Nickelodeon
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.
For other uses, see Nickelodeon (disambiguation).Country
United States
Nationwide
- English
- Spanish (via SAP audio track)
1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
December 1, 1977
April 1, 1979
Vivian Horner
C-3 (1977–1979)
Nickelodeon is launched by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Nickelodeon introduces its Balloon font logo
Nick at Nite is launched
Double Dare premieres
The Big Ballot (later known as the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards) premieres
The programming block Nick Jr. was launched
Nickelodeon debuted their "Nicktoons" brand
The programming block SNICK was launched
Nickelodeon launches The Big Help
Nickelodeon released its first feature-length film in theaters in 1996, an adaptation of Louise Fitzhugh's novel, Harriet the Spy
Noggin, a joint venture with Sesame Workshop, is launched
SpongeBob SquarePants premieres
TEENick is launched
Nickelodeon premiered Avatar: The Last Airbender
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
Nickelodeon acquired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise
Nickelodeon began co-producing the Winx Club franchise
Nickelodeon revived Noggin as a streaming service
Nickelodeon introduces a new take on their classic splat branding
Noggin shuts down
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, the channel is available to about 87.167 million households in the United States.[8]
