4Kids TV
 "The Game Station" logo used from September 8, 2007 to December 27, 2008 | |
| Network | Fox |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 14, 2002 |
| Closed | December 27, 2008 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Owner | 4Kids Entertainment |
| Formerly known as | FoxBox (2002–2005) |
| Original language(s) | English |
4Kids TV(often stylized as4K!DSTVand formerly known asFoxBoxfrom September 14, 2002 to January 15, 2005) was an Americantelevision programming blockandInternet-basedvideo on demandchildren's network operated by4Kids Entertainment.It originated as a weekly block onSaturday morningson theFox network,which was created out of a four-year agreement reached on January 22, 2002, between 4Kids Entertainment and Fox to lease the five-hour Saturday morning time slot occupied by the network's existing children's program block,Fox Kids.It was targeted at children aged 7–11.[1]The 4Kids TV block was part of the Fox network schedule, although it wassyndicatedto other broadcasttelevision stationsin certain markets where a Fox affiliate declined to air it.[2]
History[edit]
The block aired a preview special on September 1, 2002, and was formally launched on September 14, 2002, under the nameFoxBox,ajoint venturebetween the Fox Broadcasting Company and 4Kids Entertainment,[3][4]replacingFox Kids,which the network announced it would discontinue as a result of the 2001 purchase ofFox Family WorldwidebyThe Walt Disney Company(which resulted in much of the content featured on the block moving to Disney's networks and blocks).[5]The block was rebranded as4Kids TVon January 22, 2005.[6]4Kids Entertainment was fully responsible for the content of the block and collected all of the advertising revenue accrued from it.[2]However, Fox'sstandards and practicesdepartment still handled content approval and responsibility of editing the series to meet FCC broadcast standards.
The programming block aired on Saturday mornings in most areas of theUnited States,though some stations carried it on Sundays (often due to scheduling conflicts resulting from the block airing on stations affiliated with other minor networks that had their own older children's anime program blocks which competed with FoxBox/4Kids TV, including theKids' WBonThe WBand laterThe CW,and for its first year, theDisney's One Tooblock onUPN). On October 2, 2007, 4Kids Entertainment announced it would program a competing Saturday morning lineup for The CW, the new block, The CW4Kids (later renamedToonzai,with the original name becoming a secondary brand), premiered on May 24, 2008, replacing theKids' WBprogramming block, which had been carried over to The CW from one of its predecessors,The WB,when it launched on September 23, 2006. The block was renamed asToonzaion August 14, 2010, and continued to air until it ended August 18, 2012, being replaced byVortexxa week later and the block continued to air until it ended on September 27, 2014.[7][8]
On November 10, 2008, 4Kids Entertainment announced that 4Kids TV would conclude at the end of the year due to intervening conflicts between Fox and 4Kids, as the latter company had not paid the network for the time lease for some time, while the network was unable to maintain the guaranteed 90% clearance for the block due to affiliate refusals and an inability to secure secondary affiliates to carry the programming in markets where the Fox station denied clearance for the block. 4Kids TV ended on December 27, 2008.[9][failed verification]Fox announced that the four-hour time period would no longer be used for children's programming, owing that it was no longer viable due to the insurmountable competition from children'scablechannels (such asNickelodeon,Cartoon Network,andDisney Channel).[10]On January 3, 2009, the network gave two hours of the programming time that the 4Kids TV block occupied back to its affiliates, while the other two hours would be retained by the network for apaid programmingblock titledWeekend Marketplace,which replaced 4Kids TV on January 3, 2009.[11]The 4KidsTV logo now only exists as the closing logo for 4Kids Entertainment for shows produced by the company distributed outside of theUnited States(particularly those made before the 2012 auction of most of 4Kids' assets toSaban Brands).
Fox would reverse course and indirectly resume airing children's programming for the first time since 4Kids TV ended through an agreement announced on December 17, 2013, when it signed a deal withSteve Rotfeld Productionsto launchXploration Station,a two-hour block of live-action educational programs focused on theSTEM fields,which debuted on September 13, 2014. As the block accounts for two of the three weekly hours of educational programming required by theFederal Communications Commission'sChildren's Television Act,the Fox affiliates that opted against airing 4Kids TV, Fox Kids, orWeekend Marketplace(including thoseowned by the networkthat were acquired through its 1996 merger withNew World Communicationsand those acquired through that deal that were owned byTribune Broadcasting,nowNexstar Media Group) elected to runXploration Stationas it is an E/I-compliant lineup syndicated primarily to the network's affiliates, relieving them of taking on the full burden of purchasing educational programming aimed at children from thesyndication market(although some Fox stations, including those owned by theSinclair Broadcast Group—the vast majority of its stations had carried Fox's previous children's blocks, decided to decline the block anyway due to existing commitments to syndicated programs compliant with Children's Television Act recommendations).[12][13]
As of 2024, some former 4Kids TV shows (such asChaotic(only in Spanish),Dinosaur King,Sonic X,and various entries in theYu-Gi-Oh!franchise) are made available to stream on the free ad-supportedTubistreaming service, which Fox acquired on April 20, 2020.[14][15]Outside of Tubi,Sonic Xis also available onNetflixas of December 2019, though only seasons 1 and 2. In addition,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesis made available to stream on both the free ad-supportedPluto TVand subscription-basedParamount+streaming services following that property's 2009 acquisition byNickelodeon,while the English-language version ofChaoticis on Peacock.
Programming[edit]
Former programming[edit]
FoxBox[edit]
Original programming[edit]
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultraman Tiga | September 14, 2002 | March 1, 2003 | [3] |
| Kirby: Right Back at Ya!‡ | January 15, 2005 | [16] | |
| Ultimate Muscle‡ | May 22, 2004 | [3] | |
| Fighting Foodons | August 30, 2003 | [3] | |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‡ | February 8, 2003 | January 15, 2005 | [16][3][17][18] |
| WMAC Masters | July 5, 2003 | August 30, 2003 | |
| Sonic X‡ | August 23, 2003 | January 15, 2005 | [16] |
| Funky Cops | July 3, 2004 | [16] | |
| Shaman King‡ | August 30, 2003 | January 15, 2005 | [16][17] |
| Cubix: Robots for EveryoneE/I | September 6, 2003 | June 12, 2004 | [16] |
| Winx ClubE/I‡ | May 22, 2004 | January 15, 2005 | [17][19] |
| F-Zero GP Legend‡ | September 4, 2004 | [17] | |
| One Piece‡ | September 18, 2004 | [17] |
Acquired programming[edit]
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stargate InfinityE/I | September 14, 2002 | March 15, 2003 | [3] |
| The Cramp Twins[a]‡ | February 8, 2003 | January 15, 2005 | |
| Pirate Islands | March 8, 2003 | August 2, 2003 | [20] |
| Back to the FutureE/I | March 22, 2003 | August 30, 2003 | [21] |
| Martin Mystery | May 8, 2004 | June 19, 2004 | |
| The Menu‡ | June 5, 2004 | September 11, 2004 |
Short-form programming[edit]
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incredible Crash Dummies | September 18, 2004 | 2005 | [17] |
‡- Program transitioned to 4Kids TV
4Kids TV[edit]
Original programming[edit]
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirby: Right Back at Ya!† | January 22, 2005 | December 27, 2008 | [16] |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles† | [16][3][17] | ||
| Sonic X† | [16] | ||
| Shaman King† | September 3, 2005 | [16][17] | |
| Winx ClubE/I† | December 27, 2008 | [17][19] | |
| F-Zero GP Legend† | March 5, 2005 | [17] | |
| One Piece† | November 12, 2005 | [17] | |
| Mew Mew Power | February 19, 2005 | July 22, 2006 | [19] |
| Magical DoReMiE/I | August 13, 2005 | August 19, 2006 | [19] |
| G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 | August 27, 2005 | December 30, 2006 | [19] |
| Ultimate Muscle† | June 10, 2006 | August 19, 2006 | [3] |
| Viva Piñata | August 26, 2006 | August 2, 2008 | |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! | September 2, 2006 | August 25, 2007 | |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters | September 9, 2006 | November 25, 2006 | |
| Chaotic | October 7, 2006 | December 27, 2008 | [22][23][24] |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! GX | September 1, 2007 | June 14, 2008 | |
| Dinosaur King | September 8, 2007 | September 6, 2008 | |
| The Adrenaline ProjectE/I | September 29, 2007 | April 5, 2008 |
Acquired programming[edit]
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Cramp Twins[a]† | January 22, 2005 | August 19, 2005 | |
| Alien Racers | May 7, 2005 | July 23, 2005 | |
| The Menu† | July 9, 2005 | August 27, 2005 | |
| Bratz | August 20, 2005 | April 7, 2007 | [19][25] |
| Di-Gata Defenders | July 28, 2007 | December 27, 2008 | |
| Biker Mice from Mars | August 9, 2008 |
†- Program transitioned from FoxBox
4KidsTV[edit]
Online network[edit]
4Kids launched an online video player on its website on September 8, 2007, and gradually added full-length episodes as well as additional video clips and online-exclusive content.[26]
Relationship with Fox and broadcast ambiguities[edit]
The block had a somewhat infrequent relationship to the Fox network. The programming was produced for Fox and offered to the network'sowned-and-operated stationsandaffiliatesfirst, so the Fox station in any given area had theright of first refusal.In the event that a Fox affiliate or in some cases, an O&O of the network—opted not to carry 4Kids TV, the block then became available for the local broadcast rights to be acquired by another television station. In fact, it was due in part to these carriage ambiguities that 4Kids dissolved the block in 2008, as they had been promised clearance on at least 90% of Fox's stations.
Most of Fox's owned-and-operated stations opted to carry 4Kids TV (these were mainly stations that had been owned by the network since Fox launched in October 1986 or were Fox charter affiliates that Fox Television Stations had acquired since that point). However dating back to the existence of the Fox Kids block, the twelve stations that Fox acquired from New World Communications in 1996[27](and had earlier affiliated with the network through a1994 multi-station affiliation deal[28]—which prior to then, had been affiliated withABC,NBC,orCBS) generally did not air 4Kids TV. In some of the New World markets, 4Kids was not carried on any station. In a majority of these markets, an independent station carried the block; in others, it was carried by either a WB orUPNaffiliate, and later aMyNetworkTVor CW affiliate. The only exception was inSt. Louis, Missouri,where Fox O&O (now affiliate)KTVIcarried the block (although it aired 4Kids TV two hours earlier than the network's recommended scheduling for the block, beginning at 5:00 a.m., due to the station's Saturday morning newscast).
Some of 4Kids TV's programming (such asWinx Club,The Adrenaline Project,Magical DoReMi,Stargate Infinity,reruns ofBack to the Future: the Animated Series,andCubix) met the criteria to be considerededucational and informationalunder the requirements defined by the Children's Television Act, and counted toward the three-hour-per-week mandatory educational children's programming quotas outlined by the Federal Communications Commission.
Markets where 4Kids TV did not run[edit]
| City of license/market | Fox station | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Birmingham, Alabama | WBRC | Station never had interest in carrying Fox children's programming and alternate Fox Kids programming affiliateWTTO(channel 21) dropped it in fall 2000. |
| Greensboro/Winston-Salem/ High Point, North Carolina |
WGHP | Station never had interest in carrying Fox children's programming and alternate Fox Kids programming affiliateWTWB(channel 21) dropped it in early 2002. |
| Greenwood, Mississippi | WABG-DT2 | Digital subchannel newly-launched in 2006 after the cable-only serviceFoxnetwas phased out and started only carrying Fox primetime and sports programming due to a lack of syndicated programming, especially in mornings, so WABG also declined to carry weekend morning programming, including 4KidsTV. |
Markets where 4Kids TV ran on a MyNetworkTV affiliate[edit]
| City of license/market | Fox station | MyNetworkTV station carrying block |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago, Illinois | WFLD | WPWR-TV |
| Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas | KDFW | KDFI |
| Detroit,Michigan | WJBK | WDWB/WMYD |
| Miami, Florida | WSVN | WBFS-TV |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota | KMSP-TV | WFTC |
| Portland, Oregon | KPTV | KPDX |
| San Antonio, Texas | KABB | KMYS |
| Tucson, Arizona | KMSB-TV | KTTU |
Markets where 4Kids TV ran on a CW affiliate[edit]
Note: These CW affiliates ran 4Kids TV on Sundays, due to their obligation to carry their primary network's children's lineup on Saturday as scheduled.[29]
| City of license/market | Fox station | CW station carrying block |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, Georgia | WAGA-TV | WUPA |
| Cleveland, Ohio | WJW-TV | WBNX-TV |
| Fresno, California | KMPH-TV | KFRE-TV |
| Omaha, Nebraska | KPTM | KXVO |
| Phoenix, Arizona | KSAZ-TV | KASW |
Markets where 4Kids TV ran on an independent station[edit]
| City of license/market | Fox station | Independent carrying block |
|---|---|---|
| Austin, Texas | KTBC | K13VC |
| Kansas City, Missouri | WDAF-TV | KMCI-TV |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin | WITI | WMLW-CA |
| Tampa, Florida | WTVT | WMOR-TV |
See also[edit]
- 4Kids Entertainment
- Toonzai– children's program block produced by 4Kids for The CW from May 24, 2008 to August 18, 2012.
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
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- ^abFlint, Joe (January 20, 2002)."Fox, 4Kids Approach Deal For Children's Programming".The Wall Street Journal.RetrievedAugust 11,2012.
- ^abcdefgh"What's inside the Fox Box? 4Kids Entertainment Launches An All-New Kind Of Kids Broadcast Network Starting September 14, 2002"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.May 14, 2002. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 22,2016.
- ^Paula Bernstein (January 18, 2002)."4Kids buys 4 hours from Fox Kids".Variety.RetrievedAugust 13,2009.
- ^"Disney buys Fox Family".CNN Money.July 23, 2001.RetrievedAugust 11,2012.
- ^"Fox Box To Be Rebranded 4KIDS TV".Anime News Network.January 18, 2005.RetrievedAugust 11,2012.
- ^"CW Turns Over Saturday Morning to 4Kids".TelevisionWeek.October 2007. Archived fromthe originalon May 2, 2008.RetrievedAugust 12,2012.
- ^Michael Schneider (October 2, 2007)."CW turns to 4Kids on Saturdays".Variety.RetrievedAugust 12,2012.
- ^"4Kids Entertainment Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results and Settlement of Fox Litigation".QuoteMedia.November 10, 2008. Archived fromthe originalon February 27, 2009.RetrievedDecember 16,2015.
- ^"Fox Ends Saturday-Morning Cartoons".The New York Times.November 24, 2008.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedMarch 18,2019.
- ^Michael Schneider (November 23, 2008)."Longform Ads Replace Kid Fare on Fox".Variety.RetrievedJanuary 11,2009.
- ^Paige Albiniak (December 17, 2013)."Fox Stations Add SRP's Two-Hour STEM Block".Broadcasting & Cable.RetrievedJune 29,2014.
- ^Amanda Kondolojy (December 18, 2013)."Steve Rotfield Clears New Science and Technology Two Hour E/I Block With FOX Station Group".TV by the Numbers.Archived fromthe originalon December 22, 2013.RetrievedJune 29,2014.
- ^"Anime".Tubi.RetrievedJuly 22,2023.
- ^Goldsmith, Jill (April 20, 2020)."Fox Closes Purchase Of Tubi In Day Of Streaming Deals".Deadline.RetrievedJuly 5,2023.
- ^abcdefghij"Fox Box Uncrates '03-'04 Season Line-Up Kids Will Be Jumping Inside The Fox Box This Fall"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.May 20, 2003. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 22,2016.
- ^abcdefghijk"4Kids Entertainment Announces new lineup for Fox Box Fall 2004 One Piece And F-ZERO -- Gp Legend Added To Fox Box Lineup"(PDF).September 1, 2004. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 25,2016.
- ^"4Kids Entertainment Announces New Setting For Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Television Series Beginning Fall 2006"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.February 1, 2006. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 29,2016.
- ^abcdef"4Kids Entertainment Announces 2005 Fall Lineup For 4Kids TV"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.September 7, 2005. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 29,2016.
- ^"Fox Box Adds Pirate Islands To Line-Up"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.February 23, 2003. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 24,2016.
- ^"4Kids Entertainment Adds Emmy Award Winning Show" Back To The Future "To Fox Box Lineup"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.March 13, 2003. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 24,2016.
- ^""ENnter The Code" 4Kids Tv Launches New Animated SEries Chaotic "(PDF).4kidsentertainment.September 30, 2006. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on October 22, 2006.RetrievedAugust 29,2016.
- ^"All New Chaotic Premiered on FOX Saturday, Sept. 13th"..4kids.tv.September 11, 2008. Archived fromthe originalon February 1, 2010.RetrievedSeptember 10,2016.
- ^"New Chaotic: M'arrillian Invasion&trade: Exclusive World Premiere".4Kids.tv.September 10, 2008.Archivedfrom the original on February 1, 2010.RetrievedSeptember 10,2016.
- ^"4Kids Entertainment And MGA Entertainment Announce Bratz Television Show To Be Broadcast On 4Kids TV"(PDF).4kidsentertainment.July 19, 2005. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2006.RetrievedAugust 29,2016.
- ^"4Kids.tv Relaunches in Conjunction with Sixth Season of 4Kids TV on Fox"(Press release).Business Wire.September 11, 2007.RetrievedSeptember 11,2016.
- ^Brian Lowry (July 18, 1996)."New World Vision: Murdoch's News Corp. to Buy Broadcast Group".Los Angeles Times.RetrievedJune 22,2012.
- ^Carter, Bill (May 24, 1994)."FOX WILL SIGN UP 12 NEW STATIONS; TAKES 8 FROM CBS".The New York Times.RetrievedAugust 21,2021.
- ^"Program Schedule".WUPA.Archived fromthe originalon July 1, 2007.