Nickelodeon Unveils “Noggin,” A Mobile Subscription Service For Preschoolers Arriving In March

Nickelodeon today unveiled its new mobile streaming subscription service called Noggin, which will be aimed at preschoolers and priced at $5.99 per month when it launches next month. Parent company Viacom had previously announced the forthcoming service’s arrival in January, noting also that it would not require households to have a cable or satellite TV subscription in order to access its content.

Nickelodeon says that’s it’s also in discussions with distributors about making Noggin available to authenticated pay TV subscribers as a “premium complement.”

The service will first arrive as a mobile application for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch beginning on March 5, the company says.

Details of the service were introduced at Nickelodeon’s annual upfront presentation today, where the company confirmed some of the initial content Noggin will include. Several of its current kids’ shows such as Blue’s Clues, Little Bear and Ni Hao, Kai-lan will be available at launch, as will animations featuring Nick’s preschool characters Moose and Zee who pop up in between TV shows on Nick’s TV channel, offering short-form educational games that help kids learn letters, shapes, matching and more.

The company says that the streaming service will offer other long and short-form content, too, including titles like Allegra’s Window, Blue’s Room, Franklin and Friends, Gullah Gullah Island, Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends, Oswald, Pocoyo, Robot and Monster and The Upside Down Show.

If some of those shows don’t ring a bell – even though you’re a parent of a preschooler – it’s because they’re not among some of Nick Jr’s more popular programs, like Dora, Bubble Guppies, Umizoomi, Wallykazam!, or PAW Patrol. None of those top shows seem to be included in this new over-the-top subscription option.

Instead, it sounds like Nick wants to have the best of both worlds – it wants to keep current distributors happy while also tapping into the potential for additional revenue streams by targeting cord cutters with a paid mobile service. In fact, the company states that Noggin’s library will remain “separate and distinct” from Nickelodeon’s preschool content on its “existing distribution platforms.”

Or, in other words, the good stuff is elsewhere. Hopefully kids aren’t too picky about their favorite characters.

Meanwhile, the current Nick Jr. mobile app will remain intact following Noggin’s launch. This app is a “TV Everywhere” platform that offers both a live feed of current Nick Jr. TV shows and on-demand episodes available to pay TV subscribers. It’s also where you’ll find the network’s most watched and most loved preschooler shows.