Cartoon Network More Profitable than CNN

Variety reports that Turner Broadcasting has revealed that Cartoon Network had cash flow of $241 million last year on $650 million in revenues, making it more profitable than the CNN group. It accounts for 17% of Turner's revenues, vs. 14% for news.

Cartoon Network has a great audience of 12-24 year old males, drawn especially to Adult Swim programming.

Turner also revealed some of the reasons for Cartoon Network's profitability, which go beyond the prices advertisers are willing to pay for CN's attractive audience. They include licensing of its characters through Warner Bros. consumer products division and the equity stakes of 2-4% that CN takes in ancillary revenues of shows it purchases from outside suppliers.

CN also keeps its costs low by producing its own programming, drawing from its huge animation library, and making good deals for the outside programming it runs.

Future plans include adding ads to spin-off network Boomerang and putting cartoon episodes on chips that can be viewed on Game Boys.

Cartoon Network's influence on retailers goes far beyond the licensed products based on its own shows -- it's also a huge venue for popularizing anime, which drives sales of DVDs, manga, and licensed merchandise.