Universal Kids

Universal Kids (originally PBS Kids Sprout and later simply Sprout) is an American pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel was launched on September 26, 2005.

The network was first launched as a joint venture between PBS, Comcast, Sesame Workshop, and HiT Entertainment devoted to children's television programming aimed at a preschool audience. Following Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, the company gradually bought out the remaining owners' shares in the channel, reaching full ownership in 2013. The network's operations were subsequently relocated from Philadelphia to New York City and the "PBS Kids" name was dropped from its branding. The network rebranded under its current name on September 9, 2017 to take the branding of sister company Universal Pictures, expanding its primetime programming to focus on a wider youth audience aimed at older children, while continuing to broadcast preschool-oriented programming under the "Universal Kids Preschool" branding during daytime hours.

Universal Kids is available to approximately 56 million American pay television households (48.2% of households with television) in the United States as of January 2016 (when it was still primarily known as Sprout).