The Cartoon Network is a cable TV channel created and dedicated to showing cartoons.
It was created in the early 1990s (exact creation date?) by Turner Networks. Ted Turner's cable TV conglomerate had acquired the MGM film library, and its cable channel Turner Network Television had gained an audience with its film library. Turner then acquired the older catalog of Warner Bros. cartoons, and shortly thereafter they purchased Hanna-Barbera Productions. The Cartoon Network channel was created as an outlet for Turner's considerable library of animation, and the initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons, with many Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons used as time fillers.
In the mid 1990s, AOL Time Warner merged with Turner Networks, and the Cartoon Network came under their corporate umbrella. This provided still more material for the Cartoon Network, as the channel now had access to the Warner Bros. cartoon library from the 1950s and 1960s.
AOL Time Warner changed the direction of Hanna Barbera Productions, and focused the studio exclusively on creating new material for the Cartoon Network channel. After experimenting with such shows as Cow and Chicken and Two Stupid Dogs, the new Hanna Barbera hit its stride and scored hits with such cartoons as Dexter's Laboratory and (especially) The Powerpuff Girls.
The cable channel has recently made attempts to attract viewers outside its core audience (young children). Their mid-afternoon cartoon block Toonami consists of reruns of acceptable-for-young-teens anime from Japan, while a late-night cartoon block called Adult Swim shows more risque, teenage- and adult-oriented cartoons such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show, Sealab 2021, The Oblongs, and Cowboy Bebop. Anime plays an important role in many of the Adult Swim shows as well.