Cartoon Network
American cable television channel
Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television channel that is the flagship property under The Cartoon Network, Inc. corporate umbrella owned by the Global Linear Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched on October 1, 1992, it primarily broadcasts animated television series, mostly children's programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It currently runs from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET/PT daily and primarily targets children aged 6 to 12, though some early morning programming, formerly of the Cartoonito block, is aimed at preschool-aged children, while evening block Adult Swim targets young adults.
As of November 2023, Cartoon Network is available to approximately 66 million pay television households in the United States — down from its peak of 100 million households in 2011.
History
On August 9, 1986,
Turner Broadcasting System acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists (MGM/UA). On October 18, Turner forcibly sold back MGM. However, Turner kept much of the film and television library made before May 1986 (including some of the UA library) and formed Turner Entertainment Co.
“Cartoon Network” enters the record as american cable television channel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cartoon, Network and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cartoon Network” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cartoon, Network and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q708290. VIAF identifies the subject as 155891951. The Library of Congress control number is nr96025194. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992, 2023, 2011 and 1986.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cartoon Network”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cartoon Network primary sources, Cartoon Network archive and Cartoon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cartoon Network”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cartoon Network” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.