Cartoon Network is planning to open the pool for its Adult Swim an hour earlier starting next year.
According to a report in Media Week, the Adult Swim block will expand to start at 9 p.m. beginning in January 2011.
The move is expected to open the block up to a wider group of advertisers, though it will have to deal with tighter content restrictions that come with the earlier hour.
‘The choice to go to 9 p.m. is 100 percent a reflection on the success of Adult Swim as a brand,’ Stu Snyder, president and COO of Turner Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media told the trade publication. Snyder says the move will take an hour out of Cartoon Network programming, but told Media Week the move does not reflect weakness in the children’s programming market. ‘It’s clear that the kids business has been challenging, and much of that has to do with the recession and the resurgence of certain hot-topic discussions that are having an impact on key categories like food. But this is less about taking anything away from Cartoon Network than it is a matter of building up Adult Swim.’
Adult Swim launched in 2001 and moved its start from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. in January 2009.
