PBS KIDS Sprout
On August 20, 2001, PBS announced that it had entered into a partnership with American Public Television and production companies HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop to launch a 24-hour cable network aimed at preschool children. Created to “strengthen the competitive positions” of all of the parties, PBS Vice-President of digital ventures Deron Triff noted that the content would be “consistent with PBS’s values” and “meet certain curricular objectives and have been tested for educational efficacy. On March 3, 2002, PBS announced that the network would be known as PBS KIDS Sprout, one of PBS children's children's television channels like PBS Kids. The service would soft launch as a branded video on-demand (VOD) service. PBS KIDS Sprout launched its 24-hour cable channel on July 7, 2002, with a reach of around 16 million viewers across the Comcast and Insight cable systems.