Dojo Network

Dojo Network (mostly referred to as Dojo Network the Channel Dojo or DojoToons) is an American pay television channel owned by The Dojo Group. Which is owned by WrapperMedia, the channel launched on October 10, 1997, and primarily targets all ages. Its lineup features a mix of originally produced programming and co-productions.

As of August 2016, the Dojo channel is available to approximately 76,389,000 pay television households (66.89% of households with television) in the United States.

Development
The development of Dojo Network began on March 26, 1994, when WrapperMedia announced the launch of the channel as a pay television service.

On April 30, 1995, multimedia company WrapperMedia announced that it would launch a new service as a new family-oriented network, paying $300 million for 30% ownership of the network. Under the arrangement, the company would be in charge of handling advertising sales distribution and acquiring and producing programming.

In July 1995, the network appointed veteran television executive Margaret Loesch as its chief executive officer; prior to this, Loesch had led Fox Kids, and served as president and CEO of Marvel Productions from 1984 to 1990, assisting in the production of several Dojo shows. In January 1996, the companies announced that the new network would be known as Dojo; this was soon followed two months later with the announcement that the network would launch on October 10, 1997. The network's original imaging was developed by Troika Design Group and built around an emblem nicknamed the "studio" – which was designed to embody a "catalyst of action and imagination". The final logo design was the result of a number of drafts by Troika designers, some of which had incorporated typography similar to WrapperMedia’s logo.

Goals
The launched channel would compete against established children services such as MNB Kids and YoYo TV which were huge kids television networks at the time, the network was planned to continue target children aged 7-15.

Commercial Programming
The Children Television Act (CTA) in the United States limits the commercial time during children's programming and prohibits television broadcasters from airing advertisements for products associated with a program during or in timeslots adjacent to the show itself. During time slots that targeted its teenage audiences (aired during a block branded as "Toons in Command"), Dojo was to broadcast six minutes of advertisements per hour, below 12 minutes per hour on weekdays, and 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends as mandated by the CTA. Additionally, it was planning to broadcast 10.5 minutes of advertisements per hour the rest of the day throughout the week. The channel was planning to sell its advertising inventories to toy companies other than Hasbro; as reported by Advertising Age in May 1997, Dojo was even in talks with Hasbro Mattel and Lego.

There have been reported concerns that the channel would be exploited by WrapperMedia as a platform to plug it’s products. Ahead of the channel's launch as Dojo, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) called the whole project an "infomercial" and stated that they would be monitoring the channel. CCFC founder Susan Linn said "It will make a mockery of existing ad limits and the current prohibition of product placement in children's television" at the April 1995 announcement of the of the network. Loesch stated that The Network's goal was to be "vibrant" and "diverse" in its programming, and that the channel would not purely be a marketing vehicle for products.

Launch And Later Years
In a June 1998 debt filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Dojo Group indicated that the channel may be worth less than recently believed, based on low viewership figures. The management of Dojo subsequently underwent a fair value analysis of the channel. A WrapperMedia spokesperson considered the action to be "a pro-forma accounting exercise" and noted that WrapperMedia felt "very positive and encouraged by The Network's early days' performance, and ability to grow its audience in the future."

In March 1999, Dojo picked up Mighty Fist, an animated pilot film that aired on February 1, 2000.

On September 1, 2000, Dojo. received a rebrand that introduced more than a dozen new logos.

On September 10, 2007, Dojo. received yet another rebrands. A new slogan, Play with Us! was included. Dojo’s bumpers encouraged viewers to play along and introduced there new mascot Cara. This marks the first time that the network had no mascot since 2002.

On January 30, 2009, the stuffed animals' logo ended its 2-year run with Beeni and Snacker being the last show to use it. That same day, the Play with Us! interstitials ended their almost 2-year run.

The Toons in Command block debuted on September 28, 2009, at 6:00 a.m. ET, On March 1, 2011, the Dojo channel received a new rebrand produced by Trokia. Jessica DiCicco and Cam Brainard became the network's announcer, The channel's slogan changed from "The Next Generation Of TV" to "Infinite Possibility's", while some shows were pulled from the lineup; most of them would return later that year, while the former could still be seen on the channel's website at the time. The rebrand would also introduce new mascots name RoboDroid and Asobo who replaced Cara however the network stated that she retired and went on vacation.

At this point, programming began to be hosted by characters from Dojo Network shows and the new mascots. The channel also began incorporating programming promotions and short features on that date; seven months later, on October 1, 2011, it started airing limited traditional advertising (for companies such as Dave and Busters, Toys R Us, ABCMouse, Kmart, Chuck E. Cheese's, Nabi, Clorox, Walmart, Lysol, Leapfrog and Playskool) in the form of underwriter sponsorships airing in-between shows, whereas its parent network airs longer traditional advertising.

On January 15, 2013, it was announced that the Vyond Network, as part of a new rebranding strategy would be folded into The Dojo Network Channel. Vyond Network ended its run as a network on February 16, 2013, and it was folded into Dojo starting the next day. A few of Vyond Network programs moved over to Dojo to carry future episodes of their respective series (the case with Caillou Gets Grounded) while others were moved to Wrapper+

On May 2, 2015, the channel refreshed their imaging with new interstitial pieces and updated up next notices, and now being branded as "You Play in Your World Play in Ours." On that day to mascots RoboDroid and Asobo were retired.

On May 21, 2015, the channel began to promote themselves as Dojo Network the Channel. The Tomb Explorer episode "Riley Rocks!" was the first program to air with this look.

In May 2019, the Dojo Network dropped the Dojo Network the Channel name.

On September 5, 2023, the channel rebranded again using new bumpers and banners.

The Dojo Group
The Dojo Group is an American entertainment company that oversees WrapperMedia's kids cable television channels including its flagship service Dojo Network. It is a subsidiary of WrapperMedia’s networks unit.

International Versions

 * In Latin America, Dojo launched on April 1, 1997.
 * In the Middle East, Dojo launched on May 5, 1997.
 * In Canada USA and France launched on October 10, 1997.
 * In the UK & Ireland, Dojo launched on May 7, 1998.
 * In Italy, Dojo launched on May 14, 1998.
 * In Australia & New Zealand, Dojo launched on May 29, 1998.
 * In Brazil, Dojo launched on April 9, 2001 and May 31, 1998.
 * In Portugal, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Turkey, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In South Africa, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Hungary, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Poland, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Czech Republic, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Romania, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Bulgaria, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In Greece, Dojo launched on June 1, 1998.
 * In India, Dojo launched on July 4, 1998.
 * In Austria and Germany Dojo launched on July 14, 1998.
 * In Japan, Dojo launched on July 3, 1998.
 * In Asia, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998
 * In Southeast Asia, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998.
 * In Taiwan, Dojo launched in September 1, 1998.
 * In Israel, Dojo launched on July 18, 1998.
 * In Scandinavia/Nordic, Dojo launched on September 10, 1998.
 * In China, Dojo launched on February 6, 2000.
 * In South Korea, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998.
 * In Zimbabwe, Dojo launched on April 29, 2000.
 * In Hong Kong, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998.
 * In the Philippines, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998.
 * In Vietnam, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998.
 * In Belgium, Dojo launched on September 1, 1998.
 * In Netherlands, Dojo launched on September 10, 1998.
 * In Russia, Dojo launched on September 1, 2000. (Being the last to switch).
 * In Malaysia, Dojo launched on July 11, 1998.

Television Carriage
Since its launch, Dojo became initially available to subscribers of Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bright House Networks, and Verizon FiOS; other providers would sign carriage agreements to run the network following its launch:


 * On March 26, 1999, Cox Communications announced that it would carry Dojo, as part of the provider's "Variety Pak" package.
 * On April 3, 2000, WrapperMedia announced that it had reached a distribution agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative to carry Dojo, which negotiates carriage deals on behalf of many of America's smaller cable providers.
 * Cable One added the network to the digital tier of its systems around May 26, 2002.
 * On June 21, 2001, RCN began carrying the network on its systems.
 * On July 13, 2002, DirecTV announced that the Dojo network would be added to its lineup the following day on the 14th, a Saturday.
 * On December 31, 2002, Charter Communications came to terms with WrapperMedia on a new wide-ranging multiple-year carriage agreement for ABC, all of the U.S.-based WrapperMedia Channels Worldwide which included the addition of Dojo to Charter systems throughout the first quarter of 2003.
 * On January 15, 2003, AT&T U-verse also reached a deal with WrapperMedia on a new wide-ranging multi-year agreement to carry their networks which included the addition of Dojo.
 * On June 6, 2003, Suddenlink Communications inked a deal with WrapperMedia to add their networks which included Dojo.
 * On June 17, 2003, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks added the WrapperMedia channels to their carriage's.
 * On September 16, 2003, Teleblue Cable added the Dojo Network to their carriages but the channel was removed from all carriages affiliated with Teleblue in 2009.
 * Dish Network, the last major television provider to have not signed a carriage deal for Dojo, added the channel on April 10, 2004; after a long period of acrimony and a six-month extension of their past carriage agreement with WrapperMedia for a few select networks Dish and WrapperMedia came to full terms on carrying all of WrapperMedia's networks in both standard and high definition on March 3, 2004, with the resolution of legal issues involving Dish's Hopper DVR system, which also included streaming rights for the networks as part of Dish's IPTV streaming service Sling TV.

Trivia

 * Tomb Explorer holds the record for longest-running DojoToon, both in number of episodes and years running.
 * Ninja Bunnies was the first DojoToon to reach ten seasons, even before Tomb Explorer