Nickelodeon is a Latin American pay television channel, counterpart of the American network of the same name. It is owned by Paramount and was launched on 1996-12-20. Aside from airing Nick and Nick Jr. content, it has produced original programming for the channel and has been sold to local distributors worldwide except for Cuba as cable television is banned in that country.
Nickelodeon is divided into four regional feeds: North, Central, South, and Brazil, the latter in Portuguese.
History[]
Prior to the networks launch, its shows had aired on a variety of Latin American channels over the past few years. A notable example is ZAZ, who started airing Nickelodeon programming in 1991, and stopped airing in the year 1996. Another notable example is The Children's Channel, which has aired Nickelodeon produced programming in between the year 1988 and 1996.
The channel was launched on 20 December 1996 in Latin America as a children-oriented channel, being the main competitor of Cartoon Network, which was launched three years before. In 1999, Nickelodeon launched its official website for the region, MundoNick.com. "Nick Radio" was also available, but eventually it was replaced by the Nick Jr. official site.
On 13 February 2006, a programming block named Nick at Nite was launched. It consisted mostly of live-action shows from the 80s and 90s, and aired from 10 pm to 6 am.
On 9 June 2008, the channel launched "Nickers", a live-action show with two hosts introducing shows and music. It followed the same line and was very similar to Disney Channel's Zapping Zone. The block was cancelled in all feeds in December 2008. In 2008, two locally produced series premiered, both being soap operas. The first one, Isa TKM premiered on 29 September 2008 and La maga y el camino dorado premiered on 13 October of that same year.
In 2009, a programming block called Nick Hits, which airs classic Nick Toons, replaced Nick at Nite on weekends. On 5 April 2010, Nickelodeon Latin America was rebranded with the new logo already in use in the US and most countries in the world, making it the last Nickelodeon channel worldwide to switch to the new graphics. Due to the rebrand, NickHits was closed down and replaced again by Nick at Nite. In June 2010, Viacom gave the rights for Mexico to release their own Kids Choice Awards. It premiered on 4 September 2010. On 20 July 2010, another original series called Sueña conmigo premiered on the channel.
Through August 2010, Nickelodeon started to rerun the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender to promote the 2010 film adaptation; with this, a new on-air logo was shown when the series was broadcast, an arrow blurring takes on/off in the Nick logo. On 2 May 2011, Grachi premiered as the channel's fifth original production. In late January 2012, MTV Networks Latin America announced another locally produced soap opera, Miss XV, that was premiered on 16 April 2012.
Since 2012, the Nick at Nite programming block was no longer airing classic programming from the 80s and 90s and, instead, was a mere relay of Nickelodeon's 2000s and 2010s TV series that were not aired in the main slot anymore.
On 1 January 2015 the Nick at Nite programming block went off the air.
Feed structure[]
The channel is divided into three feeds. The North and Pan-regional feeds receive Spanish audio with English audio being the secondary channel, while the Brazilian feed receives Portuguese audio with English audio being the secondary channel (like the North and Pan-regional feeds).
| Feed Name | Country/Territory | Headquarters | Language | Time Zone(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North (Norte) | Mexico | Mexico City | Latin American Spanish English (via SAP) |
Mexico - CT/CDT (UTC−06:00/-05:00 DST) |
| Pan-regional (Panregional) | Argentina Bolivia Caribbean Central America Chile Colombia Dominican Republic Ecuador Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela |
Bogotá Buenos Aires |
Argentina - ART (UTC−03:00) Chile - CLT/CLST (UTC−04:00/-03:00 DST) Colombia - COT (UTC−05:00) |
Notes[]
- When Nickelodeon was launched in Hispanic America, the channel's broadcast was originally divided in two feeds: the pan-regional feed, aimed towards Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Central America and the Caribbean, and the South feed, aimed towards the Southern Cone (including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay), each with different programming schedules. The pan-regional feed used the Mexico City time zone (UTC−06:00/-05:00 DST), while the South feed used the Buenos Aires time zone (UTC−03:00).
- In 2012, Mexico was separated from the pan-regional feed, thus becoming the North feed, and the pan-regional feed became the Central feed, broadcasting to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Central America, the Caribbean and (since 2017) Chile.
- In 2017, Chile abandoned the South feed in favor of the Central feed.
- Recently, in April 2023, the South feed merged with the Central feed to become the pan-regional feed.
- From August 1, 1997 to March 26, 1999, the pan-regional feed was available in Spain using the Spanish time zone, while the Brazilian feed was available in Portugal using the Portuguese time zone. It was replaced with a separate Spanish feed for Nickelodeon by March 27, 1999, whereas Portugal was left without a Nickelodeon until June 1, 2005 when the Central European Nickelodeon channel was launched in Portugal with Portuguese audio with partial local ad breaks (prior to this, Nickelodeon programming had aired on SIC, 2: and Canal Panda respectively). Later on September 1, 2009, the Portuguese channel changed its source feed to the Spanish feed.
Content[]
See also: List of programs broadcast by Nickelodeon (Latin America)
Trivia[]
- Unlike most Latin American channels, Nickelodeon Latin America was known to have no proper localization in its programming. In this case, most of the shows broadcast entirely keep their original visuals intact, with only a voiceover on the end credits for dubbing credits. This isn't the case for some of its programs however, as Blue's Clues, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, ToonMarty, and SpongeBob SquarePants (as a one time occasion during Truth or Square) had featured localized visuals.