Nick Jr. (British and Irish TV channel)

Nick Jr. was first broadcast in the UK and Ireland on 1 September 1993 during the daytime hours from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on weekdays on Nickelodeon,[2] though these hours varied over time, particularly when Nick Jr. aired in a breakfast slot in the school holidays (mostly summer time), its programming was a mix of shows from the US version of Nick Jr and other imported shows, Later in the block's existence, syndicated British children's programmes would be a main focus of the channel as well. Its identity followed that of the US feed of the block as well. By the late 1990's it was mostly broadcast between 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

On 10 June 1999, it was announced that the block would be spun off into a channel, and its new branding was being finalised.[3] The channel launched on 1 September 1999 as the world's first dedicated preschoolers' channel.[4] On the Astra 1B satellite of Sky's analogue satellite service, the new channel timeshared with Sky Sports 3 and broadcast between 6 am and 10 am, although this schedule would sometimes be altered if sports were being covered in the early morning. On digital satellite and cable, Nick Jr. aired from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.[5] A spinoff of the recently-launched American Noggin channel was proposed to timeshare with Nick Jr., but this never materialised.[6]

The Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon continued until July 2000, before it was closed due to the high uptake of Sky Digital. On 31 August 2000, Nick Jr ceased broadcasting on analogue satellite.[7]

On 3 September 2001, MTV Dance started broadcasting during Nick Jr's downtime hours after it was spun off from MTV Extra.

The channel refreshed on 4 February 2002 – Dora the Explorer, The Hoobs and the channel's first homegrown produced series "You Do Too" had their premieres the same day of the rebrand.

On 19 July 2002, the channel moved its EPG slot on Sky to make way for the incoming Nicktoons channel.[8]

On 13 August 2002, MTV Dance acquired its own separate channel. By December, Nick Jr. had gained another hour at the end of the broadcasting day, now operating from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.[9]

On 31 May 2004, Nick Jr extended its runtime to end at 10 p.m., in order to launch Noggin, a block that showed classic British children's TV programmes from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., causing the exodus of these shows from the main daytime schedule leaving more space for new shows.

On 5 September 2005, the Noggin block was changed to Nick Jr Classics as part of a channel-wide refresh (see Identity). The Backyardigans had its linear UK premiere on the same day of the rebrand.

A version of Nick Jr. for Ireland was launched in 2006. This version, like the Irish version of Nickelodeon, shares the same schedule as the British version of the channel but has Irish adverts.

On 30 January 2006, a spinoff of the American Noggin, as a block showing Nick Jr programmes on a free-to-air sister channel TMF from 7 am to 9 am. It was promoted on Nick Jr.

On 24 April 2006, Nick Jr. 2 was launched, initially as a 1-hour timeshift of the main channel, but a few months later, this format was dropped and it became an alternative channel with a completely new schedule, but with Nick Jr. Classics at the same hours.

On 25 September 2006, TMF rebranded its Noggin block as Nick Jr on TMF.

Following the removal of Nick Jr. Classics from the main Nick Jr. channel on 4 January 2009, normal programming ran from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The block would continue on Nick Jr 2. until July 2010, after which classic British children's shows ceased to be part of the network's library entirely.

In early 2009, TMF reverted its Nick Jr block back to Noggin, and it broadcast until March 2010 before it was shut down permanently, at which point TMF had been replaced by VIVA.

On 2 August 2010, Nick Jr. began broadcasting 24/7, with many old shows from the 2000s being re-added to fill the schedule.[10]

In July 2011, Nick Jr. 2 briefly shifted its sign-on to 5 a.m., but this was reverted back to a 6 a.m. sign-on a month later.[11]

A 1-hour timeshift named Nick Jr. +1 launched on 2 October 2012 replacing Nicktoons Replay.

By July 2013, Nick Jr. 2 had begun broadcasting 21 hours from 3 a.m. to 12 p.m., with teleshopping off the air.[12]

On 3 November 2014, Nick Jr. 2 was renamed Nick Jr. Too and it began broadcasting 24/7.

On 5 July 2016, Nick Jr. HD launched on Sky, replacing MTV Live HD's Sky slot.[13]

On 31 October 2022, Sky sold its stake in Nickelodeon UK, including Nick Jr., to Paramount.[1]

Nick Jr.'s logo from 1 September 1993 to 29 April 2010.

Between the launch of the block in 1993 and the launch of the channel in 1999, Nick Jr UK's branding largely mirrored that of the American feed and used the American version's idents.[14] The UK input (branded as either Banana Sandwich or Nick Jr in the schedules)[15] was presented by Dave Benson Phillips[16][17] between 1994 and 1996, where Dave was joined by two puppet mascots called Bugsy and Herbie on location around England before the 2 puppet characters eventually went onto present the block by themselves for the whole of 1996, still on location for a while whilst sometimes presenting in a colourful animated studio, joined by some guest presenters occasionally[18][19][20][21][22] until they were replaced by Face from February 1997 until September 2005 and was dubbed into British English by David Holt, Bugsy and Herbie went onto have their own series of mini-episodes aired on Nick Jr. during the advert breaks in the late 1990s until early 2000s, by which point the puppets were phased out completely.[23][24]

Upon the channel's launch in 1999, it launched its own package featuring live-action children playing in a brightly painted studio or holding posters on which clips of programmes appeared.[25] From the channel's launch, Face's hosting job would be shared by the Early Worms, the titular characters of the Early Worms show, Arnie and Barnie. Due to the abundance of British-produced content along with the channel's status as the first dedicated for preschoolers in the UK, the channel positioned itself in a special British image in its early years.[26] Starting in September 2000, just before signing off for the night, it would air a bedtime segment and song hosted by Kevin Duala (host of the British version of Blue's Clues), titled Bedtime Business.

In 2001, the channel transitioned into using Nick Jr. US's ident package, first with up-next bumpers,[27] and combinations of the 1999 idents with idents from the US.[28]

On 4 February 2002, Nick Jr. fully revamped into the new package, which had a specific jingle and song played in idents. These idents usually consisted of children playing around or dancing, this time in the outdoors, and the logo appeared (either being mushrooms, the stereotypical parent and child, squirrels, whales, chickens, butterflies, elephants or flowers) in a white circle on a plain brightly-coloured background at the end.[29] On some occasions, they would broadcast atmospheric idents which included babies. Sometimes these idents would take up half the ad breaks, or sometimes they appeared in split-screen graphics and next bumpers.[30] Promo endboards were added as well.

Dora the Explorer and The Hoobs had their premieres the same day of the rebrand. Before closing down at 7 p.m. (8 p.m. after Autumn 2002), it would air the Bedtime Business segment, followed by a short closedown bumper featuring some characters from Nick Jr. shows and an announcement telling viewers to resume watching at 6 a.m., before cutting to a static yellow screen with the characters and the broadcast times until 6 a.m. the next morning.[31] In Autumn 2002, they updated their DOG to a much cleaner, organised and less opaque state.

Just before Noggin signed on, an ident showing the logo as two caterpillars played during the last advertisement break at 8 p.m. Then in 2005, this was supplemented with a sting ident of the Nick Jr. and Noggin logos flipping back and forth.[32] After Noggin finished airing, it would play an ident of a UFO flying away, and cut to a dark blue version of the 2002 signoff screen, just telling viewers to come back at 6 a.m.[33]

In July 2004, some in-vision morning presenters were introduced to the network. Neal Wright (Zak) and Jennifer Johnston (Jen) presented and hosted this block simply called "The Garden." Alongside them, there was a puppet plant called Bud, and a blue ball of light/firefly named Izzy.[34]

Also around this period in 2004, Nick Jr. started to use the 2D American animal idents originally introduced there in 2003. It is unknown when they stopped showing them.[35] At the same time, Nick Jr. reeled in the new look of Face to their channel introduced in America the year prior, usually referred to as "Modern Face". He was still voiced by David Holt. Nick Jr. made the unusual decision to not drop the original Face, leaving Modern Face and Face's old look broadcasting simultaneously, much to the confusion of viewers. The UK-dubbed version of Modern Face is extremely hard to come across.[36]

In the spring of 2005, a new animated presenter appeared on the channel alongside Face at the time. This was Piper O'Possum, who presented the UK input of Nick Jr. until its rebrand on 30 April 2010. She was re-dubbed by Alex Kelly and lasted longer on the UK feed than in the US by three years. Between this time and 4 September 2005, a mix of Old Face, Modern Face, Piper, The Garden, The Early Worms and The Baby Bumpers hosted the channel.

During the significant rebrand of 5 September 2005, Face was dropped entirely, The Garden stayed but only until October of the same year, and the Early Worms kept their morning presenting. Although, Piper became the main presenter for most of the day, in the late afternoons she got taken off for the rest of the remaining hours and her segments of announcing shows usually got replaced with normal next bumpers. In addition, Noggin changed its name to Nick Jr. Classics and the ident package that had been used since 2002 was dropped, as the international versions of Nick Jr. launched a 2D-3D animated pop-up-book-style ident package, with two animals (a parent and a child) forming the Nick Jr. logo, very similar to the package of Nick Jr. on CBS from 2004 to 2006. This package was designed by British animation studio Studio AKA.[37] At night, special idents were played, which either consisted of existing daytime-setting bumpers converted into a nightly backdrop, or night-specific bumpers that only played during that time. At the end of regular Nick Jr. programmes on both channels, they played the new bedtime song, "Jimmer Jammers", showed a sign-off ident telling viewers to come back at 6 a.m., and transitioned to Nick Jr. Classics.[38] After Nick Jr Classics, they would cut to a night loop of the same ident or different idents playing over again.

Idents on Nick Jr. 2 had the number "2" appear at the end of each ident in the scenery. On its launch on 25 September 2006, Nick Jr. on TMF began using the idents. The package would be used on both Nick Jr. channels until 29 April 2010. During the time when Nick Jr, Nick Jr 2. and Nick Jr. on TMF co-existed, the three cross-promoted their programmes under the slogan "Three ways to play".

Between 2008 and 2014, the schedule after 6 p.m. was rebranded as "Nick Jr. Bedtime". A new bedtime look and song (Land of Dreams) was commissioned and played alongside the already existing night version of the 2005 idents and its song (Jimmer Jammers). The Early Worms returned as hosts for the strand (and eventually the last hosts of any Nick Jr. feed internationally). During the strand, special celebrity guests would accompany Arnie and Barnie in reading bedtime stories, akin to those of CBeebies.[39]

Logo used since 30 April 2010, used concurrently with the 2023 logo.

On 30 April 2010, Nick Jr. rebranded to a variant of the United States look and French look designed in-house. They used the animated American idents along with their own which included still shots of children in assorted places or doing things like letting go of a balloon or being at a picnic.[40] Like the American rebrand, it was based on the old arts-and-crafts style and music of Noggin, and was used as the basis for the rebrands of the mainland European Nick Jr. feeds. Moose and Zee were brought over from the American Nick Jr. Channel and the former Noggin block on Viva (which had been axed as part of the rebrand) to host the main Nick Jr. channel, with Moose's voice being dubbed by David Holt (voice actor). Just like on the US version of Nick Jr., Moose and Zee presented links between programmes and especially around up-next bumpers, although due to the need for advertisement space, they appeared irregularly and not at night, where they would be replaced by regular next bumpers.

Nick Jr. Classics was rebranded and then discontinued in July of that year. When Nick Jr. and Nick Jr. 2 signed off, they cut to an off-air slide,[41] and then played a night loop of the same ident repeating,[42] but the actual sign-off has not been found yet.

On 2 August 2010, when the main Nick Jr. stopped signing off, the Bedtime block was truncated to an 8 p.m. finish. When Nick Jr. 2 expanded its broadcast hours, it broadcast the segment from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.[43]

However, on 7 January 2013, the channel rebranded again to the next United States look, which dropped Moose and Zee and the arts-and-craft style branding in favour of a 3D CGI world appearing in bumpers and promos where clips of the characters appeared.[44] The Bedtime strand was also revamped under this branding. There were also slight variations between the colour schemes on Nick Jr. and Nick Jr. 2, with the latter opting for a colder colour palette. However, some of the 2010 idents, especially the Christmas ones, were retained until December 2014, albeit with the new Nick Jr. endcap (of the logo changing colour multiple times).

While it was initially the same as the United States version, on 3 November 2014, the branding on the main channel was refreshed by Blue Zoo, and the Bedtime strand was dropped from both channels, leaving the channel without any hosts for the first time in 19 years. This new branding used CGI and 3D shapes like the previous one and used standard colour schemes for different parts of the day.[45] Nick Jr. Too, however, retained the old style until 2019.

On 18 February 2019, Nick Jr. dropped the "Smart Place to Play" look in favour of the "Ready to Play" branding adopted in the United States the previous year, featuring live-action children running in a 3D CGI space, often holding bubble wands in which clips of shows appear out of. Bumpers also show these children interacting with the Nick Jr. characters in live-action environments.

• Nickelodeon (British and Irish TV channel)
• Nicktoons (British and Irish TV channel)
• Nick at Nite international versions#UK and Ireland
• Nicktoonsters

• Official website