NickALive!: 04/30/15

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Nickelodeon Suites Resort Celebrates its 10th Birthday and You're Invited!

Original Nickelodeon Suites Resort Press Release via Business Wire:

Nickelodeon Suites Resort Celebrates its 10th Birthday and You Are Invited

Come Party with SpongeBob SquarePants and all of your favorite Nickelodeon Characters

Nickelodeon Hotel's Lagoon Pool (Photo: Business Wire)

April 30, 2015 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nickelodeon Suites Resort, the only place in the world where guests are SLIMED and pied 365 days a year, is getting ready for a birthday extravaganza as the hotel celebrates ten years of entertaining guests from all over the world. The hotel is rolling out the orange carpet on May 28th for an extraordinary birthday dance bash at the World Famous Lagoon Pool.

Join SpongeBob SquarePants and all of your Nickelodeon friends while getting SLIMED poolside during the greatest birthday party dance bash in hotel history. The event includes:

* A Character parade including SpongeBob SquarePants, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora the Explorer and lots of other Nickelodeon friends

* A poolside mass SLIMMING

* Our tower of birthday cupcakes for all of our guests to enjoy

* Singing of Nickelodeon Suites Resort’s special "Happy Birthday" song

* A special viewing of SpongeBob SquarePants most iconic episodes

In addition to our birthday dance bash on May 28th, 2015 at 1 p.m. the Nick Hotel is hosting birthday weekend events during select months through November, featuring exciting shows, poolside entertainment, Nickelodeon characters, Slime and lots of surprises. For a full list of birthday weekend celebrations visit www.nickhotel.com/hbd.

During the Birthday Weekend celebrations, guests can enjoy activities and entertainment for the entire family, such as:

* Evening Birthday Splash Bash parties at the Lagoon Pool

* A poolside mass sliming each day of the celebration weekend with birthday cupcakes for all guests

* Surprise Birthday Squad appearances throughout the weekend with pies and slime

* Singing of Nickelodeon Suites Resort’s special "Happy Birthday" song throughout the weekend festivities

* Complimentary birthday buttons for all guests celebrating their birthday

"At Nickelodeon Suites Resort, we always have so much to celebrate — and this is our biggest celebration yet," said Tony Aslanian, Director of Sales and Marketing for Nickelodeon Suites Resort. "What better way to commemorate 10 years of sliming, pies and incredible entertainment than to throw a party for our guests. It will be a celebration that Nickelodeon fans of all ages won’t want to miss!"

Fans of Nickelodeon Suites Resort will also have the opportunity to leave birthday wishes for the hotel on Facebook and Twitter using #HBDNICKHOTEL. A full calendar of Birthday Weekend dates, as well as other events on property can be found at www.nickhotel.com/hbd.

(Source: Instagram / NickHotel)

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Nicktoons Africa To Premiere "Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks" On Monday 4th May 2015

Nickelodeon Africa has announced in a post on their official Facebook profile page, Facebook.com/NickelodeonAfrica, the exciting Nickelodeon International News that Nicktoons Africa will start to premiere the brand-new CG-animated preschool series "Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks" from Monday 4th May 2015!

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Get Ready To HUMBLE With "Throwndown Of Niceness", This Saturday From 9am ET/PT On Nickelodeon USA!

Let's get ready to HUMBLE!

Nickelodeon USA has announced in a new trailer that SpongeBob SquarePants and Harvey Beaks, two legendary nice guys, will be throwing down some extreme politeness in "Throwndown of Niceness", a brand-new morning special airing on Saturday 2nd May 2015 from 9:00am ET/PT!

As part of "Throwndown of Niceness", Nick will be showing sensational episodes "SpongeBob SquarePants" and brand-new episodes of "Harvey Beaks"!

In one corner, his frown is always upside down, it's "Harvey Beaks", and in the opposite corner, it's the master of manners, SpongeBob SquarePants!

Don't miss the nicest dudes in town as they go toe-to-toe in "Throwndown of Niceness", starts this Saturday morning at 9:00am ET/PT, only on Nickelodeon USA!

Following the premiere of "Throwndown of Niceness", Nick USA will encore the entire block on Sunday 3rd May 2015 from 7:00pm ET/PT!

Below is Nick USA's "Throwndown of Niceness" line-up for 5/2:

9:00am - SpongeBob SquarePants - F.U.N.

9:15am - NEW Harvey Beaks - The Nature of Nature: Harvey goes on a crusade to stop the spread of chaos in the forest.

9:30am - SpongeBob SquarePants - Overbooked

9:45am - NEW Harvey Beaks - Princess Is Better Than You

10:00am - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Chaperone

10:15am - NEW Harvey Beaks - Old Fashioned Dade

10:30am - SpongeBob SquarePants - Patrick's Staycation

10:45am - NEW NEW Harvey Beaks - Someone's Stealing My Stuff: Harvey sets out to find the real culprit when everyone's stuff goes missing.

Additional sources: Zap2it, TheFutonCritic.com, Toon Zone forums.

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Sneak Peek Of New "Bella and the Bulldogs" Episode "Root For Newt", Premiering 5/2 On Nickelodeon USA

To celebrate Nickelodeon USA premiering and showing the brand-new episode of the networks all-new hit original comedy series "Bella and the Bulldogs" titled "Root For Newt" on Saturday 2nd May 2015 at 8:30pm (ET/PT), following part one of the brand-new "Henry Danger" special "Henry and the Bad Girl" at 8:00pm (ET/PT), Nick USA has unveiled a fantastic sneak peek preview of the brand-new episode on their official YouTube channel, which you can watch in the online streaming video clip below!:

In the all-new "Bella and the Bulldogs" episode "Root For Newt", Bella (Brec Bassinger) goes to bat for Newt (Buddy Handleson), trying to convince Coach Russell (Dorien Wilson, "Sister, Sister") to put him in the game. Unfortunately, it seems Newt'll need more than great hair and a killer guacamole recipe to get some field time... Find out if Newt gets to play in the Bulldogs' next game this Saturday at 8:30pm, only on Nickelodeon USA!

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Nickelodeon South East Asia To Premiere "Alvinnn!!! And The Chipmunks" In May 2015

Nickelodeon South East Asia has announced the exciting news in their latest Facebook cover photo, Facebook.com/nickasia, that Nickelodeon South East Asia will start to premiere the brand-new CG-animated preschool series "Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks" in May 2015!

Nick SEA will debut "Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks" at 6:00pm on Nickelodeon Singapore (SG) and at 7:30pm on Nickelodeon Philippines (PH) on Friday 8th May 2015.

Nickelodeon South East Asia will then start to premiere "Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks" at 6:55pm on Nickelodeon Indonesia (WIB) and at 7:55pm on Nickelodeon Malaysia (MY) the following week on Friday 15th May 2015.

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Viacom Reports Results for March 2015 Quarter

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), the parent company of the Nickelodeon brand, has today, Thursday 30th April 2015, reported financial results for the quarter ending Tuesday 31st March 2015, including higher Media Networks revenues and a 7% increase in adjusted diluted earnings per share. The Company's previously announced strategic realignment resulted in a $784 million charge, and is expected to provide ongoing annual net savings of approximately $350 million.

Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies made a global splash with "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" (Photo: Business Wire)

Sumner M. Redstone, Executive Chairman of Viacom, said, "Viacom's outstanding brands deliver great entertainment content on every screen, from film to television, mobile and beyond. We have the global footprint and the expert leadership to continue our success."

Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom, said, "We are deeply committed to investing in more and more original content, expanding in international growth markets, where we are launching networks at a rapid pace, and adapting to changes in technology and consumer behavior. In the quarter, Viacom's Media Networks delivered higher advertising and affiliate revenues, and new hits like Lip Sync Battle set the stage for even more exciting, original programming across our networks. Paramount Pictures also continues to be a proven hit maker. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was the first title from our brand new Paramount Animation division and a box office success around the world, and we look forward to the releases of Terminator Genisys and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation this summer.

“With our strategic realignment largely complete, Viacom is in excellent position to take full advantage of the many opportunities in the rapidly evolving media environment. The $175 million in savings to be achieved in fiscal 2015 and substantial ongoing annual benefit will allow us to move efficiently through the second half of the year and beyond."

Quarterly revenues declined 3% to $3.08 billion, driven by increases in Media Networks that were more than offset by declines in Filmed Entertainment revenues and the impact of foreign exchange. Excluding an unfavorable 2% impact of foreign exchange, revenues declined 1%. Media Networks revenues increased 3% to $2.45 billion, due to higher advertising revenues and affiliate fees. Absent an unfavorable 2% impact of foreign exchange, Media Networks revenues increased 5%. Domestic advertising revenues declined 5%, reflecting lower ratings. Worldwide advertising revenues rose 4%, reflecting an 80% increase in international advertising revenues driven by growth in Europe, principally from Channel 5, which was acquired in September 2014. Domestic affiliate revenues rose 5% and worldwide affiliate revenues grew 3%, primarily due to rate increases.

Filmed Entertainment revenues decreased 21% to $659 million, driven by declines in television license fees and home entertainment revenues that were impacted by the number and mix of available titles. Excluding an unfavorable 4% impact of foreign exchange, Filmed Entertainment revenues declined 17%. Theatrical revenues declined 10%, due to lower carryover revenues from releases in the prior quarter. Theatrical revenues from current quarter releases benefited from the performance of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.

Quarterly adjusted operating income was $822 million, a 6% decline versus the prior year. Media Networks adjusted operating income declined 5%, as higher revenues were more than offset by increased programming and promotional expenses. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income was $1 million, reflecting the decline in revenues, partially offset by decreased expenses. Adjusted results exclude the impact of a $784 million charge related to the Company's previously-announced strategic realignment. Adjusted operating income results reflect a 1% adverse impact of foreign exchange.

Quarterly adjusted net earnings attributable to Viacom declined 3% to $467 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the quarter increased 7% to $1.16, which reflects a $0.04 negative impact of foreign exchange.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2015, Viacom repurchased 10.9 million shares under its stock repurchase program, for an aggregate purchase price of $750 million. As of March 31, 2015, Viacom had 397 million shares of common stock outstanding.

At March 31, 2015, total debt outstanding was $13.23 billion, compared with $12.77 billion at September 30, 2014. The Company's cash balances were $306 million at March 31, 2015, a decrease from $1.0 billion at September 30, 2014.

You can read Viacom's press release announcing the company's Q2 2015 quarterly earnings in full, including tables of Viacom's statements and balance sheets, here on BusinessWire.com.

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Viacom Unveils 'Viacom Vantage'

Original Viacom Inc. Press Release via Business Wire:

Viacom Unveils 'Viacom Vantage'

A Revolutionary Data-Driven & Predictive Ad Solution Enabling Advertisers to Reach Custom Audiences Across Viacom's Media Networks

Viacom Vantage Pilots with Select Clients, Amplifying their Reach with Target Consumers

April 29, 2015 05:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA) today announced Viacom Vantage, an innovative, data-driven ad product that enables advertisers to reach their custom targets at the program level across the Viacom Media Networks portfolio. This pioneering new approach transforms traditional media planning and offers advertisers more choice, more flexibility and increased accountability. Through a combination of enhanced consumer targeting and a deep understanding of how various audience segments consume content across our platforms, Viacom Vantage predicts which content will perform the best for our clients across MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Nickelodeon, CMT, Spike, TV Land and Logo.

"Our guiding principle is to offer best-in-class and client-centered products for our advertising partners," said Jeff Lucas, Head of Sales for Viacom Media Networks. "Viacom Vantage is our latest cutting edge product to deliver on that promise by enabling our clients to close the gap between how they define their true segments and where their messages can work best in reaching that audience on our shows."

Developed in-house over a year ago, Viacom Vantage's beta version was successfully piloted with a select group of national partners including Horizon Media. Viacom Vantage offered each of these clients deep data integrations, customized capabilities and took on operational and inventory management efforts to drive unique media plans and help set new industry standards.

"When Viacom came to us with this new ad solution, we recognized immediately it was a novel approach that could greatly build upon the effectiveness of our client's investment," said Dave Campanelli, Sr. Vice President, Director of National Television for Horizon Media. "The results far exceeded our expectations by directly identifying and reaching our targeted consumers and providing us with precisely the right programming that would generate the highest return."

Now in its second year and available at scale to clients, Viacom Vantage is the result of years of strategic investment in data, proprietary research and ongoing optimization to build out new predictive models. It goes far beyond the traditional age and gender demographics and provides the capability to integrate attitudinal and behavioral segments with other off-the-shelf segments by using a unique algorithm that is custom fit to each advertiser's goals.

"Our holistic and highly customizable approach to data is far ahead of the industry curve and leverages the unparalleled social and digital reach of our programming to help unlock insights into the commercial and digital behaviors of our audiences," said Kern Schireson, Executive Vice President, Data Strategy and Consumer Intelligence at Viacom Media Networks. "By effectively merging our expansive data footprint with syndicated research, we can continuously optimize media plans to integrate our advertisers' messaging on the exact right shows at the exact right time."

Viacom Vantage is the newest offering from Viacom as the company continues to advance innovative, first-to-market solutions. Last year, Viacom Velocity introduced Echo, an insights-driven approach to harnessing our massive social footprint for content creation, distribution, amplification and optimization. Echo is powered by the Echo Social Graph, a groundbreaking, analytics platform that delivers measured earned media for our partners.

About Viacom

Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling television programs, motion pictures, short-form video, apps, games, consumer products, social media and other entertainment content for audiences in more than 165 countries and territories. Viacom's media networks, including Nickelodeon, CMT, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, TV Land, Nick at Nite, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, SPIKE, Logo, BET, CENTRIC, Channel 5 (UK), Tr3s, Paramount Channel and VIVA, reach a cumulative 3.2 billion television subscribers worldwide. Paramount Pictures is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment.

For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com. Keep up with Viacom news by following Viacom's blog at blog.viacom.com and Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/viacom.

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Nickelodeon USA To Premiere 20 Brand-New "SpongeBob SquarePants" Episodes During Summer 2015

Thomas Dooley, the chief operating officer of Viacom Inc, today, Thursday 30th April 2015, announced the Sponge-Tastic news during their Q2 2015 earnings call that Nickelodeon USA will be premiering and showing twenty brand-new episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants" during the Summer 2015 programming season!

Earlier this year, Tom Kenny, the voice of Nickelodeon megastar SpongeBob SquarePants, announced that he is now the voice director of "SpongeBob SquarePants"!

Additionally, Thomas Dooley also announced that, following the huge success of "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water" earlier this year, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures are currently developing a third brand-new "SpongeBob SquarePants" movie!

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Snoop Dogg To Guest Star In Brand-New Episode Of "Sanjay and Craig", Premiering 5/17 On Nickelodeon USA

ETonline is reporting the very exciting news that Snoop Dogg will be a guest star in a upcoming brand-new episode of Nickelodeon's Emmy-nominated original animated series (NickToon) "Sanjay and Craig", premiering Sunday 17th May 2015 on Nickelodeon USA!

The iconic rapper is lending his signature voice and likeness to the very special episode of Nickelodeon's hit original animated buddy comedy series.

Snoop will play "Street Dogg", a fun, friendly rapper who moves in next door to Sanjay (Maulik Pancholy, "30 Rock") and his anthropomorphic pet snake, Craig ("@midnight" host Chris Hardwick). And while in the suburbs, Street Dogg finds some time to drop “funky, fresh flow”.

In fact, Street Dogg will swap rhymes with Megan Sparkles, Sanjay's over-enthusiastic friend voiced by Linda Cardellini ("Bloodline"). The actress recently told ETonline that rapping with musician was a highlight. "I'm actually cartoon rapping with Snoop Dogg, which is something I never thought I'd be able to do that in my career", she said.

The 43-year-old rapper joins a long list of guest stars, which includes "Workaholics" star Adam DeVine, the foul-mouthed chef Anthony Bourdain, and Tony Hale.

Snoop Dogg is no stranger to Nickelodeon. In 2012, the rapper guest starred as himself in the Christmas special of Nickelodeon's hit musical comedy series "Big Time Rush", "Big Time Christmas".

Watch a sneak peek video of Snoop's visit to Lundgren below!:

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Nickelodeon And Paramount Developing Third "SpongeBob SquarePants" Movie

Viacom Inc, the parent company of the Nickelodeon brand, today, Thursday 30th April 2015, announced the Sponge-Tastic news during their Q2 2015 earnings call that, following the huge success of "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water" earlier this year, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures are currently developing a third brand-new "SpongeBob SquarePants" movie!:

"@ParamountPics is in development on sequels to existing franchises: @WorldWarZMovie, @JackReacher & @SpongeBobMovie" - TD

Based on the highly acclaimed Nickelodeon TV series, "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water", the second "SpongeBob SquarePants" movie in the hit franchise from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, sees SpongeBob Squarepants, the world's favourite sea dwelling invertebrate, come ashore to our world for his most super-heroic adventure yet. The movie, hailed as "laugh-out-loud funny" (Examiner) and "the best family film of the year" (Fanboy Nation), has grossed more than $285 Million worldwide, and stars Antonio Banderas, Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence and Matt Berry.

Paramount Home Media Distribution will release "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D™ Combo Pack, DVD and VOD in the USA (region 1) on Tuesday 2nd June 2015, and will arrive two weeks early on Digital HD Tuesday 19th May 2015.

Original source: Toon Zone forums member BeanoMaster.

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