Who Owns Boomerang?

Boomerang debuted on December 8, 1992, as a programming block on Cartoon Network. The name carried a double meaning: it referred to the concept of older cartoons "coming back" and to the target audience of baby boomers who grew up watching Hanna-Barbera series in the 1960s and 1970s. Each week, the block devoted its lineup to cartoons produced during or before a specific year. For example, a week focused on 1969 would feature series such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines.

The Boomerang block aired on Cartoon Network until October 3, 2004. By that point, Turner Broadcasting had already launched Boomerang as a standalone cable channel on April 1, 2000. The standalone channel was created to serve as a dedicated home for classic animation from the Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera libraries, functioning as a cartoon equivalent of TV Land. When the Cartoon Network block ended, remaining classic cartoons migrated to the Boomerang channel, with the exception of Tom and Jerry and various Scooby-Doo series, which stayed on Cartoon Network.

In its early years, Boomerang featured classic animated series from the 1960s through the 1980s, including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, and Tom and Jerry. The network appealed to both children and adults who grew up with these shows. By the late 2000s, Boomerang began airing more contemporary programming, including reruns of Cartoon Network original series.

On February 4, 2014, Turner announced that Boomerang would become an advertising-supported network and would be realigned globally across its international feeds. A new branding style launched in the United States on January 19, 2015. As part of the relaunch, Boomerang introduced original programming for the first time, focusing on contemporary reboots of franchises such as Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. The goal was to position Boomerang as a "second flagship" brand alongside Cartoon Network.

As the cable network lost coverage in the mid-2010s due to cord-cutting, Turner launched a standalone subscription video-on-demand streaming service on April 11, 2017. The service cost $5.99 per month and offered a library of classic animated series. It operated for over seven years until Warner Bros. Discovery shut it down on September 30, 2024. Subscribers were migrated to Max's ad-free tier, and Boomerang content was folded into the Max streaming library. Some Boomerang content was not transferred to Max, though the company did not specify which titles were excluded.

The Boomerang linear cable channel continues to operate. As of 2024, it was available in approximately 26 million U.S. households through cable, satellite, and live TV streaming services including DirecTV Stream, Hulu + Live TV, and Sling TV.