Paramount Comedy (Russia)

Paramount Comedy is a 24-hour Russian cable television and satellite television comedy channel available in Russia, launched in 2012. It is owned by Viacom International Media Networks Europe and Viacom.

History

Paramount Comedy was launched as a television brand in the United Kingdom on November 1, 1995, in Spain in March, 1999, in the Republic of Ireland on May 9, 2004, in Italy on December 1, 2004 and in Russia on April 1 2012. Paramount Comedy also launched in the Middle East and North Africa in 1996, but it went defunct in 2000. In both the United Kingdom and Spain the channel originally shared the broadcast channel with corporate sibling Nickelodeon, but later the two separated. In Arabia, the channel timeshared with TV Land but the two networks disappeared in 2000.

On 12 February 2009, Paramount Comedy UK&I announced that it was to re-brand as Viacom's international comedy brand Comedy Central on 6 April 2009.^[1] Later, most of the rest of international versions of Paramount Comedy completed the re-brand to Comedy Central: Paramount Comedy Italy on May 1, 2007 and Paramount Comedy Spain on May 14, 2014.

By 2017, nearly all international versions of Paramount Comedy have become Comedy Central with the exception of two countries: Russia (Paramount Comedy launched there in 2012) and Ukraine (Paramount Comedy launched there in 2017).

References