Universal Kids is an American children's television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of NBCUniversal.
The channel launched on September 26, 2005 as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented channel jointly operated by PBS, Comcast, Sesame Workshop, and HiT Entertainment, as an offshoot of the PBS Kids brand. After the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast in 2011, the company began to buy out the remaining owners' shares in the network. NBCUniversal became the sole owner of the network in 2013, after which it was renamed Sprout. Under NBCUniversal ownership, the channel increased its investments into original programming. In 2017, the network relaunched as Universal Kids, adding an evening and primetime lineup targeting a wider youth audience—including DreamWorks Animation content, non-scripted programming (including game shows, and youth spin-offs of reality series from its NBCUniversal sister networks, such as American Ninja Warrior and Top Chef), and acquired teen dramas. The channel continues to devote its daytime lineup to preschool programming. Amid declines in viewership in comparison to Sprout, Universal Kids ended its development of new original programming in 2019, with the channel now relying primarily on acquisitions and DreamWorks Animation content (drawn primarily from the series they had originally produced for Netflix), and some of its remaining first-run programming moving to NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock instead. As of September 2018, the channel is available to about 56.240 million households in the United States.
Pingu used to air on Universal Kids when it was still known as PBS Kids Sprout. It has been available since launch day, but stopped airing around 2009. More information can be found on the Sprout wiki.