Comedy Central is a British pay television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. This channel is specific to audiences within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is aligned with the original US version of the channel. The channel started as The Paramount Channel in 1995, before rebranding as the Paramount Comedy Channel in 1997 and again as Paramount Comedy 1 in 2004 before finally becoming Comedy Central on 6 April 2009.
History
1995–1997
The channel was launched as The Paramount Channel on 1 November 1995. The original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, including such eclectic offerings as Beauty and the Beast, several Japanese anime productions acquired from Manga Entertainment, and authentic Paramount archive programming such as The Magician, as well as Nickelodeon's Ren & Stimpy, which was shown on Paramount rather than Nickelodeon due to its rather adult nature at times. It originally aired every evening after Nickelodeon's closing at 7:00pm until around 4:00am, with a testcard featuring a chicken crossing the road and holding up traffic airing during downtime (a segment deemed as "Chicken Tonite") until Nickelodeon started up at 6:00am.
1997–2009
In February 1997, the Paramount Channel became the Paramount Comedy Channel, a channel dedicated solely to comedy.
With expansion of Sky Digital on 4 February 2001, the channel no longer shared air time with Nickelodeon and started broadcasting with a daytime schedule beginning broadcasts at 9:00am. On 1 July 2002, the channel renamed itself Paramount Comedy. By 2005, with the timeshift channel Paramount Comedy 2 having gone on the air in 2003, the primary channel was renamed as Paramount Comedy 1.
2009–present
On 17 February 2009, it was confirmed that Paramount Comedy 1 would become Comedy Central from 6 April 2009 in the UK and Ireland. Since season 13, Comedy Central has aired new episodes of South Park two days after they aired in the US (i.e., the episodes air on Comedy Central US on Wednesdays, and air on the UK counterpart on Fridays.) At 9:00pm on 6 April, Paramount Comedy 1 was finally relaunched as Comedy Central, with the last programme on PC1 being an episode of Scrubs and the first programme on Comedy Central being a new episode of Two and a Half Men. Comedy Central idents from this era were filmed in locations such as The Gherkin, Forth Bridge and Nelson's Column.
Subsidiary channels
After no longer having to timeshare with Nickelodeon, the station increased its broadcasting hours, and was joined by Paramount Comedy 2 (later rebranded as Comedy Central Extra) on 1 September 2003.
A one-hour timeshift, Paramount Comedy 1 +1 (now Comedy Central +1) was launched on Sky channel 127 on 30 August 2005 and Virgin Media channel 133 shortly after.
A high-definition version, Comedy Central HD, launched on 9 August 2010 on Sky channel 222. On 1 September 2010 the channel also became available on Virgin Media channel 133. Comedy Central HD broadcasts high-definition programming including Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock, and South Park, in addition to new UK commissions. Virgin Media will also make some popular Comedy Central HD programmes available on demand.
A second timeshift, Paramount Comedy 2 +1 (now Comedy Central Extra +1) was launched on Sky channel 159, on 5 November 2007. Nicktoons Replay did timeshare with the channel between 6:00am and 7:00pm. However, that channel closed on 2 October 2012 and was replaced with a one-hour timeshift version of Nick Jr., allowing Comedy Central Extra +1 to broadcast 24 hours a day. Comedy Central Extra +1 closed on 20 July 2020 along with the timeshifts for MTV and MTV Music, as well as MTV OMG, Club MTV and MTV Rocks.
Availability in Ireland
Comedy Central has an alternative Irish feed of the same channel available on Sky Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Vodafone TV, and Eir. The feed launched in May 2006, advertising on this channel is overseen by Sky Media Ireland. The domain name comedycentral.ie also redirects to comedycentral.co.uk. An additional Irish commercial feed of the time-shift service, Comedy Central +1, was also launched shortly after the parent channel's re-branding on 6 April 2009. On 31 July 2019, Comedy Central Ireland +1 ceased broadcasting.
From 31 March 2019, Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra's Irish broadcasting licence is registered within the Czech Republic.