Nickelodeon
American children's pay television channel / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nickelodeon, occasionally shortened to Nick, is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through Paramount Media Networks’ subdivision, Nickelodeon Group. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children, the channel is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 2 to 17,[1] along with a broader family audience through its program blocks.
Country | United States |
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Broadcast area | Nationwide |
Headquarters | One Astor Plaza New York City, New York, U.S. |
Programming | |
Language(s) |
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Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Paramount Media Networks (Paramount Global) |
Parent | Nickelodeon Group |
Sister channels | |
History | |
Founded | December 1, 1977; 46 years ago (1977-12-01) |
Launched | April 1, 1979; 45 years ago (1979-04-01) |
Founder | Vivian Horner |
Former names | C-3 (1977–1979) |
Links | |
Website | nick |
The channel began life as a test broadcast on December 1, 1977,[2] as part of QUBE,[3] an early cable television system broadcast locally in Columbus, Ohio.[4] The channel, now named Nickelodeon, launched to a new nationwide audience on April 1, 1979,[5] with Pinwheel as its inaugural program.[4] The network was initially commercial-free and remained without advertising until 1984. Nickelodeon gained a new facelift regarding programming and image that fall, and its ensuing success led to it and its sister networks MTV and VH1 being sold to Viacom in 1985.[6][7]
Throughout history, Nickelodeon has introduced several sister channels and programming blocks. Nick Jr. is a preschool morning block launched on January 4, 1988. Nicktoons, based on the flagship brand, launched as a separate sister channel in 2002. In 1999, Nickelodeon partnered with Sesame Workshop to create Noggin, an educational brand consisting of a cable channel and an interactive website. Two blocks aimed at a teenage audience, TEENick (previously on Nickelodeon) and The N (previously on Noggin), were merged into a standalone channel, TeenNick, in 2009.
As of September 2018,[update] the channel is available to about 87.167 million households in the United States.[8]
1977 | Pinwheel broadcasts on QUBE |
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1979 | Nickelodeon is launched by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment |
1984 | Nickelodeon introduces its Balloon font logo |
1985 | Nick at Nite is launched |
1986 | Double Dare premieres |
1987 | The Big Ballot (later known as the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards) premieres |
1988 | The programming block Nick Jr. was launched |
1991 | Nickelodeon debuted their "Nicktoons" brand |
1992 | The programming block SNICK was launched |
1994 | Nickelodeon launches The Big Help |
1996 | Nickelodeon released its first feature-length film in theaters in 1996, an adaptation of Louise Fitzhugh's novel, Harriet the Spy |
1999 | Noggin, a joint venture with Sesame Workshop, is launched |
1999 | SpongeBob SquarePants premieres |
2001 | TEENick is launched |
2002 | The N is launched on Noggin and the Nicktoons channel is launched |
2005 | Nickelodeon premiered Avatar: The Last Airbender |
2009 | Nickelodeon went through a major rebrand: TEENick and The N merged to form TeenNick, Noggin was replaced by the Nick Jr. Channel, and Nicktoons Network became Nicktoons |
2009 | Nickelodeon acquired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise |
2010 | Nickelodeon began co-producing the Winx Club franchise |
2015 | Nickelodeon revived Noggin as a streaming service |
2023 | Nickelodeon introduces a new take on their classic splat branding |
2024 | Noggin shuts down |