Nicktoons

**Nicktoons** is an American pay television channel that is owned by Nickelodeon Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. Geared towards both children and animation fans of all ages, the channel broadcasts original animated series from sister network Nickelodeon, known as Nicktoons, along with other original animated series, some feature films, and foreign animated programs from Nickelodeon's international networks 24 hours a day.

As of July 2015, approximately 66.5 million American households (56.5% of households with television) received Nicktoons.

## History

Nicktoons was launched on May 1, 2002, as **Nicktoons TV**, part of the digital cable-exclusive MTV Digital Suite, in order to entice cable operators to pick up the network and give them a marketing advantage over satellite services.[*citation needed*] However, by early 2004, Nickelodeon management changed course and offered it to digital satellite services DirecTV and Dish Network. The network was originally marketed as commercial-free, with comedic promos involving Nickelodeon Animation Studios, two-minute cartoon shorts from foreign markets, and former program promotions which had previously been used on Nickelodeon taking up commercial time. By June 6, 2005, as the network's distribution increased, the network began to carry regular advertising.[*citation needed*]

On September 28, 2009, the network's logo changed as part of Nickelodeon's universal rebranding effort that also saw Nickelodeon's first logo change in 25 years, and name changes for sister networks: The N to TeenNick and Noggin to Nick Jr. In conjunction with this, the "Network" identifier was dropped, leaving the network to be rebranded as Nicktoons for the second time.

An HD feed was launched on August 13, 2013, and is available on several providers. Like Viacom's other HD channels, any programming produced in 4:3 SD is pillarboxed on this feed. As the network has blended in more Nickelodeon programming into its schedule, the Nicktoons website was sunsetted, recommending viewers go to Nick.com instead before eventually being fully redirected to the Nick.com domain.

## Other media

### Characters

*Main article: Nicktoons characters*
The Nickelodeon cartoons are known as *The Nicktoons* brand created by Nickelodeon for Nickelodeon's original cable television channel brand name under the distribution made by The MTV branded labels owned and operated by Viacom through Nickelodeon producing many animated television series from the start of 1991 to present.

### Videogames

The Nicktoons brand also extends to other media, such as video games featuring Nicktoons characters from Nicktoons Racing to Nickelodeon Kart Racers.

### Mascot

From 2006 until 2009, Nicktoons Network used a robot mascot in bumpers and advertisements for the channel. The mascot, named "ACOW," which stands for Animation Capital of the World was a complex robot character with a large singular eye, animated using "photo-puppetry." ACOW was prominently featured on the NicktoonsNetwork.com website and was used as part of the "Nicktoons Network: Animation Capital of the World" logo. Several similar-looking eyeball-based characters were seen in promos for the network.

### Japanese Channel

*Main article: Nicktoons (Japan)*
The Nicktoons channel has launched a Japanese pay television channel based on their original counterpart of the channel themselves in japan known as Nicktoons (Japan) on September 26th 2018 thanks to Viacom International media. The channel's slogan is *Action to the Maxtion*.

## References

1. ↑ Viacom.
2. ↑ Seidman, Robert (February 22, 2015). List of How Many Homes Each Cable Networks Is In - Cable Network Coverage Estimates As Of February 2015. *TV by the Numbers*. Zap2it. Retrieved on February 5, 2017.
3. ↑ Nickelodeon Unveils New Logo, *Variety.com*, July 29, 2009
4. ↑ DIRECTV HD Channel Anticipation (Official Q3-13 Thread). *DBSTalk*. Retrieved on 27 October 2014.
5. ↑ Official AVS National HD Channel Lineups - Cable/DBS/Fiber/IPTV - Updated 8/3/13. Retrieved on 27 October 2014.
6. ↑ Nicktoons Network Homepage, 2009. *nick.com*. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009.
7. ↑ Nickelodeon's ACOW - www.maissito.com. *maissito.com*.
8. ↑ 2007 / ACOW on Nicktoons - Carlos Ordonez. *carlos-ordonez.com*. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015.
9. ↑ Animation Capital of the World - Viacom. *trademarkia.com*.

## External links

* Nicktoons (United States) at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* Official website
* 2016 Decider's Oral History of "Nicktoons" interviews with cast and crew