History
The channel premiered as The Paramount Channel on 1 November 1995, with a broadcast of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, as well as films from the Paramount Pictures film library, including such eclectic offerings as Beauty and the Beast, several anime productions acquired from Manga Entertainment, and authentic Paramount archive programming like The Magician. The drama shows were later dropped and the schedule became 100% comedy, hence the change of name to the Paramount Comedy Channel on 1 September 1997. The 'Channel' part of the name was dropped on 1 July 2002.
It originally aired every evening after Nickelodeon's closing at 7:00 pm until around 4:00 am, with a testcard featuring a chicken crossing the road and holding up traffic airing during downtime until Nickelodeon started up at 6:00 am.
The introduction of Sky Digital brought greater space for channels on the network and allowed it to become a channel independent of Nickelodeon. The channel continued broadcasting from 7:00 pm. until 4 February 2001 when it launched a daytime lineup and moved its startup time to 9:00 am. When teleshopping became legal in the UK, it changed to close at a fixed time of 6:00 am with teleshopping broadcasting in the 6:00 am - 9:00 am slot. In November 2011, broadcasting hours were modified again, this time to start at 8:00 am and finish at 5:00 am.
UPC Ireland still provides Comedy Central after Nickelodeon at 7:00 pm. on analogue cable, however both are available in full on their digital service.
Read more about this topic: Comedy Central (UK And Ireland)
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