Nickelodeon (occasionally shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through Paramount Media Networks' subdivision, Nickelodeon Group.

On June 19, 1905, some 450 people attend the opening day of the world's first nickelodeon, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and developed by the showman Harry Davis. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged each patron five cents.

Etymology. "Nickelodeon" was concocted from nickel, the name of the U.S. five-cent coin, and the ancient Greek word odeion, a roofed-over theater, the latter indirectly by way of the Odéon in Paris, emblematic of a very large and luxurious theater, much as the Ritz was of a grand hotel.

A decade ago, on April 11, 2012, SpongeBob SquarePants aired its 173rd episode and thus surpassed Rugrats as Nickelodeon's longest-running animated series.