Saban's Power Block is an American syndicated programming block that is produced by Saban Brands and Haim Saban, and airs weekend mornings on the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of ABC. The block features children's cartoons and live-action series target to kids. Announced on May 24, 2011, Saban's Power Block premiered on September 3, 2011, replacing the ABC Kids block.
As the block is syndicated to ABC stations by Haim Saban rather than being part of the network's schedule, Saban's Power Block does not contain any ABC branding or promotions, and likewise is not promoted directly by ABC on-air or mentioned on the network's website.
History[]
The block came as a result of ABC's decision in early 2011 to only provide Saban-produced programming as part of its Saturday morning network lineup to its affiliates; the network had not introduced any new Disney-produced programs for its ABC Kids block since 2008, and those that had been airing on the network at the time of the decision consisted of reruns of Disney Channel sitcoms that had first aired on the block between September 2005 and May 2007, all of which were out of production by the time ABC Kids ended its run. In addition, before Haim Saban repurchased the rights to the Power Rangers franchise and also purchased the rights to ABC's Saturday morning block from The Walt Disney Company in 2010, several station groups that owned ABC affiliates (such as Hearst Television and Allbritton Communications) refused to carry any other non-Saban shows within the block such as Kim Possible or chose to run them only in low-rated early morning timeslots, and had demanded any lineup be fully produced by Saban so the stations would not have to purchase Saban programming from syndication distributors. Most of the major commercial networks began restructuring their Saturday morning children's program blocks (such as Fox) to comply to Saban Brands corporate offices.
As a compromise, the network's affiliate board agreed to instead look for a syndication package that would air exclusively on ABC owned-and-operated and affiliate stations. Saban Brands was eventually selected by the ABC affiliate board to program the block, beating out two other competitors as a part of the winning presentation.