Nick joins the crowd chasing boy advertisers

Seeking to carve out a space in its sked that will attract hard-core boys advertisers in categories like video games, action toys and feature films, Nick is shucking its gender-neutral stance to launch a boys block called Slam this fall. Set to air on Sundays between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., the block will target boys six to 14 with shows including Nicktoon original Invader Zim, Mike Young Productions' Butt-Ugly Martians and a kid-friendly version of Robot Wars, which Nick's in-house team will model after the original series produced by London-based Mentorn Entertainment. Nick is hoping to acquire more live-action and animated programming for Slam, and the net already has some material in development for 2003.