Variety: Cartoon Network Website Shuts Down, Warner Bros. Discovery Kicks Visitors Over to Max

Story from Variety:

Cartoon Network has been scrubbed from the web.

Warner Bros. Discovery this week pulled the entire contents of cartoonnetwork.com offline — redirecting visitors to a landing page on Max, its subscription-streaming service, encouraging fans to sign up to watch their favorite Cartoon Network shows. The shuttering of the site appears to have happened Thursday, Aug. 8.

“Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon Network shows? Check out what’s available to stream on Max (subscription required),” a pop-up message says on the new Max landing page. “Sign up for Max, where you can also create a Kids Profile with ratings restrictions and additional privacy protections to keep it fun and kid-friendly! Cable subscribers, continue to enjoy your favorite CN programming on your TV and connected apps as well!”

In a statement, a Cartoon Network spokesperson told Variety: “We are focusing on the Cartoon Network shows and social media where we find consumers are the most engaged and there is a meaningful potential for growth.” The rep noted that on linear TV, the Cartoon Network will continue to offer 11 hours of programming from 6 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

The Cartoon Network site had previously offered full episodes and video clips for its roster of shows, including “Adventure Time,” “Craig of the Creek,” “The Amazing World of Gumball,” “Teen Titans GO!,” “Steven Universe,” “We Bare Bears” and “Clarence.” The site also offered access to free games, including games for “Teen Titans GO!”, “Adventure Time” and “Gumball.”

The shutdown of cartoonnetwork.com comes a week after Warner Bros. Discovery told subscribers it will sunset the Boomerang classic ‘toon streamer effective Sept. 30 — and migrating customers (and the content catalog) over to Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s killing off of the Cartoon Network appears to be a cost-cutting move, as well as one intended to spur fans to pay up for Max. In a series of similar moves, Paramount Global earlier this summer removed a huge trove of content from Comedy Central’s site and pulled the full archive of MTV News and CMT from the internet.

On Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery reported Q2 revenue of $9.71 billion (down 6%) and a whopping net loss of almost $10 billion, driven by a $9.1 billion write-down for a drop in value of its cable TV networks. Subscribers to the company’s streaming services, led by Max, were down slightly domestically (dropping by about 300,000 to 52.4 million), while international streaming customers increased by 3.9 million in the period to 50.8 million.