TeenNick
| Country |  United States |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | MTV Networks (Viacom) |
Teen Nick is an American cable television channel owned by the MTV Networks subsidiary of Viacom. The channel was known as The N from its April 1, 2002 launch until September 28, 2009.
Sister channel Noggin was relaunched as Nick Jr. at the same time as The N's relaunch as Teen Nick; like with Nick Jr., Teen Nick's name was taken from a former program block on Nickelodeon, which aired from 2000 to 2009. As the channel's name suggests, Teen Nick is primarily aimed at 12-16 year olds, and features a mix of originally-produced and syndicated programming.
History
As The N (2002-2009)
When TeenNick originally debuted as The N on April 1, 2002, The N ran from 6:00 p.m.–6:00 a.m. (Eastern)/5:00 p.m.–5:00 a.m. (Central Time), sharing time and channel space with Noggin, which had started as a service of Viacom and the Children's Television Workshop as a mix of a channel meant to show CTW and Nick Jr.'s archived programming.
The fact that The N shared channel space with Noggin (now Nick Jr.) made it very similar to parent network Nickelodeon as it has shared channel space with another channel during the nighttime hours for most of its existence starting with BET, then the ARTS (Alpha Reperatory Television Service, now A&E) and currently with Nick at Nite, which is commonly considered a nighttime program block on Nickelodeon.
By 2002 however, as Viacom showcased its own programming and made clear that they wanted Noggin to compete with longtime CTW partner PBS Kids, CTW, by then known as Sesame Workshop, decided to reduce their interest in the network due to several factors, including the network's prime time ratings with "retro programming" to appeal to both baby boomers and young children not being as high as Viacom or Sesame Workshop expected them to be. With this move, MTV Networks was free to launch the concept of The N. In October 2006, Viacom bought the quiz website Quizilla.[1] It then became a part of The N "network."
In August 2007, MTV Networks announced the discontinuation of The N's sister network Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids, which had removed all their original programming and become an automated loop of only a few of Nickelodeon's lower-profile archived game shows. MTV Networks decided to retain the satellite space and split Noggin and The N into two separate channels on December 31, 2007, with The N taking the place of Nick GAS.[2]
Relaunch as TeenNick (2009-present)
The channel relaunched as TeenNick on September 28, 2009 at 6:00AM Eastern/5:00AM Central. The channel's logo, which is part of a universal branding effort across all four Nickelodeon channels,[3] was revealed at a launch party for the channel on June 18, 2009. Nickelodeon personality Nick Cannon (declared in publicity materials as the "Chairman of TeenNick") has a presence on the channel, along with new programming exclusive to the channel. Coincidentally, the "n" in the revised logo resembles that used in The N's final on-air logo prior to the rebrand.
Nearly all of the programming airing on The N was carried over to the new channel, including the channel's flagship show Degrassi: The Next Generation, however most of The N's original series, with the exception of The Best Years, Degrassi: TNG and The Assistants (the latter being the only first-run series produced by The N that was picked up for an additional season by TeenNick; Degrassi: TNG is produced by Canadian television network CTV though The N/TeenNick claims itself as one of the show's production companies), were not carried over to the relaunched TeenNick channel.
On February 1, 2010, TeenNick began incorporating music videos onto its morning and afternoon schedule on a regular basis, with videos airing between 6AM-3PM/ET (this had been done periodically for some time prior to that date, usually airing between 6-8AM/ET, though not every day); when music videos are scheduled, all programs will end two to three minutes earlier than typical.
Like The N, TeenNick does not use generic closing credits for any of its shows, instead airing the closing credits created by the show's production company. The channel does however shrink the show's production company credits to the top left 1/4 of the screen in order to promote the channel's upcoming programming; however, music videos no longer air along with the closing credits and music videos air less often on TeenNick than they did during The N era (Nick Jr. also does not show generic credits either, but does not promote its programming during the closing credits).
Despite the name change and logo rebranding, some electronic program guide providers confusingly identify it by the channel's pre-rebrand name and display the 2007-2009 logo as The N as that of TeenNick. Nick Jr. has a similar problem as the former Noggin logo and name is still used by some EPG providers to identify that channel.
Programming
Most of the programming which had been on The N remained on TeenNick with some slight changes for both scheduling purposes and possible new future programming, including the re-acquisition of partial cable rights to the early 2000s sitcom One on One (which had previously aired on The N) and a shift of Full House, which had formerly aired on Nick at Nite and began to air on the channel in August 2009, shortly before the conversion from The N to TeenNick. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a longtime mainstay of The N moved to Disney XD and ABC Family in September 2009 upon the expiration of Viacom's carriage of the series.
Several Nickelodeon sitcoms air on TeenNick, such as True Jackson, VP, The Troop and iCarly, however they air in different timeslots than on Nick (ex., iCarly airs seven days a week on Nickelodeon, though it only airs on TeenNick in an hour-long block once a week on Sunday afternoons). While some of TeenNick's programming comes from Nickelodeon, the channel has also aired some series from MTV. On January 24, 2010, the channel aired special presentations of two MTV reality series that debuted the previous week, My Life as Liz and The Buried Life.
On January 25, 2010, the channel's flagship series Degrassi: The Next Generation was dropped from the 1-3PM/ET timeslot, replaced by What I Like About You. Two weeks later on February 8, 2010, the channel's overall schedule was revamped, with Degrassi being dropped from TeenNick's weeknight lineup and relegated to Friday-only airings. Degrassi was replaced on weeknights with two-hour blocks of Drake and Josh -- which has aired periodically since the channel was known as The N -- in the 6-8PM/ET slot and Full House, which was moved two hours earlier to the 8-10PM/ET slot. Along with those changes, True Jackson, VP was dropped to one hour-long block (from two), while Full House was extended to a three-hour block in the mornings from 6-9AM/ET.
See also
References
- ^ adotas.comMTV Buys Teen Property From Gorilla Nation October 16th 2006 Author by Sarah Novotny
- ^ "The N becomes 24-hour Teen TV Network" (Press release). prdomain Business Register. 17 Dec 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
- ^ Nickelodeon Unveils New Logo, Variety.com, July 29, 2009