Launched 23 October 1995 Audience share 0.4% (February 2010, ) | Country Australia Founded 1995 | |
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TV shows Camp Orange, Sarvo, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Yakkity Yak, Didi and B Profiles | ||
Nickelodeon is the Australian counterpart of the Nickelodeon television network in the United States. It is operated by a joint venture of Foxtel Networks and MTV Networks Australia.
Contents
History
Nickelodeon was launched on 23 October 1995, replacing the Max and ClassicMax channels, offering live action shows and cartoons. Originally the channel timeshared with Nick at Nite which began at 8 on weekdays and 10 pm on weekends, and ended at 6 am. From 1 July 1998, the channel gained an extra half-hour on weekdays, moving Nick at Nite back to. 8:30 pm. On 2 January 2000, the channel introduced "More Nick", extending its broadcast hours to 10 pm every night of the week. Eventually in July/August 2000, Nick at Nite closed and Nickelodeon began broadcasting for 24 hours every day. After that, almost all of Nick at Nite's programming moved to TV1. Nickelodeon was also added to the Optus Television service in December 2002.
On 14 March 2004, Nick Jr. launched as the first full, 24-hour TV channel designed for pre-school audiences in Australia. Before this, Nick Jr. was a morning and afternoon programming block on Nickelodeon, including shows that now get much more airtime on the full channel, such as Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues. For a few months after Nick Jr. became a full channel, it kept a 2-hour-long time slot on Nickelodeon, but it was drastically shorter than it was before it became a full channel. Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. began broadcasting in Widescreen on 2 March 2009.
During Kids Choice Awards 2010 Nickelodeon Australia rebranded the network with the new one using completey different bumpers than America's channel however the iCarly bumper with slime has been used in most advertisement breaks. The Nick Shack rebranded much earlier before the channel itself. On 1 December 2010, Nickelodeon Australia launched in New Zealand, replacing Nickelodeon New Zealand. On 30 July 2013, Nickelodeon Australia became available on the newly launched Australian IPTV service Foxtel Play, making it one of the first channels to be available via the service.
On 3 December 2013, Nickelodeon Australia became available on Foxtel's streaming service Foxtel Go. On 22 December 2013, Nickelodeon Australia suffered a major programming outage. Regular programming was abandoned after a flurry of technical issues and instead played an endless loop of SpongeBob SquarePants. Regular programming was restored after 10 hours. On 1 January 2014, Nickelodeon Australia launched on Australian IPTV provider FetchTV.
Programming
Nickelodeon Australia mainly airs shows from the American Nickelodeon such as SpongeBob SquarePants, iCarly, Victorious, the Thundermans, Henry Danger. The Ren & Stimpy Show is the only 1990's Nick Toon that is still on at 8pm-10pm and so on, but also broadcasts a variety of non-American foreign (namely Canadian, British, and New Zealand) and locally produced shows, some of which are detailed below. Other locally produced shows not included below are Nick Takes Over Your School, as well as an Australian version of Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids (Nick GAS). There are several local productions. Hot Chunks starring Angus King as a variety of characters., Camp Orange launched in 2005 and was hosted by Dave Lawson. The adventure camp reality series features teams of kids competing in the great outdoors, using their wits to win prizes. The second, third, fourth seasons aired in 2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively. Camp Orange was hosted by Maude Garrett from 2006 onwards. In 2009, the highly successful fifth series, Camp Orange: The Final Frontier, brought a positive element into the competition by advising teams to "play nice" to be voted for the title of "Champ Orange" by their teammates. The latest version of Camp Orange has been Camp Orange: Spill Seekers. Juice is another weekday morning show. It shows popular Nicktoons between 7 am and 9 am such as SpongeBob SquarePants and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Although the show was originally hosted, it no longer features a host.
2015 DVD event
On mid-late 2015, Nickelodeon Australia programmed a DVD event where they showed old Nickelodeon cartoons that were only on DVD at JB HI FI. Shows that had DVDs also has to be handed back on Nickelodeon until December 2015, when the event ended. Shows that aired were Rugrats, Hey Arnold, CatDog, The Angry Beavers, and Invader Zim. When Invader Zim, Rugrats and CatDog were on 8-10pm, The Ren & Stimpy Show was pushed to 4am-6am.
Kids' Choice Awards
The annual awards show commenced in 2003, celebrating kids' favourite choices in music, movies, books and more.
Nick at Nite
From Nickelodeon's opening date until July/August 2000, Nickelodeon shared its channel with an Australian version of Nick at Nite. Much of the programming was similar to the US channel at the time, including shows such as Mister Ed and Gilligan's Island. Eventually it was closed due to the expansion of Nickelodeon, as well as the existence of another classic TV channel, TV1, co-operated by another Viacom subsidiary, Paramount Pictures. Much of the programming was moved to TV1 and later some of it to the Sci Fi Channel.
Sarvo
Sarvo was a block shown on weekday afternoons that was previously hosted by James Kerley and Dave Lawson. The duo left sarvo on Friday, 23 February 2007. The new series which began on 9 April 2007, and is now hosted by Maude Garrett and Kyle Linahan. sarvo airs in the afternoons and plays various Nicktoons such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Kappa Mikey, and Captain Flamingo as well as other shows such as Zoey 101. As well as children's programs, this show also offers other things such as interviews with celebrity guests and funny extras of what the hosts get up to. It has now ended and Maude & Kyle has since left Nickelodeon Australia.
Weekend Mornings
Weekend Mornings is a block of two episodes each of four Nicktoons on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was originally named Double Up but changed names to support Nickelodeon's new format in 2006.
Saturday Nick Television
Saturday Nick Television was a morning show that was launched in 2002 with the help of Britney Spears. This show was shot in Melbourne and involved games in which the live audience could participate in, celebrity interviews, performances, skits and more. Nickelodeon cancelled the show in 2005 due to a lack of audience numbers.
Lunchtoon
Lunchtoon is a weekday lunchtime block that has four half-hour episodes of a Nickelodeon show. It is usually played from 12 pm to 2 pm.
Toons2Nite
Nickelodeon also plays classic Nick shows such as Rocko's Modern Life and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters in the late night hours. It was originally named Classics, however it has since been rebranded Toons2Nite.
Nick Takes Over Your Beach
Over the summers of 1995/1996, 1998/1999,1999/2000 and 2004, Nickelodeon toured Australian beaches, setting up games and activities.
Nickelodeon Magazine Australia
The Australian Nickelodeon Magazine was a monthly magazine available in most newsagents and supermarkets between September 2005 and May 2006. The American version of the magazine was sold in some Australian newsagents and supermarkets from 1995, coinciding with the opening of Australian pay TV providers Galaxy (Australian television) in January and Foxtel in October 1995. The Australian version was created in 2005. In total, six issues of the Australian "Nickelodeon Magazine" were published before being dropped by Australian Consolidated Press. It was edited by former Australian Disney Adventures contributor, Santi Pintado. The Australian Nickelodeon Magazine content was borrowed heavily from its American counterpart, Nickelodeon Magazine. The first copy of the magazine was handed out free at the 2005 Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards.
You're on Nick
To support Nickelodeon Australia's new format, the network launched Moby Nick, a bus that would tour around Australia in places such as Sydney Olympic Park. Part of the bus was a small recording studio, where kids could say a sentence or two about what they could do, or who they were. The ten-second clips would be shown during the ads on Nickelodeon Australia shows.
Slimefest
Slimefest is the world's only slime-filled annual music festival for kids. Launching in Sydney in September 2012, the first line up included Jessica Mauboy, Stan Walker, Justice Crew, Guy Sebastian, Reece Mastin, Johhny Ruffo and Christina Parie.
The 2013 line up included headliners Big Time Rush, along with performances by Guy Sebastian, Justice Crew, Samantha Jade, Heffron Drive and Jadagrace.
2014 saw the festival travel to both Sydney and Melbourne, with performances by Cody Simpson, Savage, Justice Crew, Sabrina Carpenter, The Collective, Alli Simpson, Ricki Lee (Sydney) and Dami Im (Melbourne).