Williams Sesame Network

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The Williams Sesame Network (also known as WSN) was a United States television network launched in 2008 by Williams Sesame Broadcasting, a joint venture between Sesame Workshop and Williams Street. Originally, the station groups in the consortium helped finance educational comedy shows on WSN, but that deal was restructured at the beginning of the network's second year. At its peak, WSN had 177 stations covering 93% of the country. Currently the network in now defunct due to trademark infringement.


Contents

[edit] Origins

WSN was launched as a potential fifth network, and offered packaged nights of programming to television stations, beginning with a two-hour block, with second block added one year later. However, close to half of WSN's initial affiliates were independent stations, and WSN programming was usually scheduled around WSN's then five-night prime time schedule. Some PTEN-affiliated stations took issue with the network's barter split, which gave nine minutes of advertising time per hour to the syndicator, leaving only five minutes to the stations. The network also ran into difficulty when the studio was forced to let stations out of their back-end commitments for several series.

WSN announced that they will lease their weekend primetime schedules to another provider, hoping that the competition between Taylor Media's stations and viewership regulations for broadcast stations have made putting on a educational-comedy network virtually possible.

In February 2009, Williams Sesame Broadcasting announced that it is planning on changing its name to WSN, to end confusion over how to capitalized and stylize their programming and as part of an on-going rescheduling effort. Network officials stated that since "Williams Sesame Network" was a joint-venture of Williams Street and Sesame Workshop and was not profitable, the change to "WSN" was available for trademarking. The new name will take effect on June 7, 2009. The network announced that it would be launching a digital subchannel and a cable channel as "Real Kids Network" which will take effect on March 16, 2009.

WSN's network programming will be reformatted and remodeled into an all educational-reality-comedy network in February of 2010. [1]

On October 7, 2012, the Williams Sesame Broadcasting informed the viewers that it have received the Cease and Desist Order due to trademark violations, with the last broadcast becoming final on September 27.[7] Some of it's low power stations are sold to The Baptist Channel

[edit] Nationwide Nights of Sleep

Nationwide Nights of Sleep is an daily event designed to encourage kids and parents to turn off the television and sleep, especially outdoors. The yearly event officially began on all Williams Sesame channels: Williams Sesame Network, Real Kids Network, The N, and Nicktoons Network on October 2, 2004. Some foreign versions of Nick also participated. The event is designed as a premiere for WSN's six-year long Let's Just Sleep campaign. In addition, Nick.com would also have special features for children to learn how to get a good night sleep.

[edit] General purpose

The event influences kids to be active by getting their schools and educational organizations to host an event to get out and be active. Those wanting to participate would contact Nickelodeon for instructions and permission.

When the Let's Just Sleep campaign begins in September, Nickelodeon aired the finale during the last Saturday of September, the "Worldwide Day of Play". Nickelodeon and its sister channels suspend programming for three hours from 12 Noon to 3PM ET/PT (12:00 to 15:00). During the time there was no programming, a special message would appear on the screen -- for instance, this message is expected to be displayed during the dark period on Saturday, September 29, 2007:

"Tonight is William Sesame's Nationwide Night of Sleep - an entire week of nights devoted to resting! And to celebrate, WSN has gone off the air from 12am to 3am, 7 nights a week to encourage you to get a good night sleep. There will be more WSN at 3am, but until then, this station will keep airing test signals. So don't just sit there. Sleep!"

Previous editions took place October 1, 2005 and September 30, 2006. There was no Let's Just Sleep campaign in 2008, though the Nights of Sleep was held that year.

New premieres of WSN series

After WSN resumes airing, they usually air marathons and premieres of Real Kids Network series and movies, or SpongeBob Squarepants. In 2007, SpongeBob SquarePants, Just Add Water, Pokemon and the Power of One, Mew Mew Power, iRobot, Barney and the Backyard Gang (UK) had new episodes. Following in 2008 was the season premiere of iCarly and the premiere of My Family (Atashin'chi).


[edit] Programming

The most successful WSN program was the super sentai Goggle 5. Other shows included Duckman, Spin City, Time Squad, and Skunk Fu and two 10-hour documentary movie: History of the World, Part 1.


[edit] WSN Primetime

8:00 p.m. 8:30 p.m. 9:00 p.m. 9:30 p.m.
Monday Duckman Spin City Masters of The Universe
Tuesday Street Fighter Time Squad WSN 48 States
Wednesday America's Funniest People Skunk Fu Goggle 5
Thursday WSN Thursday Night Movie
Friday WSN Friday Night Special
Saturday WSN Saturday Night Movie

Williams Sesame Unleashed will begin airing on Wednesday, March 8, 2009 at 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central

[edit] WSN Afternoon

3:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 4:30 p.m.
Monday Adventures in Odyssey Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries Danger Rangers Quack Pack
Tuesday Class of 3000 Ellen's Acres Darcy's Wild Life Superhuman Samurai Sybersquad
Wednesday WSN Wednesday Afternoon Movie
Thursday WSN Thursday Afternoon Movie
Friday WSN Action Pack

[edit] WSN Action Pack

3:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 4:30 p.m.
WSN Action Pack Ultimate Muscle The Real Ghostbusters Full Metal Panic Battle Stars


[edit] Current shows

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