Nickelodeon (or simply Nick) is an American television network owned by Paramount Global through its Nickelodeon Networks division. Initially tested on December 1, 1977 as part of the QUBE system in Columbus, Ohio, it was launched nationally on April 1, 1979 as the first American cable network aimed at children. Today, its programming is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 7 to 12, while some of its programming blocks target a broader family audience.
C-3[]
1977–1979[]
Nickelodeon was first tested on December 1, 1977 as the C-3 channel of Warner Cable's QUBE system in Columbus, Ohio. Its only form of programming at the time was the educational series Pinwheel, and C-3 was often referred to as the "Pinwheel Channel" as a result.
Nickelodeon[]
1979-1980[]
Nickelodeon was officially launched as a national cable network on April 1, 1979. Its name was derived from a type of movie theatre which charged 5 cents (nickel cents) for admission. This concept was represented in their first logo, which depicts a man looking into a kinetoscope within the letter "N" of the wordmark.
1980–1981[]
Later in 1980, Nickelodeon updated their logo, utilizing a modified version of the Windsor Bold typeface. Their station IDs at the time featured a mime doing things on a black background with an instrumental version of "Put That Little Nickel In" as background music.
1981–1984[]
A new logo designed by Lou Dorfsman was introduced in 1981. It consists of the network's name spelled in rainbow letters in the Frankfurter font, with a pinball illustrated by Bob Klein placed behind it.[1] The pinball theme was used in the network's IDs during the period, some of which used early 1980s-era computer graphics.
1984–2009[]
On October 1, 1984, as a part of a restructuring at the network (which had been dealing with significant financial losses at that time), Nickelodeon introduced a new logo involving a wordmark in the Balloon Extra Bold font on an orange silhouette of some sort (i.e. an airplane, a bone, a car, a taxi, or a star). Designed by Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Corey McPherson Nash (then known as Corey & Co.) under the direction of Fred/Alan, Inc.'s Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman (known for their work with Nick's sister network MTV), it was initially used in tandem with the 1981 "pinball" logo until that design was phased out completely in early 1985. The logo was rarely (if ever) seen isolated from a shape of some kind, and would prove to be the longest-lasting of Nickelodeon's logos, being used in countless variations over the next 25 years. By 2003, the "splat" would become the main logo, originally representing the slime that was a trademark of one of Nick's first television series, the Canadian sketch comedy You Can't Do That On Television (the network would later adopt the slime as a trademark of its game shows and special programming, including the Kids' Choice Awards. Despite being officially discontinued in September 28, 2009, this logo made a brief return for the Nick Box collection in 2016, was revived for VRV's short-lived NickSplat channel in 2018, and continued to be used as production logo until July 8, 2013.[2] It was also used on the sign of the Nickelodeon Suites Resort in Orlando, Florida, until it closed in 2016, as well as Nickelodeon on Sunset, until its 2017 shutdown.
2009–present[]
In February 2009, Nickelodeon unveiled an entirely new logo for the first time in more than 24 years. Designed by Eric Zim (with the initial on-air look created by Trollbäck & Company), the logo utilizes a custom typeface resembling ITC Bauhaus (unofficially nicknamed "Litebulb"), and was intended to be part of a broader revamp that included the Nick at Nite and Nick Jr. blocks, as well as the Nicktoons Network, The N and Noggin channels, which were rebranded as Nicktoons, TeenNick, and Nick Jr., respectively, in order to better market them as Nickelodeon properties. The new logo made its official on-air debut in the United States on September 28, 2009 (although it was accidentally used two days earlier alongside the old logo), and was rolled out internationally during 2010 accordingly:
- January 29: France
- February 15: United Kingdom and Ireland
- March 1: Poland[3]
- March 26: Australia and New Zealand
- March 31: Germany, Austria and Switzerland[4]
- April 5: Latin America, Brazil and Caribbean
- June 25: India[5]
This logo won third place in part 2 of the 2009 Brand New Awards.
