with shows aimed at older kids starting airing at the latter time. This was due to NBCUniversal cable networks dealing with declining TV ratings across the sector because of the popularity of the streaming, Sprout being one of NBCU's lowest-rated cable channels with a revenue of $102 million in 2016. As a result, many shows from Sprout were dropped, new shows like Masha and the Bear were introduced, and Sunny Side Up was replaced on August 14th by Sprout House. Universal Kids launched on September 9th at 5PM ET.

The Sprout name was removed completely in early 2018, with SproutOnline.com becoming a Universal Kids Preschool website, redirecting to the main Universal Kids website in June that same year, Sprout's YouTube channel being renamed to "Universal Kids Preschool" (the channel was once again renamed to Peacock Jr. once the Peacock streaming service launched, although Sprout's name was in the channel URL for some time afterwards), and Sprout House was renamed Snug's House, leaving the only traces of Sprout left being the Sprout flower-shaped window in the Snug's House set and the Sarah & Duck promo poster featuring a Sunny Side Up Show backdrop. The former was taken off the air while the latter was replaced shortly before getting removed. Despite this, tweets from the Sprout years are still on Universal Kids' Twitter account, and videos of Sprout are still on the Peacock jr. YouTube channel.

Universal Kids has often brought back shows from when it was still known as Sprout, such as Ready, Steady, Wiggle!, Barney & Friends, Bob the Builder: Ready Steady Build!, and The Chica Show. In its later years, it was no longer the case, as the channel aired marathon blocks of its shows. It is likely the four shows, alongside others, were moved to on-demand and the Universal Kids app (formerly Sprout NOW). Prior to the network shutting down, Floogals and Ruff-Ruff, Tweet and Dave were the only remaining shows from the Sprout era to regularly air on the channel.

The network shut down on March 6, 2025 after almost 8 years. This was due to NBCUniversal shifting over to streaming.