Paramount Comedy 1 was a television channel shown in the UK, available through digital satellite (Sky Digital) and cable (Virgin Media and UPC Ireland). As the name suggests, it is owned by Paramount Pictures (itself owned by Viacom) and concentrates on comedy. Paramount was not the first all-comedy channel in the UK; that distinction goes to The Comedy Channel, which had closed some years earlier.
Paramount Comedy launched in the UK on 1 November 1995 with comedies such as I Love Lucy, M*A*S*H, Frasier, Cheers and Ren & Stimpy. The channel quickly established itself as a springboard for new talent, including Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Leigh Francis and Sacha Baron Cohen; in 1999 Paramount Comedy joined forces with LWT and Channel 4 to produce the pioneering sitcom Spaced, written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson).
The channel commissioned stand-up comedy both on-air and live events, attracting big names such as Lee Evans, Peter Kay and Russell Brand. Its programming portfolio extended to include America's biggest comedy Two and a Half Men in 2004, the controversial cartoon series South Park in 2005 and The Sarah Silverman Program, which debuted in the UK in 2007, exclusively on Paramount Comedy.
On 12 February 2009, Paramount Comedy announced that it was to re-brand as Viacom's international comedy brand Comedy Central on 6 April 2009. This is how it is now known.
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