Nickelodeon (abbreviated as Nick) is an Indian children's pay television channel based in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is the Indian equivalent of the original American network and is owned by

JioStar Disney Star (also known as JioStar), registered as JioStar India Private Limited, is an Indian media conglomerate joint venture owned with a share of 16.34% by Reliance Industries, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney India. On 14 Nove ...

, a joint venture between

Disney India The Walt Disney Company India, also known as Disney India, is the Indian subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. In March 2019, The Walt Disney Company India became India's biggest television broadcaster af ...

and

Viacom18 Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an independent Indian media conglomerate, part of JioStar. It is owned by Reliance Industries and Bodhi Tree Systems. The Organisation had various channels and content production studios in India. Following ...

under license from

Paramount Global Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...

. Despite using the "Nickelodeon" branding, it does not air any content from the original channel as part of a localisation strategy since the 2010s; instead the original Nickelodeon content is only broadcast on the

Nickelodeon HD+ Nickelodeon (abbreviated as Nick) is an Indian children's pay television channel based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the Indian equivalent of the original American network and is owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Disney India an ...

channel. As of October 2020, Nickelodeon is the most watched children's channel in India.

History

Nickelodeon was launched in India on 16 October 1999.

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

was in charge of distributing the channel to cable operators, in a deal made with

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2005), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Pa ...

also launched a Nickelodeon-branded programming block on its main channel as part of a distribution deal between Viacom International and

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) (formerly Zee Telefilms) is an Indian media conglomerate. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, and businesses related to mobile content, and operates 45 c ...

. It was replaced by the

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

block in 2002. In 2004, Viacom revamped Nickelodeon in India to increase its viewership, including branding the channel just as Nick, creating local programs and launching a

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

audio track. On 23 November 2006, Nickelodeon India ceased to be distributed in Pakistan and was replaced with a dedicated local version of

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

in that country. Viacom signed a programming deal with

Sun TV Network Sun TV Network Limited is a Indian media company, headquartered in Chennai. It is a part of Sun Group and was established on 14 April 1993 by Kalanithi Maran. It owns a variety of television channels and radio stations in multiple languages ...

in 2007 according to which Nickelodeon shows will air on

Chutti TV Chutti TV is a 24-hour Tamil cartoon television channel from the Sun TV Network in India. The target audience is children aged between 3 and 17. History It was launched on 29 April 2007, making it Sun TV Network's first ever television channel ...

dubbed in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

. This deal was later cancelled when Nickelodeon decided to add Tamil and Telugu audio tracks to their own channel. In 2007, the joint venture between Viacom and TV18 called

was formed, and the channels

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

, Nick India and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

became part of the new company. Nick

On 25 June 2010, Nick India was rebranded, using the newly launched logo used in US. It was the last major market to undergo this makeover. In December 2011, Viacom 18 launched a new channel called

Sonic Sonic or Sonics may refer to: Companies *Sonic Drive-In, an American drive-in, fast-food restaurant chain * Sonic (ISP), an Internet provider CLEC, serving more than 100 California communities * Sonic Foundry, a computer software company whic ...

. Initially, the channel was focused on action and adventure, before switching their focus to comedy in 2016.

Viacom18 Motion Pictures Viacom18 Studios is an Indian film distribution and production company. It is a subsidiary of JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Viacom18 and Disney India. Based in Mumbai, It is one of the first studio model based motion pic ...

distributed ''Keymon Ache & Nani in Space Adventure'', a film based on the Nickelodeon India series ''

Keymon Ache ''Keymon Ache'' is an Indian Animated series, animated television series produced by DQ Entertainment International, aired on Nickelodeon (Indian TV channel), Nickelodeon India. It was the first Indian non-mythological animated show that was pr ...

'' in 2012. Another theatrical film, '' Motu Patlu: King Of Kings'' from the ''

Motu Patlu ''Motu Patlu'' is an Indian animated sitcom that premiered on Nickelodeon in India on 16 October 2012. This show is available in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali. The series is adapted from the classic co ...

'' franchise was released in Hindi and Tamil on 14 October 2016.

Nick Jr. Nick Jr. (sometimes disambiguated as Nick Jr. on Nickelodeon or Nick Jr. on Nick, and sometimes referred to as Nick, Jr.) is an American morning programming block that airs on Nickelodeon every weekday. It was launched on January 4, 1988. Nick ...

was launched in late 2012 after being spun off from the main channel. As the main channel did not air any live action shows, these shows aired on TeenNick, which was aired in the evenings on Nick Jr. until 1 February 2017, when it was discontinued. In 2013, the channel hosted its first localized

Kids Choice Awards The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, also known as the KCAs or Kids' Choice, is an American annual awards ceremony show produced by Nickelodeon. Usually held on a Saturday night in March or early April, the show honors the year's biggest in te ...

. On 5 December 2015,

launched Nickelodeon HD+, the first children's channel in

High Definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

in India. It originates a different schedule than the main network, including previously unaired international programming such as ''

The Legend of Korra ''The Legend of Korra'' (abbreviated as ''TLOK'' and also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Korra'' or more rarely simply as ''Korra'') is an American animated Fantasy television, fantasy action drama television series created by Michael Dante ...

''. In March 2016, Viacom18 launched a Nick programming block named "Nick Hour" on their

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

channel Colors Rishtey. The programming consists of shows like ''

'', ''

Pakdam Pakdai ''Pakdam Pakdai'' (), also known as ''Rat-a-Tat'' is an Indian Flash-animated comedy television series, formerly on Nickelodeon India and later on Sonic Nickelodeon. The show began airing on 27 May 2013. ''Pakdam Pakdai'' is narrated by Nan ...

'', ''The Jungle Book'', ''

Go, Diego, Go! ''Go, Diego, Go!'' is an American animated children's television series that aired on Nickelodeon from September 6, 2005 to September 16, 2011, with 80 episodes across five seasons. Created and executive produced by Chris Gifford (writer), Chri ...

'', ''Keymon Ache'' and ''

Chhoti Anandi ''Chhoti Anandi'' () is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language animated television series produced by Sphere Origins, and animated by HopMotion. The show was simulcasted on Colors TV and Rishtey. This series aired on from 17 January 2016 to 10 April 2016 ...

'' (

Colors TV Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of Soap opera, family dramas, Comedy, comedies, fantasy shows, youth-oriented Rea ...

series). Nick India added a

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

audio track to the channel on 1 September 2018. Four additional language tracks in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

were added in 2019. Nick India announced its first co-production with Nickelodeon International called ''The Twisted Timeline of Sammy & Raj'', which first premiered internationally in late 2022. It premiered in India on 15 October 2023. On 24 January 2022, in association with Nickelodeon India,

Colors Tamil Colors Tamil is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India on 19 February 2018. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It primarily te ...

launched the "Nick Neram" block, airing '' Rudra: Boom Chik Chik Boom'' and '' Golmaal Jr.''. On April 15, 2024, the channel, along with its sister channel

, started to use the Splat rebrand being used internationally. Unlike most Nickelodeon feeds adopting the Nickelodeon logo, the channel retained its on-air name as Nick.

Programming

In the channel's first years of broadcasting it aired mostly original programs from the US version of the channel, such as ''

Rugrats ''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a group of toddlers, most prominently Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, and their day-to-d ...

'', ''

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'' is an American animated television series developed by Klasky Csupo for Nickelodeon. It is the fifth Nicktoons, Nicktoon after ''Doug (TV series), Doug'', ''Rugrats'', ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' and ''Rocko's Modern Li ...

'', ''

As Told by Ginger ''As Told by Ginger'', also known as ''As Told by Ginger Foutley'',Beck, Jerry, ''Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons!'' is an American animated preteen drama television series, produced by Klasky Csupo (which also produced ''Rugrats''), and aired on ...

'', ''

Rocket Power ''Rocket Power'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó and produced by Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studio for Nickelodeon. The show centers on the daily lives of Otto, Reggie, Twister ...

'', ''

The Wild Thornberrys ''The Wild Thornberrys'' is an American animated series, animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic for Nickelodeon. The series portrays the zany hijinks of a family o ...

'', '' The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'', ''

Rocko's Modern Life ''Rocko's Modern Life'' is an American Television comedy, comedy animated television series created by Joe Murray (animator), Joe Murray for Nickelodeon. The series centers on the surreal life of an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic Australian ...

'', ''

The Angry Beavers ''The Angry Beavers'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mitch Schauer for Nickelodeon. The series revolves around the zany hijinks of Norbert and Daggett Beaver, two young beaver brothers who have moved out of their parents' home to bec ...

'', ''

CatDog ''CatDog'' is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for Nickelodeon. The series follows the zany hijinks of orange-furred conjoined brothers of different species, with one half of the resultant animal being a cat and t ...

'', ''

Hey Arnold! ''Hey Arnold!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. It originally aired from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandparents in an inner ...

'', ''

The Fairly OddParents ''The Fairly OddParents'' is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with two Fairy godmother, fairy godparents named List of The Fai ...

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' is an American animated television series, animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It first aired as a sneak peek after the 1999 Kids' C ...

'', ''

Danny Phantom ''Danny Phantom'' is an American animated paranormal superhero action adventure television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. It premiered on April 3, 2004, immediately after the 2004 Kids' Choice Awards, and concluded on August ...

'', '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''

Kenan & Kel ''Kenan & Kel'' is an American sitcom created by Kim Bass that originally aired on Nickelodeon from August 17, 1996, to May 3, 2000. Set in Chicago, the series follows mischievous Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson) and his happy-go-lucky best frien ...

'', ''

Drake & Josh ''Drake & Josh'' is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series follows teenage stepbrothers Drake Parker (Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) as they live together despite their opposite personalities. Na ...

'', ''

Clarissa Explains It All ''Clarissa Explains It All'' is an American teen sitcom created by Mitchell Kriegman for Nickelodeon. In the series, Clarissa Darling ( Melissa Joan Hart) is a teenager who addresses the audience directly to explain the things that are happeni ...

'', ''

Legends of the Hidden Temple ''Legends of the Hidden Temple'' is an American action-adventure television game show that broadcast from 1993 to 1995 on Nickelodeon. Created by David G. Stanley, Scott A. Stone, and Stephen Brown, the program features a fictitious temple, " ...

'', and others. After the success of Nickelodeon U.S. game shows, Nick India produced two local game shows, ''Dum Dama Dum'' and ''Gilli Gilli Gappa''. They launched '' J Bole Toh Jadoo'', a spin-off series of 2003's '' Koi... Mil Gaya''. The series premiered on 14 November 2004 on

Children's Day Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Sin ...

. In 2006 Nick India started acquiring Japanese anime such as ''Ninja Hattori'', ''

Perman is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by about a clumsy boy, Mitsuo Suwa, who is chosen to become a powerful superhero to save the world along with other superheroes. The manga series was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Su ...

'' and ''

Mighty Cat Masked Niyander is a 2000 children's superhero anime series produced by Sunrise, loosely based on children's book of the same name by author Takashi Yanase. It is directed by Tsutomu Shibayama and written by Masaaki Sakurai and Takashi Yanase. It aired on bo ...

''. Due to poor performance of original Nickelodeon content, the channel started to rely more on third party programming and focused on animated content only. Newer live-action shows like ''

iCarly ''iCarly'' is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider, which originally aired on Nickelodeon from September 8, 2007, to November 23, 2012. The series tells the story of Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), a teenager who creates and hosts ...

'' were not aired until the launch of TeenNick in 2012 and some ongoing Nickelodeon cartoons at that time such as ''

'' were permanently removed from the channel. Other shows like ''Tak and the Power of Juju'' and ''

The Penguins of Madagascar ''The Penguins of Madagascar'' is an American animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation in collaboration with Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It stars nine characters from DreamWorks' animated film ''Madagascar'': the penguin ...

'' premiered in later years. Nick started airing

Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...

's show ''

Jai Shri Krishna Jai Shri Krishna (), also rendered Jaya Sri Krishna, is a Sanskrit expression, translating to "Victory to Krishna", a major deity in Hinduism. The salutation is believed to have hailed from the Vaishnavas. The expression is said to greet anothe ...

'' in 2009. The show was re-edited and customized for a younger audience. They also acquired ''

Little Krishna ''Little Krishna'' is an Indian computer-generated imagery, CGI-Animation, animated Epic (genre), epic television series created by Reliance Entertainment in 2009. It was originally aired on Nickelodeon and later aired on Discovery Kids (Indian ...

'', an animated series produced by BIG Animation India and The Indian Heritage Foundation in May 2009. Also, in 2009 the channel started acquired the French series '' Oggy and the Cockroaches''. In 2011, Nickelodeon India began producing local animated shows, starting with ''

'' and a theatrical movie based on the series. ''

'' debuted in 2012, and was followed by more local animated series like ''

'' in 2013 (which later moved to Nickelodeon Sonic), ''

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

'' in 2015, '' Gattu Battu'' in 2017, ''

Rudra Rudra (/ ɾud̪ɾə/; ) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the ''Rigveda'', Rudra is praised as the "mightiest of the mighty". Rudra ...

'' in 2018, '' Ting Tong'' in 2020 and '' Chikoo aur Bunty'' in 2021. The original shows from the American network migrated to Nickelodeon HD+ in 2015.

Sister channels

Nickelodeon HD+

Nickelodeon HD+ (abbreviated as Nick HD+) launched on 5 December 2015. It is the high-definition counterpart of Nickelodeon India. Original content from the U.S. television channel are shown only on the channel. It launched as Nickelodeon HD+, the first children's channel in high definition in India.

Nick Jr.

Before the launch of the channel,

was started as a block on Nickelodeon at morning times which broadcast shows for kids like ''

Dora the Explorer ''Dora the Explorer'' is an American media franchise centered on an eponymous animated interactive fourth wall children's television series created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes, and Eric Weiner, and produced by Nickelodeon Animation ...

'', '' Go Diego Go'', etc. On 21 November 2012,

launched TeenNick and

as a single channel in which Nick Jr. airs in the daytime while TeenNick aired at night. However, TeenNick was discontinued on 1 February 2017, which made Nick Jr. a 24-hour channel. The block on Nickelodeon was discontinued in 2018.

Nickelodeon Sonic

Nickelodeon Sonic Nickelodeon Sonic (formerly Sonic Nickelodeon) is an Indian children's pay television channel operated by Viacom18 as part of the Nickelodeon India network. After on the air, Sonic became the fourth most watched channel across all genres with ...

was launched on 20 December 2011, focusing on action and teens. In 2016, the channel changed strategy to attract younger audiences, including producing local original content for the channel.

Notes

References

External links

Official Facebook pageNick HD+ Facebook pageOfficial YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickelodeon India 1999 establishments in Maharashtra Animation studios owned by Paramount Global Children's television channels in India Disney Star English-language television stations in India Entertainment companies established in 1999 Indian animation studios Indian animation Indian companies established in 1999 Mass media companies based in Mumbai Mass media companies established in 1999 Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Paramount Media Networks Television broadcasting companies of India Television channels and stations established in 1999 Television networks in India Television stations in India Television stations in Mumbai Paramount International Networks