Cartoon Launches Toonami Skateboard Promotion

Cartoon Network is trying a novel approach to getting more kids off the couch that will also promote the channel and build an inventory of Web content in the bargain.

Cartoon Network is taking its Toonami franchise to the streets with a national amateur skateboarding championship, Toonami Klik, for kids 9-14.

Weekly competitions held across the country will be recorded and featured as webisodes on ToonamiJetstream.com.

The tour launches June 9 in Mami, with a championship in Los Angeles Aug. 1 at a local skateboard park.

Media companies are increasingly encouraging viewers to exercise more in the face of the childhood obesity problem and criticism of TV's marketing of snack foods.

The competitions may get the potatoes off the couch, but in that TV circle of life, Cartoon will also feature kiosks at the events where the kids can play video games and watch Toonami programming.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.