Comedy Central is a German free-to-air channel owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. It is distributed in Germany, Austria, and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and broadcasts many American and British imported television series as well as original programming. It launched on 15 January 2007 replacing former music channel

VIVA Plus VIVA Plus was a German music television channel that went on air on 7 January 2002 at 13:00 based in Cologne, Germany. It was the successor to VIVA Zwei and was initially managed by ''VIVA Media AG'' and later by Viacom, based in Berlin, German ...

. Prior to its launch, Viacom had Nick Comedy, which was a timeshared channel with Nickelodeon Germany, airing from 9:15pm to 6:00am (similar to

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

channel with

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

nighttime schedule). From 15 December 2008 – 31 December 2018 Comedy Central Germany ceased broadcasting 24 hours a day and started timesharing its slot with

Nickelodeon Germany Nick is a German free-to-air television channel for children, part of the Paramount International Networks, international Nickelodeon brand. Originally launched in 1995, and relaunched in 2005, Nickelodeon is based in Berlin, Germany, Berlin. Th ...

first then later VIVA Germany, running from 8:15pm to 5:45am. However, after VIVA ceased on 31 December 2018 at 14:00 Comedy Central returned to broadcast 24 hours a day. On 1 October 2011, Comedy Central Germany was rebranded, using the American new logo and graphic packages.

History

Comedy Central Germany was licensed by the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia (LfM), which is also the supervising State media authority for the channel. On 24 November 2006, the license of VIVA Plus was changed to Comedy Central. Due to this, it got a license valid until 20 March 2010. Viacom initially tried to establish the channel independently as a 24-hour network. On 15 December 2008, however, Comedy Central started to timeshare its frequency with Nickelodeon and therefore reduced its broadcast time to 9:30 hours, from 8:15pm until 5:45am. Viacom previously launched a comedy timeshared channel using that same timeslot named Nick Comedy, which lasted from 2005 to 2006. It was shut down in favour of Comedy Central Germany. On 1 March 2010, Comedy Central Germany switched its aspect ratio to 16:9 and began airing its programming schedule in widescreen. From 1 October 2014, Comedy Central Germany shared air-time with VIVA Germany, due to launch of ''NickNight'', late night block equivalent to American

Nick@Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET/Pac ...

until 31 December 2018 when VIVA ceased with Comedy Central finally broadcasting 24/7. On 1 March 2021,

MTV+ MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

was replaced by Comedy Central +1.

Austrian subfeed

An Austrian subfeed of the channel was launched on 1 January 2011. The programming is the same as the German main feed with the exception of airing local advertisements. It replaced VIVA Austria's timeslot on Nickelodeon Austria as a timeshared channel, following the shut down of MTV Austria. Due to VIVA closing, Comedy Central became a 24-hour channel.

Swiss subfeed

In Switzerland, a localised subfeed was launched on 16 May 2011. The Swiss subfeed differs from the main feed on having less on-air time, ending its broadcast at 5:00am in favour of Nickelodeon Switzerland. Like in Austria, Comedy Central replaced VIVA Switzerland, which had its programming moved to MTV Switzerland in the following months. Nevertheless, Viacom announced on 28 September 2012 that VIVA Switzerland would be launched again on 1 October as a full, 24-hour channel. Due to VIVA closing, Comedy Central became a 24-hour channel.

High-definition feed

On 16 May 2011, Viacom launched Comedy Central HD, which was picked up by Telekom and

Vodafone TV Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vodafo ...

. Later, on 11 June 2011, HD+ by Astra starts offering the channel on its satellite line up.

References

External links

ComedyCentral Germany and Austria

ComedyCentral Switzerland
{{Viacom 2007 establishments in Germany Comedy Central Television channels and stations established in 2007 Television stations in Berlin