Give me a Nickel... (Nick Jr.)

Member Name: shroud

Product:	Nick Jr.
Date:	02/04/07 (236 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: excellent quality, educational, popular and familiar characters

Disadvantages: some "inappropriate" advertisements, long advertising breaks

Many television viewers will already be familiar with Nickelodeon, the children's channel from the early 90's and still going strong. Well, for the past several years, they have spawned off several offshoots, aimed at different parts of the child market, including Nick Jr. Nick Jr is aimed at pre-schoolers and those in reception year. Like Cbeebies, it features edutainment type programming (mostly) so that children can learn while being entertained viewing the characters' adventures. Like Cbeebies, it is available on cable, satellite, as well as Freeview.

Unlike Cbeebies, they do not have live presenters, but they do have two earth worm and two monkey puppets who not only introduce the various shows, but perform little vignettes of educational nuggets themselves. For example, in the mornings, the earth worms will sing about getting out of bed, and having a good breakfast, and at lunch, sing about it being lunchtime and show children selecting and eating healthy foods for their lunch. The monkeys host bits asking the children to find objects they have "lost," adding a bit of interaction and allowing children to hone their observation skills.

The programming is varied, with a wider selection than publicly funded Cbeebies, but be warned that many of the programmes are American and have not been redubbed into British voices, so if that annoys you, you may need earplugs! It doesn't bother me, but it does several people I know as their children have picked up American accents to some extent when saying certain words.

Like Cbeebies, Nick JR features a bedtime hour (actually 2 hours lol), with different getting ready for bed songs put on long rotations. In the recent past, there was one with Blue's Clues Kevin and Blue singing a song, and now there is one with a group of children singing their song about getting ready for bed. The songs are full length songs, not short clips, and are followed by special evening programming, and not repeats of daytime shows. The selected shows are quiet, and gentle, and designed to relax.

The bedtime hour is followed by Nick Classics, with shows from decades past being featured, most notably from the 60's and 70's. This not only provides great entertainment for slightly older children before their own bedtime, and nostalgia for parents, but is a great resource to record for when the daytime series loop into repeats. You can view the current programme line up at http://nickjr.co.uk/schedule/nick/NickSchedule.asp x

There are a few small downsides. While a lot of the series are exclusive to Nick Jr, including a few original programmes, many are the same old you see on CBeebies, and the terrestrial channels. Bob the Builder, Thomas, etc. Not a problem if you want just ONE channel on exclusively, but it does limit viewing choices.

There are also a LOT of advertisements on this channel, many I find inappropriate. On one occasion, I watched a "Nictrician" spot on healthy eating followed by an advertisement for McDonald's Happy Meals with fried burgers, though new legislation coming in to effect will supposedly help combat this. There are also a lot of advertisements advocating borrowing money, getting credit cars, etc. While aimed at the parents they know are hovering in the background, it also makes it seem to young and impressionable children that getting credit cards, then paying them off with loans, is THE thing to do.

I understand that the revenue from ads pays for the shows and allow stock holder profits, but I personally wish Nick JR would at least vet the advertisements they allow more closely. Holidays, toys, supermarket ads, fine. I also wish they would limit the number of ad a bit more. At present they show every second legally allowed, and so the programmes are trimmed to fit. I resent my child watching 15 minutes of advertisements in order to watch a 15 minute programme because the adverts are in the middle. It is for this reason we use our Sky+ box to record shows my children cannot see anywhere else, as we then get to fast forward through the advertisements.

All in all, it is a channel with excellent programming, but should be used judiciously (as with any channel).

Summary: Preschool entertainment and educational programming