4Kids TV (often stylized as 4K!DSTV, branded on-screen as 4Kids TV: The Game Station from September 8, 2007 to December 27, 2008, and formerly known as FoxBox from September 14, 2002 to January 15, 2005) was an American television programming block and internet-based video on demand children's network operated by News Corporation and 4Kids Entertainment. It originated as a weekly block on Saturday mornings on the Fox network, which was created out of a four-year agreement reached on January 22, 2002, between 4Kids Entertainment and Fox to lease the four-hour Saturday morning time slot occupied by the network's existing children's program block, Fox Kids. It was targeted at children aged 7–11. The 4Kids TV block was part of the Fox network schedule, although it was syndicated to other broadcast television stations in certain markets where a Fox affiliate declined to air it.
History
The block aired a preview special on September 1, 2002, and was formally launched on September 14, 2002, under the name FoxBox, a joint venture between News Corporation and 4Kids Entertainment, replacing Fox Kids, which the network announced it would discontinue as a result of the 2001 purchase of Fox Family Worldwide by The Walt Disney Company (which resulted in much of the content featured on the block moving to Disney's networks and blocks). The block was rebranded as 4Kids TV on January 22, 2005. 4Kids Entertainment was fully responsible for the content of the block and collected all of the advertising revenue accrued from it. However, Fox's standards and practices department still handled content approval and responsibility of editing the series to meet FCC broadcast standards.
The programming block aired on Saturday mornings in most areas of the United States, though stations who already had a Saturday morning block (usually one from other minor networks said station affiliated with, namely Kids' WB) would instead air the block on Sundays. On October 2, 2007, 4Kids Entertainment announced it would program a competing Saturday morning lineup for The CW, the new block, The CW4Kids (later renamed Toonzai, with the original name becoming a secondary brand), premiered on May 24, 2008, replacing the Kids' WB programming block, which had been carried over to The CW from one of its predecessors, The WB, when it launched on September 23, 2006. The block was renamed as Toonzai on August 14, 2010, and continued to air until it ended August 18, 2012, being replaced by Vortexx a week later and the block continued to air until it ended on September 27, 2014.
On November 10, 2008, 4Kids Entertainment announced that 4Kids TV would conclude at the end of the year due to intervening conflicts between Fox and 4Kids, as the latter company had not paid the network for the time lease for some time, while the network was unable to maintain the guaranteed 90% clearance for the block due to affiliate refusals and an inability to secure secondary affiliates to carry the programming in markets where the Fox station denied clearance for the block. 4Kids TV ended on December 27, 2008, ending Fox's nearly two-decade commitment to children's animation programming. Fox announced that the four-hour time period would no longer be used for children's programming, owing that it was no longer viable due to the insurmountable competition from children's cable channels (such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel). On January 3, 2009, the network gave two hours of the programming time that the 4Kids TV block occupied back to its affiliates, while the other two hours would be retained by the network for a paid programming block titled Weekend Marketplace, which replaced 4Kids TV on January 3, 2009. The 4KidsTV logo now only exists as the closing logo for 4Kids Entertainment for shows produced by the company distributed outside of the United States (particularly those made before the 2012 auction of most of 4Kids' assets to Saban Brands).
Fox would reverse course and indirectly resume airing children's programming for the first time since 4Kids TV ended through an agreement announced on December 17, 2013, when it signed a deal with Steve Rotfeld Productions to launch Xploration Station, a two-hour block of live-action educational programs focused on the STEM fields, which debuted on September 13, 2014. As the block accounts for two of the three weekly hours of educational programming required by the Federal Communications Commission's Children's Television Act, the Fox affiliates that opted against airing 4Kids TV, Fox Kids, or Weekend Marketplace (including those owned by the network that were acquired through its 1996 merger with New World Communications and those acquired through that deal that were owned by Tribune Broadcasting, now Nexstar Media Group) elected to run Xploration Station as it is an E/I-compliant lineup syndicated primarily to the network's affiliates, relieving them of taking on the full burden of purchasing educational programming aimed at children from the syndication market (although some Fox stations, including those owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group—the vast majority of its stations had carried Fox's previous children's blocks, decided to decline the block anyway due to existing commitments to syndicated programs compliant with Children's Television Act recommendations).
As of 2024, some former 4Kids TV shows (such as Chaotic (only in Spanish), Dinosaur King, G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, Sonic X, and various entries in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise) are made available to stream via the free ad-supported Tubi streaming service, which launched on April 1, 2014, and was later acquired by Fox Corporation (which had recently been spun off from 21st Century Fox following that company's acquisition by Disney one year prior in March 2019) on April 20, 2020. Sonic X is also available on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Pluto TV, and Crackle respectively, though the latter service only carries seasons 1 and 2. Netflix also carried the first two seasons of Sonic X between December 2019 and December 2024, and again since December 2025. In addition, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is made available to stream on both the free ad-supported Pluto TV and subscription-based Paramount+ streaming services owned by Paramount Skydance following that property's 2009 acquisition by Nickelodeon, while various entries in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and the English-language version of Chaotic are on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service. Winx Club is available on services like Toon Goggles, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video, but the Canadian English Cinélume dub is used instead of the 4Kids Entertainment dub. Similarly, One Piece is also available on modern streaming services like Netflix, but it uses modern dubs instead.
Programming Former programming FoxBox Original programming Title Premiere dateEnd dateSource(s)Ultraman TigaSeptember 14, 2002March 1, 2003Kirby: Right Back at Ya! ‡January 15, 2005Ultimate Muscle ‡May 22, 2004Fighting FoodonsAugust 30, 2003Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ‡February 8, 2003January 15, 2005WMAC MastersJuly 5, 2003August 30, 2003Sonic X ‡August 23, 2003January 15, 2005Funky CopsJuly 3, 2004Shaman King ‡August 30, 2003January 15, 2005Cubix: Robots for EveryoneE/ISeptember 6, 2003June 12, 2004Winx ClubE/I ‡May 22, 2004January 15, 2005F-Zero GP Legend ‡September 4, 2004One Piece ‡September 18, 2004
Acquired programming Title Premiere dateEnd dateSource(s)Stargate InfinityE/ISeptember 14, 2002March 15, 2003The Cramp Twins ‡February 8, 2003November 15, 2003September 18, 2004January 15, 2005Pirate IslandsMarch 8, 2003August 2, 2003Back to the FutureE/IMarch 22, 2003August 30, 2003Martin MysteryMay 8, 2004June 19, 2004The Menu ‡June 5, 2004September 11, 2004
‡ - Program transitioned to 4Kids TV
4Kids TV Original programming Title Premiere dateEnd dateSource(s)Kirby: Right Back at Ya! †January 22, 2005August 6, 2005July 8, 2006January 6, 2007June 21, 2008December 27, 2008Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles †January 22, 2005One Piece †November 12, 2005Shaman King †September 3, 2005Winx ClubE/I †December 27, 2008F-Zero GP Legend †March 5, 2005Sonic X †June 3, 2006May 5, 2007December 27, 2008Mew Mew PowerFebruary 19, 2005July 22, 2006Magical DoReMiE/IAugust 13, 2005August 19, 2006G.I. Joe: Sigma 6August 27, 2005December 30, 2006Ultimate Muscle †June 10, 2006August 19, 2006Viva PiñataAugust 26, 2006August 2, 2008Yu-Gi-Oh!September 2, 2006August 25, 2007Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule MonstersSeptember 9, 2006November 25, 2006ChaoticOctober 7, 2006December 27, 2008Yu-Gi-Oh! GXSeptember 1, 2007June 14, 2008Dinosaur KingSeptember 8, 2007September 6, 2008The Adrenaline ProjectE/ISeptember 29, 2007April 5, 2008
Acquired programming Title Premiere dateEnd dateSource(s)The Cramp Twins †January 22, 2005February 12, 2005June 10, 2006August 19, 2006Alien RacersMay 7, 2005July 23, 2005The Menu †July 9, 2005August 27, 2005BratzAugust 20, 2005April 7, 2007Di-Gata DefendersJuly 28, 2007December 27, 2008Biker Mice from MarsAugust 9, 2008
† - Program transitioned from FoxBox
4KidsTV.com
Online network 4Kids launched an online video player on its website on September 8, 2007, and gradually added full-length episodes as well as additional video clips and online-exclusive content.
Relationship with Fox and broadcast ambiguities The block had a somewhat infrequent relationship to the Fox network. The programming was produced for Fox and offered to the network's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates first, so the Fox station in any given area had the right of first refusal. In the event that a Fox affiliate or in some cases, an O&O of the network—opted not to carry 4Kids TV, the block then became available for the local broadcast rights to be acquired by another television station. In fact, it was due in part to these carriage ambiguities that 4Kids dissolved the block in 2008, as they had been promised clearance on at least 90% of Fox's stations.
Most of Fox's owned-and-operated stations opted to carry 4Kids TV (these were mainly stations that had been owned by the network since Fox launched in October 1986 or were Fox charter affiliates that Fox Television Stations had acquired since that point). However dating back to the existence of the Fox Kids block, the twelve stations that Fox acquired from New World Communications in 1996 (and had earlier affiliated with the network through a 1994 multi-station affiliation deal—which prior to then, had been affiliated with ABC, NBC, or CBS) generally did not air 4Kids TV. In some of the New World markets, 4Kids was not carried on any station. In a majority of these markets, an independent station carried the block; in others, it was carried by either a WB or UPN affiliate, and later a MyNetworkTV or CW affiliate. The only exception was in St. Louis, Missouri, where Fox O&O (now affiliate) KTVI carried the block (although it aired 4Kids TV two hours earlier than the network's recommended scheduling for the block, beginning at 5:00 a.m., due to the station's Saturday morning newscast).
Some of 4Kids TV's programming (such as Winx Club, The Adrenaline Project, Magical DoReMi, Stargate Infinity, reruns of Back to the Future: the Animated Series, and Cubix) met the criteria to be considered educational and informational under the requirements defined by the Children's Television Act, and counted toward the three-hour-per-week mandatory educational children's programming quotas outlined by the Federal Communications Commission.
Markets where 4Kids TV did not run