Nicktoons (British and Irish TV channel)

Posted on by

British television network

Nicktoons is a British pay television channel launched on 22 July 2002. It is a cartoon-centric sister channel to Nickelodeon. The channel airs Nicktoons, as well as acquired programming from outside providers. Unlike the American counterpart, it has been ad-supported since launch. It targets children aged 7 to 11. It is owned as a joint venture between Paramount Networks UK & Australia and Sky Group.

History[edit]

Nicktoons was launched on 22 July 2002 as “Nicktoons TV”.

On 12 October 2004 to 16 February 2007, Nicktoons TV was rebranded to NickToons. The rebrand featured the Pixel characters as the channel’s first mascots, designed by Slomo Productions and directed by Filipe Alcada.[1]

From 17 February 2007 to 30 April 2010, there was another rebrand featuring 4 mascots; Rooftop (a moose), Beat (a mouse/rat), Colin (a brain) and Spoon (a humanlike creature), designed by Studio AKA.[2] The new ‘worldwide rebrand’ logo for Nicktoons was introduced in April 2010, with a new imaging campaign introduced in January 2012. In 2013, some new idents made by Stu Gamble and StudioEDP titled “30 Seconds Of Fame” or just “30SOF” for short were introduced, featuring a singing monster-like person ‘moving his body to the beat’ to Space Funk by Jeffrey W Wade & Ruben Ayala (Minimal Dancer), a rapping grandad and a dog (G-Daddy), an Octopus who is a musician (Rocktopuss), a girl with a British accent reading a book of which being Little Red Riding Hood with her ‘big gob’ (Gobby Girl) and a singing blob who sings the song Bopalopalama Dipdip by David Bronze & Josh Phillips (Doo-Wop Blob). These idents came along with the 2014 rebrand aswell, with another batch being named “30 Seconds Of Fame 2” or just “30SOF 2” for short in 2015. These idents were sadly discontinued sometime in 2021, even though CEE still uses them. (Maybe, they just have not been appearing since then.)[specify] In November 2014, there were new idents introduced with the eyes and faces of characters from shows.

Sister channels[edit]

Nicktoonsters[edit]

On 18 August 2008, a new spin-off channel to Nicktoons was launched under the title of Nicktoonsters. The channel was exclusive to Sky. The channel broadcast older programming which was dropped from the main Nicktoons schedule prior to launch. It took up half the time of a channel space shared with Comedy Central Extra +1.[3] The channel closed on 31 July 2009 and was replaced with a 1-hour timeshift of Nicktoons, Nicktoons Replay on 1 August 2009.

Nicktoons Replay[edit]

A +1 feed of Nicktoons known as Nicktoons Replay launched in place of Nicktoonsters on 1 August 2009.[4] It was known as Nicktoons +1. The channel was discontinued 1 October 2012, with Comedy Central Extra +1 again in full control of the channel slot’s airtime. Nicktoons Replay’s old EPG position was used to launch a one-hour timeshift of Nick Jr., titled Nick Jr. +1.

Nicktoons Ireland[edit]

On 13 September 2012, it was announced that Sky would be launching an Irish feed of NickToons.[5] It launched 16 October 2012.

Programming[edit]

Programming blocks[edit]

In 2004, when Nicktoons TV extended its hours, the 19:00 – 22:00 slot was called Toonz2Nite (extended further to 23:00 in November 2005). This had a separate, distinct presentation from the main channel, and the programmes shown were generally aimed at older children.[original research?]

The network began airing shows from NickSplat on 9 January 2017 until they stopped for unknown reasons around February 2017.[citation needed]

  • Used from October 2004 to 2007

  • Used from February 2010 to November 2014

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^

    “NickToons – Re-brand”. Slomo Productions. Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2013.

  2. ^ “NICKTOONS REFACE, Cinema promo (ref: p14)” (PDF). Stash DVD Magazine. Retrieved 30 December 2007.
  3. ^ Licence Details for Nick Toonsters Archived 5 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ “Implementation – Nicktoons ReplayB”. AGB Nielsen Media. 8 July 2009.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ “Digital marketing integral to SMEs”. Irish Independent. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2013.

External links[edit]