Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which was first tested on December 1, 1977, until it eventually launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division and is based in New York City. Its programming is primarily aimed at children aged 2–17, while some of its program blocks target a broader family audience.
The channel was first tested in 1977 as part of QUBE, an early cable television system broadcast locally in Columbus, Ohio. QUBE's Channel C-3 aired Pinwheel, an educational show developed by Vivian Horner. Pinwheel performed well with QUBE subscribers, and Horner sought to expand her program into a full channel on national television. The channel, now named Nickelodeon, launched to a new countrywide audience on April 1, 1979, with Pinwheel as its inaugural program. The network was initially commercial-free and remained without advertising until 1984. QUBE's owner, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, eventually sold Nickelodeon, along with its sister networks MTV and VH1, to Viacom in 1986.
Throughout its history, Nickelodeon has introduced sister channels and themed programming blocks. On January 4, 1988, Nickelodeon launched Nick Jr., a weekday-morning block aimed at preschool children. On August 11, 1991, it introduced another flagship brand, the Nicktoons: original animated productions created specifically for the network. The Nicktoons brand introduced its own sister channel, launched 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.
Relationship with 20th Century Fox
In 1993, Nickelodeon agreed to a two-year contract with 20th Century Fox to make feature films. The joint venture would mostly produce new material, though a Nickelodeon executive did not rule out the possibility of making films based on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rugrats and Doug. None of the movies were produced due to the 1994 acquisition of Paramount Pictures by Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, and they would distribute the movies instead. With the creative differences with John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy and an inability to market that property in a family-friendly manner instead of a "cynical and gross humor" scuttled the film. However, Paramount and Viacom would go forward and start development on The Rugrats Movie a year after the acquisition.
The Nickelodeon version of the Doug film was not made due to the acquisition of the show's production studio, Jumbo Pictures, by The Walt Disney Company in 1996. With this, the show moved to Disney's ABC network and new seasons aired as a part of its programming block Disney's One Saturday Morning as Disney's Doug. In 1999, Walt Disney Pictures released a film finale to the series, Doug's 1st Movie.
20th Century Studios movies that aired on Nickelodeon