What Was Qubo?
Qubo is an entertainment brand created by Ion Media, composed of a free-to-air TV network and a programming block on Ion Television known as the Qubo Kids Corner.
Back in May 2006, Qubo was formed as a joint venture between Ion and four other companies: NBCUniversal, Corus Entertainment, Scholastic Corporation, and Classic Media. It launched 4 months later on September 9, as weekend morning blocks that aired on NBC and Telemundo.
A Friday afternoon block was added to Ion Television on September 15. At launch, Qubo's programming was provided by the Corus-owned Nelvana, Scholastic, and the Classic Media-owned Big Idea Entertainment, best known for producing VeggieTales.
VeggieTales run on Qubo, as well as fellow Big Idea series 3-2-1 Penguins! and Larryboy, would gain controversy due to the removal of their religious content, a casualty of NBC's standards and practices.
On January 8, 2007, the 24-hour Qubo channel was launched, airing a looping 4-hour block of programs that included series like Dragon, Babar, Elliott Moose, Jane and the Dragon, Jacob Two-Two, Pecola, Theodore Tugboat, and more. The schedule would extend this block to a 6-hour cycle later in the year, while also introducing series acquired from studios outside of Qubo's main providers.
September 27, 2010 saw the launch of the Qubo Night Owl, a 12am to 6am block of cartoons made by Filmation (whose library was owned by Classic Media). In August 2013, series from Qubo’s regular lineup began to fill up the block’s airtime.
NBCUniversal was acquired by Comcast in 2011, and during that process, gained ownership of the preschool cable network PBS Kids Sprout. As a result, Sprout would program new weekend morning blocks for NBC and Telemundo beginning on July 7, 2012.
This also meant that NBCUniversal’s stake in Qubo would be acquired by Ion Media. A year later, Ion acquired Classic Media (now known as DreamWorks Classics, which is currently part of NBCUniversal), Corus, and Scholastic’s stakes in Qubo, all while retaining program agreements with those three companies.
Qubo's block on Ion Television would move from Friday afternoon to Sunday mornings in January 2015, now branded as the Qubo Kids Corner. After a number of schedule changes over the years, the block returned to Fridays, now airing from 7am to 9am.
The Night Owl portion of Qubo was discontinued in January 2019, after Ion Media chose to reduce the amount of paid programming it aired on Ion Television by moving them over to Qubo's schedule, between 1am and 6am. In September 2020, sister network Ion Plus (formerly Ion Health) began airing the Qubo Kids Corner block, due to E/I commitments.
During that same month, Ion Media announced that it would be acquired by the E.W. Scripps Company, which was finalized on January 7, 2021. The deal saw Scripps combine its Katz Broadcasting unit with Ion's networks, and in some cases, replace them on several TV stations.
This culminated on January 14, when it was announced that the Qubo and Ion Plus channels would shut down on February 28, with their affiliates switching over to Katz's networks. Kids Corner, meanwhile, was replaced by an unbranded block featuring one Qubo series (Finding Stuff Out) and repeats of Xploration Station programs.
