Cartoon Network is owned by Turner Broadcasting System, which is owned by Time Warner.
DC is owned by Warner Brothers, which is owned by Time Warner.
It makes no sense whatsoever why there's a blood feud between these companies when they're all owned by Time Warner. They didn't even attempt to try to syndicate the show.
While it may be true that ultimately they are owned by the same corporate monolith, corporate politics are bottom-driven the vast majority of the time, not driven by who is at the top of the food tree. Time-Warner also owns many book imprints, most of whom compete against each other on the book racks - for the line editor, its not about how to co-operate and play nice, its about how to excel so that they get promoted and gain influence within the structure. They are probably encouraged to co-operate, but each business unit has its own P&L to be responsible for.
Want to try and make a difference? Urge friends and fans to buy the DVDs, iTunes episodes, etc. No illegal downloading, no excuses, but buying. A big wave of merchandise purchases (i.e. money) is the only way Cartoon Network will make notice of the demand for this show.
That works when the show is active. Now its locking the barn door after the horse has fled. The time to support a show is early, not after they decide to not renew for a third season, unfortunately.
Hold up one cotton pickin minute! Why is it that Adventure Time and Regular Show merchandise is marketed across demographics while shows like Young Justice, and Green Lantern have to rely on toy sales? There's a bunch of Adventure Time and Regular Show stuff for teenagers and young adults like clothing and the like. You would think they'd be smart enough not to put all of their eggs in one basket and have a little more in the book bag and clothing departments...
Because the clothing rights (or more accurately, the options thereto) to Green Lantern (for example) are already sold by DC's licensing department. Many of the comic brands, for better or for worse, are already leveraged by DC's licensing revenue people. Something like Adventure Time has no pre-existing rights already sold, so the options are wide-open. That's one of the reasons that AEMH had so few things to buy - Avengers rights were long since sold.
This makes no sense to me as well. It is a show on teen issues featuring teens mentored by adults who collectively face primarily adult villains, yet it needs to rely on toy sales to kiddies while mired in a kiddie time slot?
Make money off clothing, video games, apps, things that the 13+ crowd will buy that will support the show.
The problem is that DC has no control over this stuff, once they've optioned or sold the rights. Now a smart clothing rightsholder might make a buck by putting out a Batman clothing line to coincide with a Batman cartoon, but that revenue won't help DC until it becomes time to negotiate renewal ("You made a fortune off of that t-shirt line, so if you want to keep the rights we're going to want a 0.5 percent of the gross sales and double the license fee this time"), and won't help the cartoon channel directly at all (indirectly, it helps because the t-shirts reinforce the brand awareness, which reminds people they like Batman, and so they watch the new show).
