History of The CDX Networks

The CDX Network launched in December 25, 2015 in select US states, and launched worldwide on January 6, 2016. This article details the history of CDX and it's sister channels.

The TubeTV/Piggy Studios Television era
In January 2012, a small company named XOL Media (with financial backing from Digital Pictures, an indie studio) would launch the TubeTV Network, a channel that primally aired cartoons from Nickeloden and Cartoon Network, on several American households. Around the same time, they launched a similar channel named TuneTV, which aired shows from the 1950's to the 1980's. Although both channels recieved minor critical success, they were unable to recieve enough views, and many predicted that the channels would cease to exist within the next few years.

The same year, TubeTV and the Universal Television division of NBCUniversal co-produced and released an original adult-animated science fiction action show named Stickly-Man: Heroes United, based after the Sticklyman character from Homestar Runner and the film series released in 2002. The show was a smash hit, gathering millions of views every week. As of May 2021, the show now airs on the RedMasters Network.

TuneTV, on the other hand, failed to gather any views by comparison, though XOL still thought it had potential. Three years later, XOL launched Piggy Studios Television, a similar channel to TubeTV which also aired cartoons, though it mostly aired shows for pre-schoolers. They produced their own show called Brick-Ball, where a brick/ball hybrid of the same name, tries to solve every day problems. During this period of time, NBCUniversal owned a 36% ownership of all three networks. Even after Nexstar acquired all of the networks in 2021, the networks and NBCUniversal still work together from time to time, mostly with NBC having syndication rights to most of their shows.

Creation of CDX
Even with their succesful original shows, TubeTV, TuneTV, and PST failed to attract many viewers, even if combining their viewership ratings. Because of this, XOL announced that on Christmas Day of 2015, they would launch a channel that would air every show on TubeTV and PST in an effort to gain more viewers. After many changes to the new network, the network was given the name of CDX. The channel launched as intended, and launched for the rest of the world in January 6, 2016.

CDX, at launch, had almost the same programming as both TubeTV and PST. On Feburary 1 of the same year, the network debuted Object World, which is notable for being the first object show on television. The show managed to bring millions of views, more than Tube, Tune, and PST combined. As a result, CDX claimed exclusivity rights to air object shows on TV. The success of Object World led to the creation of CDX Studios, which produces most of the original programming for the network.

The rest of 2016 and all of 2017 was referred to by people as the greatest year for the network. The network debuted many original shows, and CoolDude201672 Studios Ltd, a sepreate company founded by the same owner of XOL, acquired CDX, TubeTV, TuneTV, and PST during the same time. Meanwhile, TubeTV announced that they would begin to air comedy and drama programming to differate themselves from CDX, though they would still continue to air cartoons.

In early 2017, CDX launched three new sister channels, CDX 2, CDX Movies and Objects, and the short-lived CDZ. CDX 2 was basically the same as CDX, but had an emphasis on teen sitcoms, Movies and Objects aired movies from the CoolDude201672 library and object shows, and CDZ aired anime and internationally produced cartoons. Both CDX 2 and Movies and Objects are still alive today, but with different names, while CDZ was shut down entirely.

Formation of Flipnote/RedMasters and AT&T acquisition
Despite the success of CDX and the changes made to TubeTV, both PST and TuneTV suffered major viewership losses. As a result, The CDX Group (the newly-renamed XOL Media) announced that in 2019, TubeTV would drop all cartoon programming (except for Stickly-Man) entirely, with their cartoon programming to form into their own network named CDX Toons, and PST would turn into a movie-based premium channel in 2020. TuneTV however announced that they would shut down on April 8 after failing to garner any viewers during their lifetime. CDX 2 was renamed CDX Teens, and Movies and Objects was renamed CDX 3, with a focus on sitcoms produced from the 1990's to the 2010's.

As 2019 came along, CDX Toons was formed as promised, but there were multiple reports that CDX was entering negotiations with Nintendo and the E.W. Scripps Company to launch a broadcast network to compete with the "Big Three". The rumors were true when CDX announced that Flipnote Network would launch in March 2019. Not long after, the RedMasters Network, a network that primarlly airs general entertainment, music videos, Esports, and adult-animated programming, launched in May 2019. The same time, AT&T, after acquiring WarnerMedia in 2018, announced that they had successfully acquired a majority stake in CoolDude201672 and all subsidiares, after a bidding war with Lionsgate, the Alden Capital Group, Sirius XM Holdings, and Sprint Corporation.

The Nexstar era
The newly renamed PST, TubeTV Movies, launched on May 5, 2020. Two major changes happened to CDX during the year. First, CDX announced the launch of CDX SparkStar Access (now known as Nexstar Galaxy since 2021), a streaming service featuring content from all of CoolDude201672, in order to compete with Netflix and Disney. Next, in order to reduce debts, AT&T announced to sell many of their newly-acquired assets, including The CoolDude201672 Company. In October, the Nexstar Media Group announced their acquisition of The CoolDude201672 Company, set to be completed by January 2021.

As promised, on Janurary 6, 2021, Nexstar acquired the company, putting the networks under the same roof with WGN-TV, its radio station, NewsNation, and Antenna TV. With the acquisition, Nexstar now effectively owns all programming on CDX. During the acquisition process, CDX Teens, CDX Toons, and CDX 3 were subsequently renamed to Jetix, Vortexx, and the iTS Network respectively. On June 14, 2021, CDX SparkStar Access was renamed to Nexstar Galaxy, in order to expand all of Nexstar on the service.

CDX was one of the many companies to stop releasing content on Russian channels for obvious reasons.

On May 6, 2022, Nexstar made a successful bid to acquire all of Digital Pictures' assets for 25 million dollars after the latter company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to their recent films preforming badly at the box-office and competition from other studios, namely Lionsgate and Disney. The deal ended in May 12, and Digital's animation subsidiaries, Analog Cartoons and a 75% stake in Irima Entertainment, were placed under the same corporate umbrella within CDX Studios.

On August 15, Nexstar announced that the TuneTV name would be resurrected as a content hub on Nexstar Galaxy and as a programming block on TubeTV beginning September 15. Starting in 2023, CDX announced that they will cease licensing their content out to comepting VOD services in order to expand Nexstar Galaxy's library.

It has been rumored that CDX is developing a Sony-themed channel that will air all of Sony's movies, shows, music videos, and game trailers to make up for Sony's lack of TV networks they have in the US. Whether this channel will be a reality or not remains to be seen.