Nickelodeon Japan (partially found various final sign-off footage of Japanese TV channel; 2009)

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Nickelodeon logo02.gif

The channel's Japanese logo.

Status: Found/Existence Unconfirmed

Date found: 29 Sep 2009 (1st possible shutdown) / 29 Jul 2016 (2nd possible shutdown)

Found by: A58RG (1st possible shutdown), Jon Brimgus (2nd possible shutdown)

Nickelodeon Japan (ニコロデオン) was a children's television station operated by Viacom International from 1998 to 2009 for the Japanese TV market.

The channel would air Japanese dubs of various American Nickelodeon shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Drake and Josh. While the shows that aired on Nick Japan are well-documented and ended up on various different networks, the shutdown on September 30th, 2009 is not.

History

During the 1990s, the Nickelodeon brand was doing well in the United States. Viacom wanted to broadcast Nickelodeon programming to a wider audience and started to launch Nickelodeon channels around the world. Nick Japan launched in November 1998 to introduce Nickelodeon programming for a Japanese audience. The network aired many of Nickelodeon's programs between 1998 and 2009, dubbed in the Japanese language.

Closure

On September 30th, 2009, the same day that Nickelodeon internationally changed its logo and branding, Nick Japan went off the air forever due to a decline in viewership.[1] The only traces left of Nick Japan are recordings of the channel, as well as an archive the Nick Japan website from around 2006.

Between 2009 and 2018, several of Nick's shows instead aired on other channels, such as Disney XD, NHK Hulu Japan, dTV-Channel Japan, and Prime Video.[2] SpongeBob SquarePants immediately moved over to MTV Japan, and later Animax under a new block called "NickTime".

Availability

There are two videos currently available that are being considered as possible footage of the shutdown.

First Shutdown Video "SpongeBob"

Footage cuts out during a SpongeBob channel ID or Up Next bumper and goes immediately to color bars. This shutdown was originally uploaded onto the Japanese video sharing site NicoVideo by the user A58RG.

Second Shutdown Video "Black/Color Bars"

After a Channel ID, footage cuts to black with color bar noise, and then shortly afterward, the color bars come in, slightly darker than normal. The Nickelodeon bug remains on the screen. After a while, it cuts to static. This was uploaded by YouTube user Jon Brimgus.

One or more of these videos may be simultaneously real or fake, owing to differences in cable services/satellite services etc. The validity (or lack thereof) of any of these videos have not yet been proven definitively, as the matter is still being discussed, meaning this is simultaneously found and unconfirmed.

Videos

First Nickelodeon Japan shutdown video.

Second Nickelodeon Japan shutdown video.

References