About Nickelodeon (Israel)

Nickelodeon (Israel)

Nickelodeon (Israel) is the Israeli version of the Nickelodeon children's television channel, headquartered in Tel Aviv and broadcasting in Hebrew to children across Israel. Launched as an independent channel on 1 July 2003, it is operated locally by Ananey, the Israeli pay-television group now owned within Paramount, under the Nickelodeon Group and Paramount Networks EMEAA. The channel combines Hebrew-dubbed and subtitled versions of Nickelodeon's international animated and live-action series with a substantial slate of Israeli original productions. That local slate is what most distinguishes the Israeli service: its Hebrew teen drama HaHamama, known in English as The Greenhouse, became the first original Israeli series sold to Netflix, which remade it as Greenhouse Academy. Few localised children's channels anywhere have exported a format on that scale.

Beginnings as a Programming Block

Nickelodeon programmes were present in Israel well before a standalone channel existed. The Israeli Nickelodeon service traces its launch history to 15 March 1996, when Nickelodeon began as a programming block on Arutz HaYeladim, the Children's Channel, one of Israel's first cable channels. Through that block, Israeli children were introduced to Nickelodeon's animated catalogue in Hebrew years before the brand had its own channel slot. The block arrangement was typical of the early Israeli multichannel market, in which international brands first appeared inside established local channels. It also built an audience and a Hebrew dubbing pipeline for Nickelodeon titles that the later channel could inherit. When the independent channel arrived, it was therefore not introducing an unknown brand, but giving a dedicated home to programmes Israeli families already recognised.

Launch as an Independent Channel in 2003

Nickelodeon became an independent channel in Israel on 1 July 2003. From that date it broadcast as a full service in its own right, with SpongeBob SquarePants among the programmes on the channel from its first day; the series has remained on the Israeli channel ever since. The channel was carried on Israel's cable and satellite platforms, HOT and yes, placing it in direct competition with Arutz HaYeladim, Hop! and other children's services. Its programming language was Hebrew, provided through dubbing for animation and younger-skewing titles and subtitles for other material. In its early years the channel broadcast for a defined part of the day, signing on at 6 a.m. and closing at midnight; it later moved to round-the-clock broadcasting, with the overnight hours from midnight to 6 a.m. filled with the Hebrew dub of SpongeBob SquarePants. By the time its sister preschool channel launched in 2012, Nickelodeon Israel was described by Viacom International Media Networks as reaching 1.5 million homes.

Ananey and Paramount Ownership

The Israeli channel is operated by Ananey, formerly Ananey Communications, the Tel Aviv-based group founded by Udi Miron in 1996. Ananey built its business as the Israeli home of international pay-television brands, representing and operating local versions of channels for Viacom alongside its own lifestyle channels. Its relationship with Nickelodeon's owner deepened over time: in January 2017 Viacom acquired a minority stake in Ananey Communications, with an option to take control, formalising a partnership under which Ananey already licensed brands including Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central in Israel. In April 2020 ViacomCBS acquired the remaining shares in Ananey, bringing the operator of Nickelodeon Israel fully inside the group that owned the Nickelodeon brand itself. Ananey's chief executive Orly Atlas-Katz then reported to ViacomCBS Networks International's president for Australia, the United Kingdom and Israel, while founder Udi Miron stayed on as a special adviser. The channel's listed owner today is Ananey within Paramount Networks EMEAA, with the Nickelodeon Group as its parent brand organisation.

Imported Animation and Live-Action Series

The international Nickelodeon catalogue forms the backbone of the schedule. SpongeBob SquarePants, on the channel since 2003, is its longest-running title. Other animated series carried in Israel have included The Loud House, The Casagrandes, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, The Patrick Star Show, Big Nate, Middlemost Post, Monster High, the 2021 revival of Rugrats, Star Trek: Prodigy and The Smurfs, as well as earlier staples such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Danny Phantom, The Fairly OddParents, Hey Arnold!, CatDog, Rocko's Modern Life, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. Live-action imports have included Drake and Josh, iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101, Kenan and Kel, The Amanda Show and House of Anubis. Programmes for teenagers were at one stage grouped under the TeenNick banner on the channel, and preschool series under Nick Jr. were carried between 2007 and 2012 before Nick Jr. became a channel in its own right. All of this material is presented for Israeli viewers in Hebrew, by dubbing or subtitling.

Israeli Original Productions

What sets Nickelodeon Israel apart from a simple localised feed is the scale of its Hebrew original production, made locally, largely through Ananey's production arm, formerly Nutz Productions and now Ananey Studios. The channel's Israeli originals include Shchuna, translated as Neighborhood and also known as The Hood, about young people in a low-income neighbourhood of an otherwise wealthy town; Neelamin, or Vanished; Kadabra, a fantasy drama; Betzefer, whose title is schoolyard slang for school; Forever; and Spyders, a family adventure series produced by Ananey. Non-fiction and entertainment formats have included HaTzhokia, a children's stand-up show featuring popular Israeli comedians; Yapanick, a school-versus-school physical games format; Championsnick, a game show in which schools competed for a trip to Barcelona; and Gan Hayot, a sketch comedy set in a fictional zoo. The drama Ziggy, about a 16-year-old with vitiligo pursuing his dream of becoming a performer, premiered on TeenNick Israel in November 2020. This steady run of local commissions reflects both Israeli regulatory expectations for original children's content and Ananey's strategy of building formats that could travel.

The Greenhouse and the Netflix Breakthrough

The channel's most consequential original is HaHamama, The Greenhouse, created by Giora Chamizer and produced by Nutz Productions. The daily live-action drama, set at an elite school on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, ran for four seasons on Nickelodeon Israel, broadcast exclusively for yes subscribers, and won Israeli Academy recognition as a leading children's and youth drama. In 2016 Netflix acquired the format — the first time Netflix had bought an original Israeli series — and remade it in English as Greenhouse Academy, produced in Israel by Nutz Productions with Chamizer as showrunner and released worldwide from 2017. Ananey executives have described how the Israeli version was supported by a daily social-media-style application that let viewers follow the characters between episodes, an experiment in second-screen storytelling that the binge-release Netflix version could not reproduce in the same form. A reunion special of the original cast later featured on the launch schedule of TeenNick in Israel. The Greenhouse demonstrated that a Hebrew children's channel original could become an international streaming property, and it remains the defining production of Nickelodeon Israel.

Nick Jr. and TeenNick: Building a Family of Channels

Nickelodeon Israel became the centre of a small family of related services. Nick Jr. began as a programming block in 2003 and was carried as a strand within Nickelodeon before launching as a separate Hebrew-language channel on 7 February 2012, in partnership between Viacom International Media Networks and Ananey, with cable operator HOT managing the local service. At launch the preschool channel carried series including Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, Go, Diego, Go!, Bubble Guppies, The Wonder Pets! and Team Umizoomi, and Viacom presented it as a natural extension of a Nickelodeon brand it described as the number one children's channel in Israel. TeenNick followed on 20 March 2017, launching on the yes satellite platform as a 24-hour channel for viewers aged 9 to 14 — described at launch as the first channel in Israel aimed specifically at that age group — with live-action dramas and comedies such as iCarly, Victorious, Make It Pop and Bella and the Bulldogs, plus the Greenhouse reunion special. Together the three channels let the Israeli operation segment its audience by age in the same way as Nickelodeon operations in larger markets.

Language, Scheduling and Presentation

Nickelodeon Israel broadcasts in Hebrew, using dubbing and subtitles to localise its imported catalogue, and commissions its originals in Hebrew from the outset. The channel's picture format is standard definition 576i. Its scheduling has evolved from the original 6 a.m. to midnight broadcast day to continuous broadcasting, with the Hebrew-dubbed SpongeBob SquarePants filling the overnight hours. The brand's visual identity has followed the international Nickelodeon rebrands, including the splat-based logo refreshed internationally in 2023. For Israeli viewers, however, the practical experience of the channel is a Hebrew one: Hebrew voices for its animated characters, Hebrew titles and presentation, and Hebrew original series scheduled alongside the dubbed imports rather than separated from them.

Position in the Israeli Market

Nickelodeon Israel is one of the principal children's channels in Israel and the local flagship of one of the world's two dominant children's television brands. Industry reporting around the Nick Jr. launch recorded Viacom's description of Nickelodeon as the number one children's channel in Israel, reaching 1.5 million homes, and Ananey's wider portfolio was reported to reach a large majority of Israeli pay-television households. Its competitive set includes the home-grown Arutz HaYeladim and Hop!, the Logi educational channel and its direct global rival Disney Channel (Israel). Its record since 2003 rests on a dual model that the Israeli market rewarded: the recognition and volume of the international Nickelodeon catalogue, delivered in Hebrew, combined with locally made series such as Shchuna, Kadabra, Spyders and above all The Greenhouse, which carried the channel's name into the global streaming era. That combination — a Tel Aviv-operated, Hebrew-language service with an internationally exported original format — is the channel's lasting contribution to Israeli television.