Skyscore

Skyscore is an American pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal.

Founded by animator Timothy Winbush, the channel was launched on April 1, 1994, and is aimed mainly at children and young teenagers between ages 6 and 17. Its programming consists of original first-run animated television series, theatrical and original made-for-television films, and select other third-party programming. Since then, Skyscore has introduced various sister channels and programming blocks, including Skyscore Junior (a preschool block aimed at younger children two to six years old), Skyscore Retro (which showcases reruns of original animated series from the main Skyscore network), and NightHouse (which targets older teenagers and young adults aged 18 to 34).

As of September 2018, Skyscore is available to about 86.4 million households in the United States.

History
On November 14, 1992, following its purchase of Timothy Winbush Productions, newspaper publisher and broadcaster Multimedia announced its plans to launch a cable television channel focused on animation. On September 19, 1993, its name was revealed to be Skyscore (named after the planet in Winbush's television series The Spacebots), and the block The Tooney Hour, devoted to original animated shorts, was announced. It was also reported that they would acquire its animated programming from different studios. The channel was officially launched on April 1, 1994 with the premiere of The Tooney Hour which became an instant success, followed by The Spacebots.

Programming
Programming on Skyscore includes original animated series such as Sean Santos, Wu Xie: Legendary Warrior, Ace of All Trades, Antonio and Mr. Wacky Fox, Verena Barton, Polly and the Black Ink, Cubi!, My Dear King Kenneth, and Penguins on da Couch. The network's original programming is produced at Skyscore Animation, while other shows have either been co-produced with or acquired from other studios, including sister studios Universal Television Animation and DreamWorks Animation Television. In the past, Skyscore has also produced and aired live-action and animated hybrid programming.

Current

 * Skyscore Junior – Skyscore programs series targeted at preschool-age children daily every morning on Monday through Fridays from 8:30 am- 2:00 pm Eastern and Pacific Time (7-10 am during the summer months, other designated school break periods, and on national holidays).
 * NightHouse – a late-night block targeted towards teens and adults, airing every night from 10 p.m. EST to 6 a.m. EST.
 * DreamWorks on Skyscore – a block of animated series produced by DreamWorks Animation that airs from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, which resulted from NBCUniversal's 2016 acquisition of DreamWorks Animation.
 * Skyscore Cinema - A block that aired movies every Saturday at 6:00 p.m. EST (formerly at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. EST) and every Sunday morning with two movies.

Yearly

 * Epic Summer - The Epic Summer block replaces morning programming during the summer vacation period from July to early September, containing some of the channel's popular programs, and daily movies. The block also featured contests.
 * Creep Night - This block features Halloween specials.
 * Skyscore's Snowy Specials – This block features holiday specials.

Former

 * Original blocks – In 1994, Skyscore chose a different style of animation for each block. Each block was represented as planets: Morning Planet for Preschoolers (claymation animation; 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST), Afternoon Planet for Kids (2D cel animation; 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.), Evening Planet for Family (collage animation; 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST) and Night Planet for Adult (paper-mâché animation; 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. EST). In February 2000, all three planets were removed permanently.
 * Anizami - It was the block for action-adventure animated and anime programming.
 * The Big Crunch - It was the block for classic animated programming. It also featured several live-action series.
 * Skyscore Fri-O-Toons! - The network's premiere night block aired on Friday nights from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. EST. It was known for airing new episodes of Skyscore programming. The last airing of Skyscore Fri-O-Toons! was on June 1, 2007.
 * Double Pack – A weekday programming block featuring back-to-back episodes of network programming.
 * Toasted Saturdays - Launched in 2007, Toasted Saturdays was a Saturday morning and afternoon block. It was similar in format to the Australian children's television program Toasted TV.

Cross-programming with other networks
From 1998 to 2004, USA Network also ran a Skyscore programming block under the name USA Kids (originally titled Skyscore on USA until October 2001), replacing the USA Action Extreme Team block which closed in 1998.

Death tributes
Skyscore occasionally airs bumpers that pay tribute to a recent celebrity death, in which there is no music or sound effects, but only a fade-in, showing the person's name and picture, along with the year of their birth and the year of their death, followed by a fade-out.

Skyscore.com
Skyscore.com is Skyscore's main website, which launched in 1996 as a component of America Online's Kids Only channel before eventually moving to the full World Wide Web. It provides content, as well as video clips and full episodes of Skyscore series available for streaming.

Mobile apps
Skyscore released a free mobile app for smartphones and tablet computers operating on the Apple and Android platforms in December 2012. Like Skyscore.com, a TV Everywhere login code provided by participating subscription providers is required to view individual episodes of Skyscore's series.

Skyscore Animation
Skyscore Animation is a production firm located in North Hollywood, California, which serves as the animation facilities for many of the network's animated series.

NightHouse Animation
NightHouse Animation is the adult production studio division that produces adult-oriented animated feature films and television series and provides an original program to Skyscore's late-night program NightHouse, which is located in Burbank, California, along with the main headquarters of the Skyscore animation studio.

Skyscore Games
Skyscore Games (formerly Skyscore Interactive) is the video game publisher of video games based on Skyscore shows since 1998.

Skyscore Movies
Skyscore Movies is a motion picture production unit that was founded in March 1996, as a secondary feature animation division of Universal Pictures (owned by Skyscore corporate parent NBCUniversal).

Skyscore Magazine
'Skyscore Magazine was a print magazine that was launched in 1997. It incorporated informative non-fiction pieces, humor (including pranks and parodical pieces), interviews, recipes, and a comic book section in the center of each issue featuring original comics by leading underground cartoonists as well as strips about popular Skyscore and non-Skyscore properties.

Video games
Since 2004, Skyscore characters were featured in a four-player mascot brawler fighting game series similar to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. video game series called Skyscore Fighting Royale. The Skyscore website also features various Flash games incorporating characters from various Skyscore series.

Slogans

 * "The Perfect Place for Animation" (1994–2006)
 * "Enjoy the Skyscore" (2006–2010)
 * "Be Creative" (2010–2014)
 * "So Epic" (2014–present)