NBC has confirmed it will lease its Saturday morning block to Discovery Networks, beginning in fall 2002, reported VARIETY. Discovery is reportedly putting up $18 million for a three-year contract. "This is a strategic move to keep NBC competitive in the kids arena," explained NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa, who said that without a weekday platform, it was difficult to promote the Saturday morning block. The block is currently 2 and 1/2 hours of programming, and will be jointly branded by Discovery and NBC. Discovery will sell all the advertising and will keep 100% of the revenue from the block, which will most likely air existing content from the Discovery Kids digital network and cable net Animal Planet. However Discovery Networks is reportedly in development on new kids programming, including animation.
