# Nickelodeon (French TV channel)

Nickelodeon is a French pay television channel, working as the local variant of the US kids network Nickelodeon in France, as well as in other French-speaking countries such as of Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Lebanon, Francophone Africa, & Haiti. The network has two sister networks, Nickelodeon Junior and Nickelodeon Teen.
The network is solely branded as "Nickelodeon" in Francophone regions, with the common branding shortening of "Nick" used in all other markets completely unused, as "Nick" is too similar to the French swear word niquer.

## History

On 10 January 2003, Nicktoons was launched as a programming block in France on Canal J.
The French variant of Nickelodeon was announced in 2005, and was officially launched on 16 November of that same year. The channel's application to broadcast on French digital terrestrial television was rejected by the CSA in favor of Gulli, a kids-oriented channel (launched as a joint-venture between the Lagardère Group and the public broadcaster France Télévisions). It gains revenue through advertisement and product sales. At the time, its market value was equal to €300 million. According to research conducted by ConsoJunior in 2006, Nickelodeon France was the most-watched channel among kids between 4 and 14 years old. During this time, the channel premiered new shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Dora the Explorer. Thereafter, during the first half of 2007, Nickelodeon increased its audience share by 113% over a year. Due to this, some French celebrities such as Matt Pokora started to appear on the channel as hosts.
On 26 January 2010, Nickelodeon France adopted the new logo and rebranded its graphical package. On that same day, the preschool channel Nickelodeon Junior was launched. In November of that same year, the network celebrated its fifth anniversary. On 20 September 2011, it switched its aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9. In May 2013, Nickelodeon announced the release of 2 new videogames of Dora the Explorer, in association with 2K Games.
From 28 June to 12 July 2013, the channel organized the Crazy Tour Nickelodeon in six malls in France. On 6 September 2014, Nickelodeon France premiered Rabbids Invasion, an original series of the channel.
On 19 November 2014, Nickelodeon 4Teen was launched, with its programming being centered on series for teenagers. It rebranded to Nickelodeon Teen in 2017. On 22 September 2015, Nickelodeon HD was launched on Canalsat. In March 2016, Nickelodeon +1 was launched, replacing the timeshift feed of MTV, MTV +1. In 2019, Nickelodeon channels were launched on French ISP bouquets, ending their exclusivity on Canal+. In January 2021, Nickelodeon, J-One and Comedy Central were added to the Mauritius Telecom's My.t offers.

## Sister channels
### Nickelodeon Junior

Nickelodeon Junior is now a separate 24-hour digital television channel.

### Nickelodeon Teen

Nickelodeon 4Teen was launched on 19 November 2014, broadcasting in HD and focusing on live-action shows for a tween and teenager audience.
On 26 August 2017, the channel was rebranded as Nickelodeon Teen.

## N-Toons

N-Toons, formerly known as Nicktoons, was a block on the French network Canal J, which launched the Nickelodeon brand in France. A separate network launched to carry Nickelodeon in 2005 and the Canal J block was rebranded as N-Toons. The block later returned the reboot, used from 21 October 2011 until 31 July 2015 on the French version of Nickelodeon Wallonia.