Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (Nick for short, formerly called Pinwheel; launched April 1, 1979) is a cable TV network primarily for children and pre-teens, but also features shows aimed towards teenagers in TEENick. The first Nickelodeon channel was American, but there are now several channels in different parts of the world such as South East Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Latin America and Brazil.

Nickelodeon Programming
Nickelodeon has produced and aired many programs. The channel became known for its iconic green slime, originally used on the Canadian sketch-comedy show You Can't Do That on Television. It was then adopted by the station as a primary feature of many of its shows, a few gone off the channel.

Many adults know the service best for its Nick at Nite offerings of classic TV sitcoms in the prime-time and overnight hours.

Many of Nickelodeon's animated television series, or "Nicktoons," have gained a reputation for dark humor, surrealism, and unique commentary. Some examples of this include The Ren and Stimpy Show, AAAHH!!! Real Monsters, and Invader ZIM.

Nickelodeon began producing original animated shows known as Nicktoons in 1991. The three original Nicktoons Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren and Stimpy Show debuted that year. During the mid 90's the network made a shift to more animation shows and fewer live-actions shows (such as Double Dare 2000) that were "taped before a live studio audience at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida." As late as 2004, shows were still being taped in front of an audience at Nickelodeon Studios. The network vacated Universal Studios Florida in 2005. There are many sites on the internet dedicated to "classic Nick" as it was before the vast majority of the programming was animated cartoons.

Popular Nicktoons
In May 1999, Nickelodeon introduced their most popular original show to date, SpongeBob SquarePants. The animated show would be embraced by both young and old alike worldwide, sell billions of dollars in merchandise, and become a pop culture icon. Nicktoons with similar appeal such as The Fairly OddParents would soon follow. Invader Zim was officially canceled 2 years after its premiere, but has gained an extensive following. The Fairly OddParents (originally aired on Oh Yeah! Cartoons), however, has become one of the channel's most popular shows.

Nick at Nite
In July 1985, the Nick at Nite programming block began airing on Nickelodeon from prime time to early morning; originally the channel went dark after 8pm Eastern, although many cable operators substituted other channels at night, such as A&E (which shared a satellite transponder with Nickelodeon prior to 1985) or C-SPAN. The early lineups featured such black and white classics as The Donna Reed Show, My Three Sons, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Route 66, as well as Mad Movies with the LA Connection and Nickelodeon's Turkey Television on weekends. More recent programming included various sitcoms from the '70s, '80s and '90s such as The Cosby Show, Roseanne, A Different World, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Nick at Nite has also produced original programming such as Fatherhood (an animated show based on the book by Bill Cosby) and Hi-Jinks (a Punk'd-like series where parents play practical jokes on their children). This block is known as Nick Comedy on Nick Germany. In the mid-to-late-1990s, shows like I Love Lucy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and shows that are now on TV Land were aired on Nick at Nite. Generally speaking, Nick at Nite's programming has moved forward with the times, while still broadcasting shows at least ten to twenty years old.

Nick-at-Nite was conceived and developed as the first 'oldies' television network by long time MTV Networks consultants Fred/Alan Inc. (Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman), who, in late 1984, had been responsible for boosting Nickelodeon from the lowest basic cable network in America to its number one status in six months.

Other Nickelodeon channels
In 1996, Nick at Nite spun off the channel TV Land, which currently airs a variety of older shows, primarily sitcoms from 1951 to 1992.

Nickelodeon has spun off other cable networks: Nick Too (Nick on a three hour delay -- its west coast feed repackaged for east coast viewers, although now the plain west coast feed is used), Nick Games and Sports (Nick GAS), NickToons Network, and Noggin/The-N (originally a joint venture with the Children's Television Workshop). It also operates language- or culture-specific Nickelodeon channels for various markets in different parts of the world, and has licensed translated versions of some of its cartoons and other content to TV and cable stations such as Kinderkanal and Super RTL of Germany, YTV of Canada, Canal J of France, Alpha Kids of Greece and CNBC-e of Turkey.

International Networks
Outside of the U.S., Nickelodeon appears in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras,  Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malta, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Nickelodeon launched in the UK on September 1st, 1993.

Southeast Asia
MTV Networks Asia launched Nickelodeon Asia a long time ago. Nickelodeon was launched in Singapore and expanded its services in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Polynesia. In the present, Nickelodeon Philippines and Nickelodeon India started working independently. They started their new website, Nicksplat.com in 2003.

In India, Nickelodeon is available in the One Alliance boquet, Dish TV India And TATA-SKY DTH Platforms. In the Philippines, it is available on SkyCable Gold, Silver and Platinum channel 45 and Global Destiny Cable channel 21. In Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, it is available over Now TV (HK), Starhub Cable TV (SG) and ASTRO (MY).

Nick.com
Nick's website launched in 1995. The website features many sections and services:
 * The "myNick" service allows regular visitors to the website to get personalized information, post on internet forums, and collect e-Collectibles, akin to trading cards (the very first collection commemorated the 10th anniversary of Rugrats in 2001).
 * The "All Nick" section features description of Nickelodeon's television shows and movies, the current programming schedule, specials, and information on their magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine.
 * The "Games" section features games of various sorts (many based on Nick programs) and information on popular video games, including Nicktropolis, Nick.com's new virtual city.
 * The "Music" section (now listed under "Buzz") is devoted to popular music, featuring news on various artists and music videos.
 * The "Web Lab" section (now listed under "Buzz") features has web exclusives, like Shockwave Flash-animated games featuring Agent Pixel and Tony Simiano, among others; shorts featuring the Crimson Chin from The Fairly OddParents; and e-Cards.(No longer on website.)
 * The "Blab" section features message boards for each Nickelodeon show, and from time to time, celebrities chat in the "Blab-a-torium" chat room.
 * The "myWorld" section (formerly know as "Your World") features the Nick GAS (Games and Sports) subsection, sections devoted to entertainment news, e-calendar, weather, horoscopes, jokes, weird news, and "Nick Talk."
 * The "TurboNick" section, introduced in 2005, allows visitors to view streaming episodes of shows over the internet. (This section limited to U.S. viewers.)
 * Members of the myNick service choose a nickname and a password which enables them to make a nickpage which is a special page with a theme usually relating to a Nick TV Show, a holiday, or another theme like music or jurassic.
 * The "Shop" section features products having to do with characters in various TV programs. However, some believe it contains spyware program, ShopAtHome Select (also known as ShopAtHome, or SAHAgent).
 * In 2006, They featured Nick's New Game of The Week, which features a new game every week.

Nickelodeon Magazine
Nickelodeon also publishes Nickelodeon magazine. The current magazine was launched in 1993, following a short-lived effort from 1990. It contains informative non-fiction pieces, humor, interviews, pranks, recipes (such as green slime cake), and a big comic book section in the center that features original comics by leading underground cartoonists as well as strips about popular Nicktoons.

Nickelodeon Hotel
Nickelodeon Family Suites is a Nickelodeon-themed Holiday Inn hotel in Orlando, Florida, located near Universal Studios Resort and two miles from Walt Disney World Resort. The property includes one, two, and three-bedroom Nick-themed kid suites and various forms of Nick-themed entertainment. Nickelodeon Family Suites also contains a Nick at Nite suite for adults.

Nickelodeon Movies
Nickelodeon Movies is the motion picture production arm of children's cable television channel Nickelodeon. It has produced films based on Nickelodeon programs, as well as other adaptations and original projects. Its films are released by fellow Viacom division Paramount Pictures.

Nickelodeon Studios
Nickelodeon Studios was an attraction at Universal Orlando that opened up in June 7, 1990, and housed production for many Nickelodeon programs. It closed down on April 30, 2005, after all of Nickelodeon's production had re-located to Burbank, California and New York City. The Slime Geyser was removed from the front of the facility in May 2005, the trademark Nickelodeon sign was removed in January 2006, and the Nickelodeon Time Capsule was removed prematurely in August 2006 without any explanation.