Nickelodeon Pakistan or Nick Pakistan, is a pay Pakistani television channel. It is the Pakistani feed of
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
Paramount Networks EMEAA
Paramount Networks Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia (EMEAA) is a division of Paramount International Networks which is fully owned by Paramount Global. The unit's headquarters are in Berlin, with additional offices in Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Am ...
. The network transmits over the AsiaSat 7 satellite to cable and satellite viewers in Pakistan and features some portions of the schedule dubbed or subtitled in
Viacom 18
Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India.
History
In ...
). It also occasionally licenses Western market children's films.
The channel used to be available as a free to air channel but became encrypted on satellite since 2015. Unlike its Indian counterpart, which it replaced, this feed regularly airs Nickelodeon-related content, as the Indian feed has recently been airing local content more often due to the localization strategy.
History
Prior to the launch of the localized Pakistani feed of Nickelodeon, the Indian feed was provided in Pakistan. However, the Indian feed ceased to be distributed in that country right after ARY Digital Network launched Nickelodeon Pakistan on 23 November 2006, with a brand licensing agreement with Viacom. It mainly broadcast content in English, along with some programming aired in
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
rather than being dubbed in Urdu. This caused PEMRA to temporarily suspend Nickelodeon's license in 2016, although the channel later resumed broadcasting.
In 2010 Nickelodeon Pakistan took on the network's current worldwide imaging, including its logo. Its website was sunset in early 2021, presumably as it heavily utilized the discontinued
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
graphics/video format, and it was deemed more cost-effective to utilize the network's
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page than build out an entirely new modern website. On 1 April 2022, Nickelodeon Pakistan officially began carrying their schedule in native or dubbed Urdu full-time.
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
terms and references blended into the local scripts or the networks carried all-Hindi versions imported from India outright.
In early 2010, PEMRA again issued a notice against children's networks and suspended the licenses of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, disallowing them from broadcasting. In the meantime, the Pakistani government pushed unsuccessfully for PTV or another domestic broadcaster to launch a children's network to replace private broadcasters in order to assure PEMRA compliance with language standards.
On 1 August 2011, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting,
Firdous Ashiq Awan
Firdous Ashiq Awan (Punjabi, ur, , born 11 January 1970) is a Pakistani politician from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. She has served as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting from 2019 to 2020, Federal Minister for N ...
, announced the restoration of the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network licenses, allowing their return to the air, though she expressed disappointment that a domestic Pakistani broadcaster would not step up to broadcast children's programming, nor PTV would launch one, and that PEMRA would accommodate the launch any such network.
2016 temporary network suspension and further difficulties
In the aftermath of the
2016 Uri attack
The 2016 Uri attack was carried out on 18 September by four Jaish-e-Mohammed insurgents from Pakistan against an Indian Army brigade headquarters near the town of Uri in the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. 19 Indian soldiers w ...
, PEMRA again focused on Nickelodeon Pakistan as the network had begun to share programming with Nickelodeon India due to cost concerns, both within ARY and Viacom, and felt ARY was shirking off PEMRA's orders in order to economize against their orders; this also included the return of Hindi-blended and all-Hindi content to the Nickelodeon Pakistan schedule since their 2011 return to the air. The regulatory authority ordered a ban of the broadcasting of all Indian-originated media after 19 October, though PEMRA ruled that ARY Group had disregarded the order and continued to air imported programming with Hindi language content from Nickelodeon India during the restricted period. The network's license to broadcast was suspended on 31 October, with local providers pulling the network on PEMRA's orders. Shortly thereafter, on 10 November, a stay from the
Sindh High Court
The High Court of Sindh ( ur, ) is the highest judicial institution of the Pakistani province of Sindh. Established in 1906, the Court situated in the provincial capital at Karachi. Apart from being the highest Court of Appeal for Sindh in ...
effectively nullified the PEMRA order and allowed Nickelodeon's return to the air, stating the body had no authority for the suspension without a comprehensive explanation. ARY also stated that the ruling
PML-N
The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) ( ur, , translit=Pākistān Muslim Līg (Nūn) PML(N) or PML-N) is a centre-right and liberal conservative political party in Pakistan. Alongside the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Part ...
party had used the regulatory power of PEMRA to oppose its networks due to its differing political opinions from the PML-N.
On 27 April 2017, the network carried an episode of '' Winx Club'' which featured a scene of what PEMRA alleged was an "indecently dressed" character, violating the body's 2015 Electronic Media Code of Conduct. After a month of appeals, PEMRA issued ARY a fine of ₨500,000 and warned the network against any further violations.
Programming
External links
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickelodeon Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...