The Future Of Cartoon Network Looks Very Bleak

In the “water is wet” category of news, Bloomberg Businesweek has published a long article titled “Cartoon Network’s Last Gasp,” documenting the declining fortunes of Cartoon Network.

We’ve been covering both the network and the studio’s fall for years now, even before most people understood what was actually happening, but it’s safe to say that everyone is now fully aware of the brand’s slow death.

Some key takeaways from the Bloomberg piece:

• Annual advertising revenue for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim has plummeted 80% over the last decade, from $668.3 million in 2014 to $133.7 million in 2024.
• As viewers moved from cable to streaming, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max has failed to attract children viewers, thus creating a void for Cartoon Network content. Just 13% of 10-to-12-year-old viewers have recently watched programming on Max, according to video ad firm Precise.tv. Compare that to 32% for Hulu, 57% for Disney+, and 72% for Netflix. For preschoolers, Max is dead last among the major streamers, trailing not only Youtube, Netflix, and Disney+, but also Tiktok, Paramount+, Apple TV+, and Peacock.
• Warner Bros. Discovery is moving away from offering Cartoon Network content on Max. According to the Bloomberg author, Max only offers 11 Cartoon Network titles on its platform even though the studio produced dozens of series. WBD is instead licensing its Cartoon Network library titles to other platforms, like Hulu.
• Cartoon Network is now largely focused on established IP, not original content. The network says that established IP is familiar to parents and easier to market globally, according to Warner Bros. Discovery executive Vanessa Brookman. In terms of marketing, “the easiest way for me to do that now is to do it with our really beloved IP,” Brookman told Bloomberg. She added, “[Cartoon Network is] not maybe how the fans remember it. But it’s not dead.”
• WBD is prioritizing adult and family programming over children. But even adult animation programming on Adult Swim is struggling; viewership for the sub-network has dropped 84% in the last decade. The silver lining is that Adult Swim often performs well on Max; its recent series Common Side Effects was in Max’s Top 10 Series for a significant period of time and was recently renewed for a second season.