Universal Kids is an American pay television network that is owned by the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts children's programming and takes the branding of the sister company, Universal Pictures. The network's daytime lineup is heavily supplied by preschool-oriented programs, while its evening and primetime lineup are made up of programs aimed generally towards pre-teens and young teenagers.
Universal Kids was originally launched in 2005 as PBS Kids Sprout—a joint venture between PBS, Comcast, Sesame Workshop, and HiT Entertainment devoted to children's television programming aimed at a preschool audience. Following Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, the company gradually bought out the remaining owners' shares in the channel, reaching full ownership in 2013. The network's operations were subsequently relocated from Philadelphia to New York City and the "PBS Kids" name was dropped from its branding. The network re-branded under its current name on September 9, 2017, expanding its primetime programming to focus on a wider youth audience, while continuing to broadcast preschool-oriented programming under the "Universal Kids Preschool" branding during daytime hours.
Universal Kids is available to approximately 56 million American pay television households (48.2% of households with television) in the United States as of January 2016 (when it was still primarily known as Sprout).
Broadcast of An American Tail films[]
Universal Kids aired only three films of An American Tail after its launch in 2017. However, censorship occurred to Fievel Goes West, which removes the first scene where Fievel was battling the cats with Wylie Burp in his imagination and the other scene where Cat R. Waul met the obese woman in the bar due to regarding the results to be inappropriate for children. The Treasure of Manhattan Island aired only once on the network, but said film is rarely being broadcast on any networks as of 2020 regarding the themes that are considered racially sensitive in today’s world. The Mystery of the Night Monster was deliberately skipped from the channel due to its inappropriate subjects of attempted age disparity intimacy as the film was made in 1999, prior to the modern sensibilities in film making since the 2010s due to the concerns regarding physical child abuse.