As we previously reported on our Tickertape, General Mills' advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi (through it's subsidiary, The Program Exchange) decided to continue it's sponsorship of the first 82 episodes of "Sailor Moon." The Program Exchange distributes the show to local TV stations throughout the United States with some commercials from General Mills. The remaining commercials are placed by the local TV stations.

General Mills has now sponsored the series for an almost unprecedented 5 continuous years--one of the longest runs in U.S. anime history.

The Program Exchange made the deal to pick up the first 65 episodes from DiC Entertainment in early January 1997 just in time for the NATPE (National Association of Television Programming Executives) convention. The final 17 episodes (of "Sailor Moon R") were added to the package in June of 1998. These new episodes premiered on local TV stations (and not the Cartoon Network) and received excellent ratings. The current contract to present the first 82 episodes expires just before (or on) Saturday, May 31, 2002.

Shortly after that time, DiC Entertainment's license of the Sailor Moon property will formally come to an end. If DiC should want to continue the license it would need to initiate its (or renegotiate an) option probably before January of 2002 with Cloverway, Inc. The Program Exchange will need to know who owns the show in the United States, if it should decide to offer it in January's NATPE convention.

At this time, The Program Exchange has no plans to add the Cloverway produced series, "Sailor Moon S" & "Sailor Moon SuperS."

If Cloverway should takeover the first 82 episodes we would hope that Saatchi & Saatchi would continue its relationship with the show. When the Cartoon Network's exclusive on the Cloverway produced episodes ends we would hope that The Program Exchange picks up these episodes as well.

One fan, Jordan Reyes, reminded us that we should post when & where the series is currently being shown--which is something we haven't done in years! (Having the show on a network has made us fat & lazy.) Please check the table on the right to see if "Sailor Moon" is being broadcast in your city. More stations have licensed the program than shown but are currently not airing any episodes. The longer the show stays off the Cartoon Network, the more local stations will pickup the series.

To the local U.S. TV station programmers who frequent this page: We believe that the Cartoon Network will probably attempt at least one more run of all the episodes sometime later this year or early next year. The network is currently suffering from an inventory backlog and may not be able to air all of the different series it has before their broadcast windows expire. WB-TV may or may not allow the Cartoon Network to return to programming anime in the late afternoon this Fall. If it shouldn't we highly encourage local TV stations to take immediate advantage of the situation and book "Sailor Moon" and other anime for the late afternoon.