Cartoonito has shot up to the top of the charts among Italian preschoolers.

ROME – U.S.-based Turner Broadcasting System and Italian broadcast giant Mediaset announced Tuesday that their latest joint venture -- the Cartoonito cable channel for small children -- immediately leaped to the top of the ratings charts for Italian preschoolers.

Cartoonito is the second collaborative project between TBS and Mediaset: The Boing channel is already the top-rated network for the more traditional 4-14 age demographic.

According to Jaime Ondarza, the senior vice president and general manager for TBS in Italy and France, the new channel’s success is not a surprise to its parent company.

“Audiences appreciate high quality content, especially for the preschool target,” he said. “Our viewers and advertisers now have at their disposal a new television choice that shares with Boing TV  the focus on quality content.”

Cartoonito went on the air in August, but was not monitored by Auditel-Nielsen Media Research until recently. The first ratings, for Monday, were released on Tuesday and showed the channel was in first in the youngest demographic, with 32,000 viewers tuning in.