The studio lost its Burbank building, merged into Warner Bros. Animation, shed its executives and watched ad revenue fall 83%. The merger is not the threat. It is the last step.
Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has raised an obvious question about what happens to Cartoon Network.
The honest answer is that most of it already happened.
The studio was consolidated in 2022, lost its dedicated building, and has watched the advertising business that funded it collapse by 83 percent.
Cartoon Network Studios does not have its own building anymore
Cartoon Network Studios was founded in 1994. In 1999, Cartoon Network bought a large building in Burbank specifically to house it, at 300 N 3rd Street, opening May 22, 2000.
The point was independence. Cartoon Network Studios existed to create original series while Warner Bros. Animation handled existing intellectual property.
It operated there for more than 20 years. On Aug. 1, 2023, it relocated into shared corporate space at 100 S California Street.
Bloomberg Businessweek later described it plainly: Warner Bros. Discovery closed the Cartoon Network Studios home in Burbank.
The 2022 consolidation merged it into Warner Bros. Animation
The structural change came in a memo.
Warner Bros. Television Group chairman Channing Dungey told staff the company would fully consolidate its television animation divisions, merging Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios into shared development and production teams.
The same week brought 82 layoffs plus 43 positions left permanently unfilled, a total of 125 roles amounting to 26 percent of the workforce across those units.
Sam Register remained president of both divisions and of Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, which stayed separate for geographic reasons.
Cartoon Network Studios pushed back at the time, calling reports of its disappearance “categorically false” and stating flatly, “We are not going anywhere.”
What Cartoon Brew predicted in 2022
The trade’s read at the time has aged well.
Cartoon Brew argued that once CNS had to share development and production resources with Warner Bros. Animation, it became difficult to imagine the studio’s original output matching its past.
The publication predicted a shift toward reboots of the existing catalog rather than new intellectual property, citing the Powerpuff Girls revival then in development.
The executives who built the brand left
Two departures signaled where marketing authority moved.
Tricia Melton, the marketing chief who led Cartoon Network’s rebranding and launched the Cartoonito preschool label, departed alongside Jill King, a 22-year Warner veteran who helped build The Powerpuff Girls and Steven Universe into global franchises.
Both left as Karen Bronzo, U.S. networks marketing chief, consolidated those operations into the broader company.
Melton’s own memo to staff was direct. “They say the secret to a long life is knowing when it’s time to go,” she wrote. “I know that this is a challenging, turbulent time for everyone.”
Cartoon Network’s advertising revenue fell 83 percent
The number underneath all of this explains the rest.
Annual advertising revenue for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim combined fell 83 percent between 2014 and 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.
Bloomberg also noted that the brand’s streaming prospects looked no better, with Max having largely failed to become a destination for young viewers.
More layoffs hit both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim in 2025, confirmed publicly by an Adult Swim voice actor who said a lot of good people were weighing their options.
That round landed while the network was in France celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
What the Paramount merger actually changes
Less than the headlines suggest, and that is the point.
The European Commission approved the deal on July 22 with conditions covering theatrical film distribution only. Regulators examined the overlap in children’s television channels specifically and found no competition problem.
Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are not being forced apart. They are being placed under one owner, and neither is what it was.
Nickelodeon fell 86 percent in viewership between 2016 and 2023. Cartoon Network fell 85 percent.
What is still standing in the way
The merger is not closed.
Twelve state attorneys general, led by California and New York, sued in July to block it. A federal judge in Oakland temporarily halted completion pending a hearing.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority has not ruled.
If the deal does not close by the end of September, Paramount owes WBD shareholders roughly $7 million a day.
Cartoon Network turns 34 this year. It will spend its birthday as a brand inside somebody’s portfolio, which it already was.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Bloomberg Businessweek, via Axios (May 2025), the Burbank studio closure and the 83 percent ad revenue decline from S&P Global Market Intelligence
Cartoon Brew (October 2022), Channing Dungey’s consolidation memo, the layoff figures and the analysis of CNS’s future output
The Hollywood Reporter, the Tricia Melton and Jill King departures and Karen Bronzo’s restructuring
The Ticker, the Cartoon Network Studios statement and the leadership assignments
ComicBook.com (June 2025), the Adult Swim layoffs during Annecy
Wikipedia, the Cartoon Network Studios address history and founding dates
Graphic Policy and Variety (July 2026), the European Commission approval terms and the state attorneys general lawsuit