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By October of 1990, Nickelodeon was seen in over 52 million homes in the United States. It opened the Nickelodeon studios at Universal Studios Florida where they filmed most of their shows. Here, they entered in a multi million-dollar joint marketing agreement with the International Restaurant, Pizza Hut which included the launching of the Nickelodeon Magazine which was offered for free at participating Pizza Hut Restaurants.
Nickelodeon developed its first animation series in the year 1991. The series was known as Nicktoons and was premiered in the August of 1991. It had previously refused to do weekly shows due to the high cost of production. However, the three Nicktoons, Dough, The Ren and Stimpy Show and Rugrats, earned Nickelodeon success in 1993. Later on, Nickelodeon partnered with Sony Wonder to produce a Video Cassettes of the shows programming.
Nickelodeon launched a public service initiative aimed at encouraging kids to volunteer to community activities. The project, which was launched in 1994, was known as The Big Help. Later in 2001, The Big Help project expanded to encouraging children to talk to their friends and loved one in case of any problem. Later on in October and December of 1994, Nickelodeon sold Halloween and Christmas themed episodes of its hit series the Nicktoons to the local markets all over the United States with the help of CBS Television Distribution.
The cable station ventured more in the World Wide Web when in October 1995, it launched its Nick.com. The website was used in line with its television programs which subsequently saw it increase its traffic. This became its strongest way of promotion and in March 1999, the Nickelodeon became the highest rated kids’ website in the world. Later on in the year 2001, Nickelodeon partnered with Networks.inc to give broadband video games for rent from its website, Nick.com. Later on, following the success of the broadband video games, Nickelodeon launched the Turbonick which was initially a popup to promote the broadband options on the website.
In 2005, Nickelodeon studios were closed and taken by Blue Man Group Sharp Aquos Theater in 2007. Its recording site was then moved to Nickelodeon On Sunset studios, having bought them from the Earl Carroll Theater, located in Hollywood, California and other Hollywood located studios in various areas.
2007 saw the signing of a contract between Nickelodeon and Sony Music aimed at producing music themed series for the channel. It was aimed at helping fund and launch albums and produce programs to be released for programs as singles. However, the only series produced under this partnership which was green lit as a series was Victorious, debuted in 2010.
In February 2009, Nickelodeon announced that Noggin and The N were its re-brands aimed at bringing the channels with the Nickelodeon identity. Later on in May 2009, Nickelodeon announced its plans of discontinuing with Nick Magazine by the end of the year. The station later brought up a new Logo in July 2009 since 25 years of the first unveiling.
Moreover, in addition to the many versions of Nickelodeon in North America, Nickelodeon launched a Canadian version of itself. This was done with partnership with Viacom and Corus Entertainment. This year on 12th May 2010, Nickelodeon announced its having purchased rights from the Walt Disney Company to continue the making of the Power Rangers series for an eighteenth season. The plan is set for 2011.
Today, the Nickelodeon station has different programming blocks. The Preschool programming block targets preschool audience. The programming runs from Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 2pm. It has been running since 1988. The Weekend programming blocks airs recent episodes of Nickelodeon original series on Friday and Sunday nights from 8 to 9pm.
However, the Nickelodeon has many other channels. The current and still running are; Nicktoons, Nick Jr., Teennick and TV Land. Its former channels have been Nickelodeon GAS, Nickelodeon HD and Nick 2.
In 2009, Nickelodeon got first place in the rating of all basic cable networks. The Nickelodeon has proven to be the best kids’ station for the young generation of ages 2 to 20.
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