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Paramount Comedy 1
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Paramount Comedy is a television channel shown in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, available through digital satellite (Sky Digital), IPTV (Tiscali TV) and cable (Virgin Media, UPC Ireland). As a joint venture between Paramount Pictures (part of the Viacom portfolio) and BSkyB. The channel's programming concentrates solely on comedy. However, it was not the first all-comedy channel in the UK; that distinction goes to The Comedy Channel, which had closed some years earlier.
The channel will be rebranded as Comedy Central on 6 April, 2009.
original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, including such eclectic offerings as Beauty and the Beast, several anime productions acquired from Manga Entertainment, and authentic Paramount archive programming like The Magician.
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Encyclopedia
Paramount Comedy is a television channel shown in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, available through digital satellite (Sky Digital), IPTV (Tiscali TV) and cable (Virgin Media, UPC Ireland). As a joint venture between Paramount Pictures (part of the Viacom portfolio) and BSkyB. The channel's programming concentrates solely on comedy. However, it was not the first all-comedy channel in the UK; that distinction goes to The Comedy Channel, which had closed some years earlier.
The channel will be rebranded as Comedy Central on 6 April, 2009.
History
The original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, 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 UK's closing at 7pm until around 4am, with a testcard entitled "Chicken Tonite" airing during downtime until Nickelodeon started up at 6am. The introduction of Sky Digital brought greater space for channels on the network and allowed it to become a channel independent of Nickelodeon.
Other channels
After no longer having to timeshare with Nickelodeon, the station increased its broadcasting hours, and was joined by Paramount Comedy 2 on 1 September 2003.
A one hour timeshift, Paramount Comedy 1 +1 was launched on Sky Digital channel 127, on 30 August 2005 and Virgin Media channel 133.
A second timeshift, Paramount Comedy 2 +1, was launched on Sky Digital channel 200, on 5 November 2007.
The current channel listings are:
- Paramount Comedy 1 on Sky Digital channel 126, Virgin Media channel 132 and Tiscali TV channel 25.
- Paramount Comedy 1 +1 on Sky Digital channel 127 and Virgin Media channel 133.
- Paramount Comedy 2 on Sky Digital channel 128, Virgin Media channel 134 and Tiscali TV channel 27.
- Paramount Comedy 2 +1 on Sky Digital channel 159.
Paramount Comedy 1 (Ireland)
Paramount Comedy 1 is a channel available in Ireland through satellite platform Sky and cable services UPC Ireland, SCTV, Magnet Networks and others. It belongs to the Viacom group. Launched in May, 2006, the channel is essentially the UK Paramount Comedy 1 channel with Irish advertisements replacing the default UK adverts. There are no differences in the programme schedule.
Shows on Paramount Comedy
Paramount Comedy is well known for bringing popular American shows to the UK, such as Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Scrubs, King of Queens, Two and a Half Men and Everybody Hates Chris. It also shows cult comedy show South Park and in the past aired others such as Trailer Park Boys, Happy Tree Friends, Drawn Together and Seinfeld.
The channel prides itself on its stand up content with 40% of all programming on Paramount Comedy 1 being stand up with talent such as Lee Evans, Jack Dee and Al Murray. This wide array of programming (which is also reflected in live events supported by the channel: Edinburgh and Beyond, Comedy on Tap and Paramount Comedy Festival, Brighton) attracted Magners Irish Cider as a sponsor of all stand up content on Paramount Comedy 1 and their live events.
Paramount Comedy also prides itself on supporting new comedy talent. The channel was instrumental in the early careers of comedic talent such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Dom Joly, Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
More recently the channel has been involved in commission a strand called , an on-air and online venture to promote new comedic talent.
In the past it has frequently had a large back catalogue of Channel 4 comedies in its chedule, such as Father Ted, Spaced, Drop the Dead Donkey and Paul Merton: The Series, and some BBC classics such as The Young Ones, Monty Pythons Flying Circus and Not the Nine O'Clock News.
Paramount Comedy currently shows new episodes of Two and a Half Men, Scrubs, Stacked, Suburban Shootout and South Park.
Marathons
The channel frequently airs weekend marathons which consist of one or two shows being on-air for the majority of the day. The marathons often contain loose themes and are on occasion sponsored, such as the "He Ain't Funny, He's My Brother" marathon which ran on the night of 24 November 2007. This night consisted of episodes from shows with a strong brother relationship theme and was sponsored by the film The Darjeeling Limited to promote its nationwide release.
2009 rebrand
On 17 February, 2009, it was announced that both Paramount Comedy 1 and Paramount Comedy 2 will be rebranded as Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra on 6 April, 2009 at 21:00. The name change coincides with the launch of a new programming lineup which includes new episodes of Two and a Half Men, The Office and South Park.
See also
External links
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