Nicktoons (American TV channel)

Nicktoons is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. The channel is geared towards children aged 7 to 11, and broadcasts reruns of original animated series from sister network Nickelodeon (known as Nicktoons) along with some other animated shows and feature films.

, Nicktoons is available to approximately 43,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2013 peak of 69,000,000 households.

History
Nicktoons was launched as a standalone channel 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. 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 that had previously been used on Nickelodeon taking up commercial time. By June 6, 2005, as the network's distribution increased, it began to carry regular advertising.

On September 28, 2009, the network's logo changed as part of Nickelodeon's universal rebranding effort. A high-definition 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 blended in more Nickelodeon programming into its schedule, the Nicktoons website went offline in the mid 2010s, recommending viewers go to Nick.com instead before it was fully redirected to the Nick.com domain.

Programming
Since its inception, Nicktoons has mainly aired programs carried over from the main Nickelodeon channel. Despite its name, the channel does not exclusively air Nicktoons, and has occasionally aired some of Nickelodeon's live-action series, such as The Thundermans and Henry Danger. Due to Nickelodeon moving a lot of newer content to the channel, all the older Nicktoons, such as Hey Arnold! and The Ren & Stimpy Show, were removed from the schedule around 2009 to 2011, with Invader Zim being an occasional exception. However, Rugrats airs on the channel occasionally. As of November 2023, the Nicktoons series that still remain are mostly more modern content, along with reruns of SpongeBob SquarePants and The Loud House, along with their spin-offs.

Since approximately 2006, Nickelodeon has used Nicktoons to burn-off the remaining episodes of underperforming shows, such as As Told By Ginger, The Mighty B!, Back at the Barnyard, Planet Sheen, T.U.F.F. Puppy, Bunsen Is a Beast, Ollie's Pack, season 10 of The Fairly OddParents, Welcome to the Wayne, Breadwinners, Harvey Beaks, It's Pony, Robot and Monster, Rabbids Invasion (though the series moved to Netflix for its fourth and final season), and Pig Goat Banana Cricket.

NickSports
On September 3, 2014, a two-hour Wednesday prime time programming block named NickSports was launched on the channel, tying into the Kids' Choice Sports inaugurated that year. The block presented mainly licensed programming focusing on sports, including the Rob Dyrdek-starring Wild Grinders and NFL Rush Zone: Guardians of the Core, along with sports-related feature films such as Bend It Like Beckham, Cool Runnings, and Space Jam. Sometime in 2015, the block was moved to a Friday prime time slot. The block ended in September 2018.

Active channels

 * UK and Ireland – launched on 22 July 2002
 * Netherlands – launched in 2007
 * Germany – launched in March 2010
 * Africa – launched on September 30, 2014
 * Scandinavia – launched on February 1, 2017
 * Arabia – launched on February 15, 2017
 * Turkey – launched on February 20, 2017
 * Poland – launched on 15 February 2018
 * Hungary and Romania – launched on 15 April 2019
 * Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania - launched on 14 July 2020
 * Australia - launched on 1 August 2023 (FAST channel on 10Play)
 * Canada - launched on December 22, 2023 (FAST channel on Pluto TV)

Defunct channels

 * France – launched on January 1, 2003, as a programming block on Canal J, rebranded as N-Toons on October 21, 2011, and closed down on July 31, 2015
 * Latin America – launched on February 4, 2013, and closed down in late 2020, being replaced in major cable providers by the US feed of NickMusic
 * Russia – launched on December 12, 2018, and closed down on April 28, 2022 because of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

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.