Nickelodeon was launched in the UK on 1 September 1993, exclusively on
Sky as part of the
Sky Multichannels package, originally airing for 12 hours from 7am to 7pm. and showing both cartoons and live action series for children. The first cartoon to air on the channel was
James the Cat.
Nick@Nite was also planned to launch in early 1994 but never implemented; off-air Nickelodeon would air static logos, schedule information and
teletext. In November 1995, it started to timeshare with
The Paramount Channel. The British version of
Nick Jr. also launched on the channel's first day, broadcasting during school hours. Live presentation followed in 1994, branded as
Nick Alive!, which was soon moved into its own studio in the
London Trocadero, and relocated to the station's new headquarters on Rathbone Place in 1995. In 1996, Nickelodeon reached an agreement with
CBBC to show a block of CBBC programmes for one hour before and one hour after Nick Jr., called
CBBC on Nickelodeon. This block lasted until 1999, when Nick Jr. was removed from the main channel in July 2000, after launching its own channel the year before, and the increase of subscribers to Sky Digital and cable. In August 1997, Nickelodeon began broadcasting an hour earlier, signing on at 6am. When Sky Digital was launched in 1998, it was in the original channel line-up on
Astra 2A. On 1 September 1999, two sister channels were launched, Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon Replay (a +1 hour timeshift). On the same day, Nickelodeon broadcasting from 6 am until 10pm. However, analogue satellite and analogue cable services continued to shutdown the channel at 7pm each day until Nickelodeon closed on analogue satellite on 30 April 2001.
Nicktoons was launched in the UK and Ireland in July 2002. In December 2004,
Telewest failed to reach an agreement to broadcast Nickelodeon, Nicktoons and Nick Jr. on their services after 2005 and the channels were removed from Telewest on 17 December, leading to many Telewest customers leaving for Sky and NTL, while Telewest offered either a free upgrade to
Disney Channel or to
Sky Movies to prevent losing any customers. By the next year, however, Nickelodeon successfully reached an agreement with Telewest and the channels were restored. In February 2010, Nickelodeon adopted the worldwide rebrand. The
TeenNick block also adopted the identity of the channel programs. In April 2010, Nicktoons and Nick Jr. were rebranded as well. Nickelodeon HD was launched in October 2010 on Sky. Later, it became available on
Virgin Media. On 1 January 2019, it started broadcasting 24 hours a day. On 31 October 2022, Sky sold its stake in Nickelodeon UK, including Nickelodeon, to Paramount, in an attempt to launch Sky Kids, as owning Nickelodeon UK would have restricted Sky from launching the channel. On 24 July 2023, Nickelodeon UK rebranded to its 2023 splat logo, just four months and 21 days after
United States,
Israel and
Italy's rebrand. ==Availability==