NBCUniversal Now Owns All of PBS Kids Sprout

by Christopher Freeburn | November 15, 2013 10:44 am

[1]On Wednesday, Comcast’s (CMCSA[2]) NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group announced that it has purchased the outstanding stake in PBS Kids Sprout[3], a cable network aimed at pre-school aged children.

No terms of the deal — in which NBCUniversal acquired the stakes of HIT Television Ventures and PBS — were revealed. NBCUniversal has managed the network since 2011 due to its merger with Comcast, and held a 40% stake in Kids Sprout last year. In December, it purchased Seasame Workshop’s stake in the eight-year-old network, the New York Times notes.

PBS released a statement indicating that the original partners in Kids Sprout now had different goals. With NBCUniveral now the sole owner, the network will be renamed as just Sprout.

The kids’ network has begun to build a roster of original content, in addition to reruns of popular kids shows from its various partners. It is available in 60 million homes with cable TV subscriptions.

Shares of Comcast were flat in Friday morning trading.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/11/nbcuniversal-now-owns-pbs-kids-sprout/

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