Nickelodeon (Iberia)
Nickelodeon is a European pay television channel available in Spain and Portugal and operated by Paramount Networks EMEAA. The channel is aimed at children and teenagers.
History
During the 1990s Nickelodeon programming was licensed to various commercial broadcasters in Spain and Portugal. In Spain these aired on the paid television channel Canal+, before later being assigned to its spin-off channel Minimax which would launch a block dedicated to just Nickelodeon programming, while in Portugal these were licensed to commercial broadcaster SIC.The channel was launched in Spain on 27 March 1999 as a localised variant of American kids channel Nickelodeon, on Canal Satellite Digital. Like in the UK, Nickelodeon in Spain originally shared its signal with Comedy Central, until February 2005 when both channels were given their own signal.
On 1 June 2005, a feed of the Central European Nickelodeon channel was launched in Portugal with Portuguese audio with partial local ad breaks. The channel was initially an exclusive to the Portuguese TV operator NOS, 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+. 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, 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.
Between 2020 and 2023, a video on demand service called Nick+ was made available in Portugal, by the operators Meo and Vodafone. The service would be discontinued due to the launch of SkyShowtime, which serves as the country's equivalent to Paramount+.