Cartoon Network shuts down their website
The Warner Bros. Discovery “hits” just keep on coming. Along with the Boomerang streaming service shutting down and Warner Bros.’s stock value this week hitting an all-time low came the latest bad news: as of a few days ago, Warner Bros. has shut down Cartoon Network’s website, with zero warning. The site URL now redirects to a landing page on the Max streaming service, urging users to sign up for Max to watch their favorite Cartoon Network shows. Note this is just the US Cartoon Network site; the international versions, including the UK version, are spared (for now).
Needless to say, nobody is happy about this development. In particular, Gen Zers and younger Millennials are grumbling about the shutdown, having grown up with the CN website and its online games. While I don’t have that kind of nostalgia for Cartoon Network’s website, I do feel shutting it down’s a big mistake.
My thoughts
To address possible detractors: yes, Warner Bros. Discovery is deep in debt; yes, the open web is in trouble as-is; yes, kids these days favor apps; yes, cable TV is dying, with streaming eclipsing it in attention.
Still, a media company not having a website, or even a real landing page, for one of its major outlets is a basic marketing and branding failure. If I can afford to run this blog using my own spare time and money, surely one of the biggest media conglomerates on the planet can at least put up a basic WordPress site.
As for “saving money,” besides coming off as cartoonishly stingy, the savings for a media conglomerate would be the equivalent of a 50 cent coupon off dishwashing liquid. Also, having your only web presence being a barebones landing page on your not-inexpensive streaming service with no other extras (say, a TV schedule?) is particularly cynical and sad.
The state of Cartoon Network
While I don’t think Cartoon Network is shutting down, this does confirm that Warner Bros. Discovery couldn’t care less about the channel, even within the overall decline in cable viewership. At this point, Warner Bros. treats Cartoon Network more as a brand for their child-friendly/non-adult cartoons.
As I’ve noted before, Warner Bros. Discovery’s only in-house animation priorities at this point are DC Comics and Adult Swim; though judging from new Batman content appearing on Amazon Prime Video, even that’s not a guarantee. Tying into this point, I note Adult Swim’s site is still up and running.
How are Disney and Nick’s sites?
As for Cartoon Network’s longtime rivals Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, I checked out their sites. Both sides resemble the old Cartoon Network site: games, featured shows, and videos, both clips and some free full episodes. According to SimilarWeb, they both also had almost twice the visitors of Cartoon Network’s site in July 2024: 1.5 million for Disney’s site, 1.1 million for Nick’s site, and 632,800 for Cartoon Network’s site.
That said, if it’s the cost of hosting and maintaining games and videos that led Warner to shutter their site, they could just ditched those and make a simpler site. An example of this is Disney Channel’s Canadian site, which is the second or third Google result when searching “Disney Channel.” That site’s pretty basic, but it works: a list of featured shows, several video clips, a TV schedule, where to watch Disney Channel/its shows (both on cable and streaming), and some games. The site’s design is pretty clean and simple.
A similar site could work for Cartoon Network, with some cost-saving moves: ditch the games, lose the self-hosted videos (embed YouTube clips instead), and make any “where to watch” page direct to Max. Unfortunately for us, Warner Bros. Discovery instead went scorched-Earth in the name of saving a few dollars.