Nickelodeon (Spanish and Portuguese TV channel)

Nickelodeon
	Logo used since 2023
Country	Spain ; Portugal
Broadcast area	Spain, Andorra, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea
Headquarters	Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal
Programming
Language(s)	Spanish; Portuguese; English
Picture format	1080i (HDTV); 576i (SDTV)
Ownership
Owner	Paramount Networks EMEAA
Sister channels	Nick Jr.; Paramount Network (Spain only); MTV Spain; MTV Portugal; Comedy Central (Spain only);
History
Launched	August 1996 (Spain, as a block on Minimax) ; 27 March 1999 (Spain, as a TV channel) ; 1 June 2005 (Portugal)
Links
Website	Spanish Website; Portuguese Website;

Nickelodeon is a European pay television channel available in Spain and Portugal and operated by Paramount Networks EMEAA.^[3] The channel is aimed at children and teenagers.

History

The channel was launched in Spain on 27 March 1999 as a localised variant of American kids channel Nickelodeon, on Canal Satellite Digital.^[4] Like in the UK, Nickelodeon in Spain originally shared its signal with Comedy Central (at the time known as Paramount Comedy), until February 2005 when both channels were given their own signal. Until 2002, before switching to Paramount Comedy, a closedown bumper featuring the cows was played ^[5]

On 1 June 2005, a feed of the Central European Nickelodeon channel was launched in Portugal with Portuguese audio with partial local ad breaks.^[6] The channel was initially an exclusive to the Portuguese TV operator NOS (at the time known as TV Cabo), with this exclusivity being maintained for the following 12 years.

On 1 September 2009, the Portuguese channel changed its source feed to Nickelodeon Spain. On 1 April 2010, Nickelodeon rebranded its graphical package with a new logo and new bumpers. On 22 November 2012, it changed its aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9.

On 15 January 2015, an HD version of the Spanish feed of the channel was launched exclusively on satellite provider Canal+ (now Movistar Plus+). The Portuguese feed only received an HD version on 1 February 2024.

In August 2019, Nickelodeon started using promos and bumpers similar to those of Central and Eastern Europe, removing end credits and any bumpers and idents with Portuguese or Spanish text, with the only difference between both feeds now, besides the audio, being the content broadcast during commercial breaks, with Spain broadcasting more commercials while Portugal airs shorts created by third parties such as Glumpers, ZellyGo or Chop Chop Ninja, or even brief clips from some Nickelodeon shows, to compensate for the time allocated for the commercials in Spain.

On 1 December 2017, Nickelodeon started to be carried by Portuguese TV provider Nowo, breaking its exclusivity with NOS. On 31 March 2020, Nickelodeon began to be carried by Portuguese TV provider Meo,^[6] and on 14 April 2020, Nickelodeon was launched on Vodafone Portugal, with the channel finally becoming available on all Portuguese TV providers. On the morning of 15 February 2021 however, Nickelodeon became unavailable on Nowo, alongside other Paramount owned channels available on the operator.

Former programming blocks

Noches Nick

Noches Nick was a night time programming block on Nickelodeon Iberia and was a localized variant of the American version of the block Nick@Nite. Not much is currently known about this block.

TeenNick

TeenNick was a Daytime programming block on Nickelodeon Iberia and was a localized variant of the American version of the TeenNick block. It was available in Spain from 21 March 2004 to 2014, and in Portugal from 2008 to 2016. The running time was 11h to 12h in Spain from 2004 to 2008. In 2009, it became a 24hour block. In Portugal, the running time was 5h to 6h, then 10h to 14h. In 2013, it became a 24hour block. It airs Nickelodeon programming in Spain from 11h to 12h, and in Portugal from 5h to 6h, and 10h to 13h. In Saturdays and Sundays, it is instead 10h to 14h.

Notes

^ The logo's wordmark has been in use since 2010. Additionally, this logo is a variant meant to be used for white backgrounds; the main variant has a white wordmark in conjunction with a fully orange splat.