About Nicktoons Deutschland

Nicktoons Deutschland

Nicktoons Deutschland is a German pay-television children's channel owned by Paramount, broadcasting animation and children's series without advertising breaks. Based in Berlin, the channel went on air on 1 December 2007 under the name Nick Premium and was renamed Nicktoons on 31 March 2010 as part of an international realignment of Viacom's Nickelodeon channel family. As the pay-TV sibling of the free-to-air Nickelodeon Germany, it offers a 24-hour schedule drawn from the Nickelodeon animation library, aimed at children and young teenagers.

Overview

Nicktoons is the German version of the US Nicktoons channel brand, but with a distinctly German programming history. Unlike most international Nicktoons feeds, which are purely animation-driven, the German service has at various times combined new animated and live-action series with older Nickelodeon formats. The channel broadcasts in German in standard definition (576i), receivable via satellite (Sky), cable, IPTV and streaming within pay-TV packages. A defining commercial feature is the absence of advertising interruptions — the schedule runs without commercial breaks.

The channel's broadcast area covers Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Its headquarters are in Berlin, where Paramount's German television operations are based.

History

Nick Premium launched on 1 December 2007 as a spin-off of Nickelodeon Germany, initially available exclusively to subscribers of the Sky Welt Extra package (then still under the Premiere brand). Because the Sky platform was still being built out, the channel initially broadcast only from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with MTV Entertainment filling the overnight hours. From 10 January 2010 it moved to round-the-clock broadcasting.

The early Nick Premium proposition was built on premieres: new episodes of series such as Invader Zim, Avatar – The Last Airbender, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom, iCarly and Drake & Josh aired on Nick Premium a month before their free-TV debut on Nickelodeon. A Nick Jr. preschool block aired in the mornings from 4:30 to 9:45.

On 31 March 2010 at 6:04 a.m., Nick Premium was renamed Nicktoons, adopting the international brand and logo as part of Viacom's global realignment of its Nickelodeon channels. On 1 March 2012 the German and Dutch Nicktoons schedules were merged; live-action series were gradually reduced to a short evening strand and eventually disappeared almost entirely, while the Nick Jr. morning block was dropped. Since early 2017 the channel's scheduling has been handled by Dutch Nickelodeon staff, after initially being programmed from Germany.

Distribution has shifted several times. On 30 June 2014 Nicktoons left the Sky Deutschland platform, after Viacom declined to launch an HD version of the channel; the broader Sky–Viacom cooperation ended in September 2014. The channel remained available on cable networks such as Unitymedia and via Deutsche Telekom's mobile TV offering, and from 17 April 2016 via the streaming service Magine TV (until Magine's German shutdown in February 2019). On 1 April 2020 Nicktoons returned to Sky Deutschland, replacing the discontinued Disney XD in the Sky Kids package, where it is available via Sky Q and WOW (formerly Sky Ticket). On 30 April 2021 the channel was removed without replacement from Vodafone West (formerly Unitymedia) in the course of network harmonisation following Vodafone's takeover.

In October 2016 the channel received a new on-air design as part of a Europe-wide refresh, and from 2017 it was equipped with additional audio tracks (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Russian, Arabic, Turkish and later Serbian, Slovenian, Latvian, Croatian and Ukrainian), expanding into new countries under the "Nicktoons Global" name. An Arabic HD version launched on 1 May 2017. On 20 May 2024 Nicktoons adopted a new design matching Nickelodeon's, with the logo moving to the upper-right corner of the screen.

Programming

The current schedule is animation-led, drawing on the Nickelodeon library. Long-running and recent titles have included SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar – The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (in several incarnations), The Loud House (Willkommen bei den Louds), The Casagrandes, Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, The Penguins of Madagascar, Fanboy & Chum Chum, Sanjay and Craig, Breadwinners (Die Brot-Piloten), Harvey Beaks (Harveys schnabelhafte Abenteuer), Welcome to the Wayne (Willkommen im Wayne), It's Pony (Das ist Pony!), Ollie's Pack (Ollies Rucksack), Dorg Van Dango, Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty and The Adventures of Kid Danger.

Former programming spans the channel's history as Nick Premium and Nicktoons: Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, CatDog, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, ChalkZone, Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron, Invader Zim, iCarly, Victorious, Big Time Rush, Drake & Josh, Power Rangers (various seasons), Winx Club, Huntik, Monsuno, Beyblade (various seasons), Yu-Gi-Oh!, Rocket Power, Totally Spies, Martin Mystery (Familie X), T.U.F.F. Puppy, Robot and Monster, Rabbids Invasion and Paw Patrol.

Short interstitial formats have included Dein Horoskop mit Thaddäus (a SpongeBob horoscope segment), Doodlez, KaBlam! and Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Coverage & Audience

Nicktoons Deutschland is available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg via pay-TV: satellite through Sky's Kids package, cable (including Liwest in Austria), IPTV (1&1 TV, MagentaTV with WOW) and streaming (WOW, Sky X in Austria, waipu.tv with Perfect Plus). The channel is not broadcast free-to-air and does not publish mass-market audience shares; its commercial proposition is an ad-free, 24-hour children's animation environment within subscription bundles.

Ownership

The channel is owned by Paramount (Paramount International Networks / Paramount Media Networks, part of the Nickelodeon Group), the US media company behind the global Nickelodeon brand. Sister channels in the German-speaking market include the free-to-air Nickelodeon Germany, the pay-TV preschool channel Nick Jr. Deutschland, Comedy Central and MTV. Paramount's German operations are headquartered in Berlin.

The Nicktoons Global Feed

Since 2017, the German Nicktoons service has been part of an increasingly international operation. Beginning with the addition of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Russian, Arabic and Turkish audio tracks, the channel expanded into Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and beyond under the "Nicktoons Global" name, later adding Serbian, Slovenian, Latvian, Croatian and Ukrainian tracks. An Arabic HD version launched on 1 May 2017, and the HD feed was extended to the CIS in 2023, even as the German-speaking feed itself remained standard-definition only on most platforms.

This internationalisation reflects the economics of children's pay television: a single programme library, dubbed or subtitled into many languages, can serve dozens of national markets from one playout operation. For German viewers the practical effect has been a schedule increasingly harmonised with the Dutch and other European feeds, programmed since early 2017 by Dutch Nickelodeon staff rather than from Berlin.

Digital Presence

Paramount streams its children's brands through Paramount+, its subscription streaming service, where Nickelodeon content is available on demand. The linear Nicktoons channel is carried by streaming aggregators including WOW and waipu.tv. Programme schedules are published in platform programme guides and TV listing services. Wikipedia formerly listed www.nicktoons.de as the channel's website (now redirecting to nick.de); the domain could not be independently load-verified for this profile.

Market Position

Nicktoons Deutschland occupies the ad-free animation niche of the German children's pay-TV market, alongside competitors such as Cartoon Network, Cartoonito, Disney Channel's pay offerings and the free-TV children's channels Super RTL (Toggo) and KiKA. Its history — from premiere-window pay service to merged pan-European animation feed — mirrors the consolidation of children's television in Europe, where nationally programmed channels have increasingly given way to regional feeds with multiple audio tracks. The channel's return to Sky in 2020, taking over Disney XD's slot, underlined the continuing demand from platform operators for established children's brands in their kids' packages.