| Nickelodeon Group | |
| Type: | Division |
| Founder: | Herb Scannell |
| Hq Location: | 1515 Broadway |
| Hq Location City: | New York City |
| Hq Location Country: | U.S. |
| Industry: | Entertainment |
| Parent: | Paramount Media Networks |
| Website: | (Redirects to country/territory site outside the U.S.) |
Nickelodeon Group, also known as Nickelodeon Networks Inc., is an American children's entertainment company owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks division that oversees cable television channels (including its flagship service Nickelodeon), its in-house animation studio, and Paws, Inc.
Nickelodeon Networks was founded in 2002 after MTV Networks (now Paramount Media Networks) merged the business operations of Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite and Nicktoons into one division.
On January 4, 2006, Herb Scannell resigned from Nickelodeon. Cyma Zarghami was appointed in his place as president of the newly formed Kids & Family Group, which included Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, TV Land, CMT, and CMT Pure Country.[1]
In 2007, Nickelodeon entered into a four-year development deal with Sony Music to produce music-themed TV shows for the network, to help fund and launch tie-in albums, and to produce original soundtrack songs that could be released as singles.[2] The Naked Brothers Band, a rock-mockumentary series that tells of a pre-teenage rock band led by two real-life brothers who write and perform the songs, broadcast from 2007 to 2009; it was successful for children in the 6–11 age group. By February 2007, the band's song "Crazy Car" was on the Billboard Hot 100, and the soundtrack albums from the first two seasons, each of which signed to Columbia Records, were on Billboard 200. The only greenlit series produced under the Sony Music partnership, Victorious, ran from 2010 to 2013. A similar hit music-themed sitcom Big Time Rush ran from 2009 to 2013, and featured a similar partnership with Columbia Records; however, Columbia was only involved with the show's music, and Sony Music became involved with the series' production midway through its first season. It became Nickelodeon's second-most successful live-action show of all time after iCarly; Big Time Rush garnered 6.8 million viewers for its official debut on January 18, 2010, setting a new record as the highest-rated live action series premiere in the channel's history.
On February 1, 2009, Nickelodeon discontinued the TEENick block, as the name would soon be used for its own channel.[3]
On July 29, 2009, Nickelodeon unveiled a new logo that would be implemented toward the end of the year, designed by New York City–based creative director/designer Eric Zim. It was part of a year dedicated to strengthening the brand's identity. The logo was intended to create a unified look that can better be conveyed across all of MTV Networks' children's channels.[4] The new logo debuted on September 28, 2009, across Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, and Nicktoons, along with the newly launched TeenNick (named after the TEENick block) and Nick Jr. Channel (named after the concurrently-running Nick Jr. block).[4]
The wordmark logo bug was given a blimp background in the days prior to the 2010 and 2011 Kids' Choice Awards to match the award given out at the ceremony; beginning the week of September 7, 2010, the logo bug was surrounded by a splat design (in the manner of the logo used from 2005 to 2009) during new episodes of Nickelodeon original series. The new logo was adopted in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2010, in Spain on February 19, 2010, in Southeast Asia on March 15, 2010, in Latin America on April 5, 2010, in India on June 25, 2010[5] and on the ABS-CBN block "Nickelodeon on ABS-CBN" in the Philippines on July 26, 2010. On November 2, 2009, a Canadian version of Nickelodeon was launched, in partnership between Viacom and Corus Entertainment (owners of YTV, which had aired and continued to air Nickelodeon's series); as a result, versions of Nickelodeon now exist in most of North America.
In October 2009 and September 2010, respectively, Viacom brought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Winx Club into the Nickelodeon family by purchasing both franchises. Nickelodeon Animation Studio produced a new CGI-animated Turtles series[6] and new seasons of Winx Club with CGI sequences.[7] Both productions comprised Nickelodeon's strategy to reboot two established brands for new viewers: TMNT was intended to reach an audience of boys aged 6 to 11, and Winx was aimed at the same age group of girls. In February 2011, Viacom bought out a third of Rainbow SpA,[8] the Italian studio that introduced Winx Club. The purchase was valued at 62 million euros (US$83 million)[9] and led to new shows being co-developed by Rainbow and Nickelodeon, including My American Friend and Club 57.[10] Also in 2011, Nickelodeon debuted House of Anubis, a series based on the Nickelodeon Netherlands series Het Huis Anubis, which became the first original scripted series to be broadcast in a weekdaily strip (similar to the soap opera format). Produced in the United Kingdom, it was also the first original series by the flagship U.S. channel to be produced entirely outside of North America.
2011 saw Nickelodeon's longtime ratings dominance among all children's cable channels begin to topple: it was the highest-rated cable channel during the first half of that year,[11] only for its viewership to experience a sharp double-digit decline by the end of 2011, described as "inexplicable" by Viacom management.[12] The channel would not experience a calendar week ratings increase until November 2012 (with viewership slowly rebounding after that point);[13] however its 17-year streak as the highest-rated cable network in total day viewership was broken by Disney Channel during that year.[14] Around late 2012, Nickelodeon made a sweeping change to their network by cancelling and/or ending their teen shows (How to Rock, iCarly, Victorious, Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures, Supah Ninjas, Life With Boys and Big Time Rush) in favor of newer shows targeted to a younger block.[15] [16] On July 17, 2014, the network televised the inaugural Kids' Choice Sports, a spin-off of the Kids' Choice Awards that honors athletes and teams from the previous year in sports.
Since 2016, the network has begun to produce TV movies based on its older properties, including those of Legends of the Hidden Temple, Hey Arnold!, Rocko's Modern Life, and Invader Zim. The former two aired on the Nickelodeon channel, while the latter two premiered in August 2019 on Netflix.[17]
In June 2018, Cyma Zarghami stepped down as president of Nickelodeon, after 33 years of working at the network.[18] In October 2018, All That co-creator Brian Robbins succeeded her as president of Nickelodeon.[19]
In January 2019, Viacom acquired the streaming service Pluto TV, which has since launched various Nickelodeon-branded channels. In August, Viacom acquired the rights to the Garfield franchise, with plans for a new animated TV series.[20] Later that year, Viacom signed a multiyear content production agreement with Netflix to produce several original films and series based on Nickelodeon properties.[21] [22] [23]
After Viacom re-merged with CBS Corporation to form ViacomCBS at the end of 2019, it was announced that Nickelodeon content would be available for streaming on CBS All Access.[24] [25] [26] The streaming service would relaunch as Paramount+ on March 4, 2021, with SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff Kamp Koral and debuting on the service that same day.[27] Throughout 2021, Paramount+ would announce and debut new programming based on Nickelodeon IP, including a live-action sequel series to The Fairly OddParents that premiered in March 2022, a CGI-animated reboot of Rugrats, and an iCarly sequel series.[28]
CBS Sports began partnering with Nickelodeon on its coverage of the National Football League, with Nickelodeon simulcasting a special version of an early 2021 Wild Card playoff game under the NFL on Nickelodeon banner.[29] [30] Nickelodeon would also figure prominently in CBS' own coverage of Super Bowl LV later that year, with special programming and content pertaining to the game itself.[31] The NFL would extend its partnership with Nickelodeon by allowing them to air another Wild Card game in January 2022, and a weekly highlights show hosted by CBS' Nate Burleson with Tyler Perry's Young Dylan star Dylan Gilmer.[32] Nickelodeon will air its first regular-season game in 2022, with the Denver Broncos taking on the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams as part of the NFL's Christmas Day slate.[33]