Can 4kids really compete with Disney, Nick, and CN?

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Kunmui

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Am I the only one who thinks 4kids leaving Saturday mornings is just a matter of time now?

Between Disney gearing up to focusing on Marvel cartoons, Cartoon Network doing the usual, and Nick starting to focus on action shows like TMNT and Wolverine and the X-men (until they lose Wolverine to Disney), am I the only one who thinks 4kids block is starting to look dated?

Do you think 4kids will really be around to compete with all these changes going on in the childrens entertainment industry?
 
4Kids wasn't any competition to those networks before, and it won't be even if it stays around.

4Kids is a block which only airs once a week in most markets, whereas Nick, CN and Disney Channel are just that--channels--which air 24 hours of programming daily and each have sister networks running alongside of them as well.
 
I couldn't agree more. 4Kids won't make it airing just once a week as they do now. I don't know if they still do, but do Disney and Nick still air on Saturday mornings on ABC and CBS? If they do, it just makes it even more difficult to imagine 4Kids being able to survive.

What 4Kids needs to do is just sell out to like Cartoon Network or someone. And maybe then they can have a 4Kids block of programming on a network like that. Then maybe they would at least have a chance of surviving.
 
To answer the title question, can 4Kids compete with the Big Three?

No. 4Kids has been at the right place at the right time when two of kid-vid's biggest brands, Fox Kids and Kids' WB!, went down for the count. They've been lucky to have properties they've harnessed into brand names post-Pokemon, including Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Chaotic, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One Piece is no longer a part of 4Kids, and TMNT is about to become Nickelodeon's next big thing that, unlike the Dreamworks-guided projects like The Penguins of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, they own outright.

And while some people feel that the loss of TMNT isn't a big deal to 4Kids, trust me. It is. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is still the biggest franchise on 4Kids' blocks. It's also interconnected with the company's visible public image, even more than Pokemon ever was. For much of the decade, when you thought 4Kids, most often, you associated it with the quartet. Chaotic is no TMNT. Neither is Yu-Gi-Oh! for that matter. Both of those series are on Cartoon Network, and Chaotic also airs on Disney XD.

There is no audience for the CW4Kids shows because there is very little promotion for it, probably because there's nothing on The CW that the desired demographic for the Saturday morning block would watch.

No. 4Kids is still largely on borrowed time, largely because of the 24/7/365 dominance of the Big Three, the state of the economy, and the lack of diversity on their programming lineups.

When you fill a weekly lineup with repeats, you tend to look dated.

I'll give 4Kids one more year tops. Then they'll likely be swallowed up by a competitor or disappear completely with their properties lapsing and swooped in like a vulture onto a dying creature.
 
I would have to say that 4Kids will probably make it through another year or two and then they will probably bow out of airing cartoons and licensing properties, the only way I can see the block remaining longer is if some larger company buy's them and fronts the money for them to stay on the air. I will miss 4Kids when they go, I love their Saturday morning block, but I just can't see them sticking around past 2011 or so :sad:.
 
Their line up isn't that great. It's mostly repeats of old shows that ended their run on 4Kids TV or the Kids WB. Rollbots isn't even done by them.
 
I think its going to go sooner or later. Never saw it as compettion with those channles, if any thing it'd be compared to Fox Kids.
 
Can a mouse really compete with a cat? Can a turtle really compete with a ninja? The answer: maybe if the world was a cartoon, but not at all realistically. :p
 
4kids compete with the big 3? Not a chance. They never really intended to either. They can compete with the network television kids blocks well enough because the bar is so incredibly low now but their almost on their way out it would seem. They really don't have anything anymore and that'll catch up to them sooner rather than later.
 
Ratings don't even matter all that much in the long run for 4Kids. The CW4Kids is just a way to get their brands out there. The real deciding factor for 4Kids is TC Digital. They've put so much more money and effort into it (and still continue to do so) that it's either going to save them or break them. Getting the license for an online NFL TCG is a step in the right direction in the process of branching out.
 
4kids isn't competing with any of those networks. They're basically trying to reign supreme over a dead/barren battleground, but they're still struggling to keep up with outdated Disney kidcom reruns. How pathetic.

I'm not sure who'll sink first between 4kids and The CW. Both are pretty much failing to do what they intended and every year they report how much money they're bleeding.
 
It feels to me its only a matter of time now before 4kids finally throws in the towel. I don't think the company itself will go bankrupt or anything, but I think managing a Saturday morning block is now looking a bit pointless.

4kids must feel bitter that almost every major show gets taken away from them at some point. Pokemon, One Piece, Kirby, now TMNT.

LOL, its almost like one loss after another for them. And before anyone asks, 4kids loss of TMNT wasn't their decision at all, but Mirage's. They just lost the entire rights to a show they spent $45 million on.
 
One Piece was never a major property for 4Kids. They WANTED it to be one, but it completely failed. Outside of good ratings on Toonami, everything One Piece related save the manga (which is Viz) tanked under their watch. Toys that were sub-Happy Meal quality. A card game that went nowhere. Video games that were censored and sold very poorly. And finally, edited DVDs which now go on Ebay for three dollars factory sealed.

Granted, 4Kids did get the license taken away form them by Toei, but that was after they had abandoned it anyway.
 
No, and I don't think that it was ever their intent to do so. I don't see how a weekend only program block is supposed to compete with 3 cable/satellite channels that run 24/7. 4Kids is as much a threat to Disney, Nick and CN as a fly buzzing around their collective heads.



No, you are not. I'd give 4KidsTV another year. Two years tops. Their lineup is 99.9% reruns now. It's not even close. 4Kids' only chance of surviving would be for them to sell their services to some cable/satellite station, and that wouldn't qualify them to compete with the big dogs.
 
4Kids has done without a personal channel before, they can do it again.

They may have some new "masters" but they can go on without a personal channel.

EDIT: How long will it be before this thread descends into 4Kids bashing?
 
The obvious answer to this question has already been stated, but no, 4Kids can't compete with the big 3. To repeat others, the block itself is struggling, repeat mode is no good for Fall season, that is something I expect from the Summer. The company is struggling, losing properties left and right. I'm not even sure if 4kids will be around this time next year, or at least the 4kids in it's current form.
 
It's the only broadcast place that's primarily a non-E/I block, if that means anything.

4Kids' deal with The CW runs through August 2013. But if there's no more 4Kids or no more CW, I guess it don't matter.

But any chance it gets reworked to a smaller block, say, three hours with one slot still E/I?

There are still a handful of shows -- RollBots, GGR, Dino King and KRDK -- that are new product with CW4Kids as their only outlet. And it's still winning a good chunk of the ratings weeks. So it's not like it isn't serving a purpose.
 
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