Nickelodeon Italy Announces Plans To Repeat "One Direction: Up All Night Live" Concert Special On Friday 23rd November 2012

According to Nickelodeon Italy's latest Nickelodeon News e-Newsletter and DavideMaggio.it, Nickelodeon Italy (also known as Nickelodeon Italia) will repeat the 'One Direction' live concert special called "Up All Night Live", which was recently shown on Nick Italy in October 2012, and which was recorded at a live 'One Direction' concert held at Bournemouth International Centre on Tuesday 3rd January 2012, where Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson were captured on film during the band's first sold out tour, performing all their hits - "Na Na Na", "Stand Up", "I Wish", "I Gotta Feeling"/"Stereo Hearts", "Valerie"/"Torn", "Moments", "Gotta Be You", "More Than This", "Up All Night", "Tell Me a Lie", "Everything About You", "Use Somebody", "One Thing", "Save You Tonight", "What Makes You Beautiful", and "I Want", and also features a few 1D surprises, on Friday 23rd November 2012 at 9.30pm, and to celebrate, Nickelodeon Italy will be holding a special "One Direction" competition for Italy 1D fans and Nick Italia viewers to win tickets to an upcoming "One Direction" concert! From Nickelodeon Italy's latest Nickelodeon News e-Newsletter (MARTEDI' 13 NOVEMBRE / TUESDAY 'November 13):

GUARDA I ONE DIRECTION E VINCI!
Venerdì alle 21:30 guarda i 1D in TV e vinci i biglietti per il concerto

SEE ONE DIRECTION AND WIN!
Friday at 21:30 watch 1D on TV and win tickets to the concert

[Italian to English translation provided by Google Translate.]

Also, from DavideMaggio.it and translated by Google Translate:

ONE DIRECTION: NICKELODEON RIDE THE WAVE AND AGAIN THE CONCERT OF BOURNEMOUTH WITH AN EVENING EVENT

One Direction in their last visit to Italy
Twitter is a real phenomenon, and in the music industry are literally depopulated, to record sales and number of prizes. They are the ultimate creature of Simon Cowell who, after seeing them individually auditioned for X Factor UK, he decided to bring them together in a single training class vocal groups to be addressed to the well-known talent show. And the five with the X factor that actually had to start an artistic career in the program, which the United Kingdom is a real cornerstone of the generalist television.

We speak of course of One Direction, who are doing crazy without ifs and buts, the teen-agers around the world after the success in the seventh edition of X Factor, which, however, only came third. Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis: these five wonderful children are now in the hearts of millions of teenagers, as they were at the time groups like the Blue and the Backstreet Boys, but soon disappeared from circulation.

What will be the future of '1 D 'we'll find out just living, but in the meantime - given the success dell'ospitata Teatro della Luna in the sixth edition of X Factor, which because of the hordes of screaming directioners have traveled outside the hotel Principe di Savoy and outside the theater for a few minutes to see their heroes - Nickelodeon (Sky channel 605) decided to make hay while the sun shines and the famous boyband ricelebrare waiting for the documentary film, due out next summer, with yet another evening event airs Friday, November 23 starting at 21:45.

It starts, as in the previous evening, with the special episode of iCarly where One Direction have performed with their songs ["iGo One Direction", also known as "iGot Jungle Worms"], and continue at 22.10 with the live concert held in Bournemouth.

Also, below is the untranslated Nickelodeon Italy News article from DavideMaggio.it:

ONE DIRECTION: NICKELODEON CAVALCA L’ONDA E RIPROPONE IL CONCERTO DI BOURNEMOUTH CON UNA SERATA EVENTO

One Direction nella loro ultima visita in Italia (Vedi foto sopra / See photograph above)

Su Twitter sono un vero fenomeno di costume, e nel mercato musicale stanno letteralmente spopolando, per vendite record e numero di premi vinti. Sono l’ultima creatura di Simon Cowell che, dopo averli visti singolarmente ai provini di X Factor UK, decise di accorparli in un’unica formazione da indirizzare alla categoria gruppi vocali del noto talent show. E i cinque assieme avevano effettivamente quel fattore X tale per iniziare un percorso artistico all’interno del programma, che nel Regno Unito è un vero caposaldo della televisione generalista.

Parliamo ovviamente dei One Direction, che stanno facendo impazzire senza se e senza ma le teen-ager di tutto il mondo dopo il successo ottenuto nella settima edizione di X Factor, a cui però arrivarono solo terzi. Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry e Louis: questi cinque splendidi ragazzini sono ormai nel cuore di milioni di adolescenti, come lo furono ai tempi gruppi come i Blue e i Backstreet Boys, che però sono spariti presto dalla circolazione.

Quale sarà il futuro dei ‘1D’ lo scopriremo solo vivendo, ma intanto – visto il successo dell’ospitata al Teatro della Luna nella sesta edizione di X Factor, per colpa della quale orde di directioners urlanti si sono recate fuori dall’hotel Principe di Savoia e all’esterno del Teatro per vedere per pochi minuti i loro beniamini – Nickelodeon (Sky, canale 605) ha deciso di battere il ferro finchè è caldo e ricelebrare la famosa boyband in attesa del film documentario, in uscita la prossima estate, con una ennesima serata evento in onda venerdì 23 novembre a partire dalle 21.45.

Si parte, come nella precedente serata, con l’episodio speciale di iCarly in cui gli One Direction si sono esibiti con i loro brani, e si prosegue alle 22.10 con il concerto live tenuto a Bournemouth.

Nickelodeon France Announces Plans To Start To Show Nickelodeon's Brand New CGI-Animated "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" TV Series From Wednesday 28th November 2012

Nickelodeon France has announced on their official websites, Nickelodeon.fr, current "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" website background image (graphic) the Nickelodeon News that Nickelodeon France will start to premiere and show Nickelodeon's brand new CGI-animated "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" television series, locally titled "Les Tortues Ninja" (translated as "Ninja Turtles") from Wednesday 28th November 2012:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Les Tortues Ninja

Ils Remontent A La Surface Le 28 Novembre / They rise to the surface November 28

[French to English translation provided by Google Translate.]

Media Bigs Flock To YouTube Power Players

From Variety:

Media bigs flock to YouTube power players

Why MCNs like Fullscreen, Maker are luring investors

By ANDREW WALLENSTEIN

There may be no better sign that there's a hot Internet sector brewing than Peter Chernin choosing to invest there -- repeatedly. The savvy mogul is clearly placing his bet on the leading video content aggregators within YouTube, known as multichannel networks, or MCNs. After taking a small stake in a little-known company called Fullscreen last year, the Chernin Group invested in another MCN in the U.K., Base79, earlier in November. And he's set to take a stake in another by year-end, according to sources.

Chernin isn't the only one interested in these companies. As Variety first reported Nov. 14, Time Warner is eyeing a minority stake in a rival to Fullscreen, Maker Studios. Not to be outdone, RTL Bertlesmann is said to have kicked the tires of Maker and Fullscreen (though reps for both congloms declined comment).

Fullscreen and Base79 may not be household names, but they are players in a fast-growing cottage industry that attracts billions of views per month, and has drawn the interest of bigger media firms in the process. Investment, however, is just one of the ways that this new breed is coming together with an old guard interested in protecting its future by allying itself with ventures that hold great potential. Congloms are also becoming clients and advertisers of MCNs, which may end up as acquisition targets.

Fullscreen CEO George Strompolos recalls describing the upside of his company to Chernin: "I told him, 'You helped build Fox. This is the new Fox, plus ABC and NBC. You helped build "The Simpsons." The next "Simpsons" is going to come from a company like us.' "

Those are pretty ambitious words from a company that, on the surface, is a far cry from Fox. Anyone over the age of 30 probably has never heard of Fullscreen personalities like Michael Buckley or Lindsey Stirling, performers whose production budgets are smaller than even the smallest TV projects. Like most of the talent that calls Fullscreen home, they are among thousands of independent video producers who in the earliest years of YouTube began amassing millions of views for their content while functioning as one-man production units.

By joining MCNs, YouTubers can grow their audience through cross-promotion executed across the hundreds, if not thousands of channels aggregated by each firm. Multichannel networks provide the production, marketing and technology infrastructure that allows these enterprising souls to focus on the creative in exchange for a cut of the revenues generated by everything from advertising to merchandising. It's not terribly different an arrangement from the classic Hollywood studio-talent relationship, though YouTube creators tend to hold onto ownership of their intellectual property (deal terms can vary).

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the Buckleys of the world are gravitating to Los Angeles, where they are part of a budding local tech scene that has been christened Silicon Beach. It's a hotbed of activity from Venice to Culver City, where Maker and Fullscreen bought up tens of thousands of square feet of production space a stone's throw from the Sony Pictures lot.

MCNs are not to be confused with the official YouTube channels, though the former are among some of the dozens of premium content partners Google has helped fund via original programming efforts.

As many MCNs as there are in the space, each seems to have a slightly different business model. Machinima, which led the MCN pack in October with 35 million unique visitors according to Comscore, offers amateur content culled mostly from the videogaming world alongside premium originals like the Universal Cable Prods.-produced "Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome." Then there are studios like Alloy Digital, which is far more interested in ownership of content, though not above dabbling on the MCN side with select partners. And there are MCNs devoted to particular market niches, like StyleHaul, which focuses on fashion.

Malik Ducard, whose team manages YouTube's ties to the MCNs as director of content partnerships at Google, sees these companies as an essential element of the site's ecosystem. "So much innovation comes from this group, and this group often pushes the envelope for YouTube in a lot of ways," Ducard says.

But the biggest difference between a premium content company like Fox, which has the skyrocketing costs of shows like "The Simpsons" eating away at its profit margin, and MCNs is that the YouTube talent pool, the best of which pull in six-figure salaries, is comprised largely of promising amateurs who need little beyond a greenscreen and editing bays.

It's the "Moneyball" approach to media: putting low-cost players on the field to garner auds that cable programmers spend a lot more to reach (though a video view vs. a Nielsen rating is not an apples-to-apples comparison). Moreover, the ad revenues TV nets command dwarf those of MCNs

So why is Big Media bothering with what seems like small potatoes?

Because while MCNs might seem to traffic entirely in low-cost amateurs, their links to the premium content world are growing. MCNs provide established brands entree to YouTube, which media companies have learned the hard way is a world where the nuances of content distribution are very different than they are in TV or film. Maximizing audience requires mastering YouTube minutiae like thumbnails, annotations and title tags -- what MCNs refer to as "audience development" -- that just isn't in old media's skill set.

For instance, Fullscreen has built a side business, Channel Plus, that services the likes of NBC, Fox and FremantleMedia, and schools them on how to distribute content on YouTube.

"I think a lot of media companies that may have dismissed YouTube at one point are taking a second look," Strompolos says.

In the long term, YouTube is being eyed as the foundation of a new programming business model that circumvents the traditional gatekeepers of content in the TV business and simplifies the path from creation to distribution. And MCNs could become the best beachhead for launching such content on digital platforms, while at the same time retaining a vestige of the traditional strategy that cable channels have exploited so successfully: getting traction in the marketplace with low-cost licensed fare before graduating to ownership of premium content.

It's not just because YouTube gets the most eyeballs that makes it the place media companies want to advance that strategy. In contrast with the geographic constraints of a cable operator like Comcast, YouTube is a global distributor. Perhaps even more important, though, is the younger demographic skew of YouTube, which positions the platform as the go-to video destination for content at a time when the median broadcast-TV audience has aged out of its own target demographic, viewers 18-49.

But YouTube has another significant advantage over TV, argues Jesse Jacobs, president of Chernin Group: the value and variety of MCN metrics. "Unlike traditional TV networks," he says, "online video networks are using data to test what time of day to launch something, how long a clip should be, what video should come next in a queue, what ads are working, etc."

Given the infinite channel space that an increasingly IP-driven video world presents, the growth of MCNs are less likely to usurp TV than to coexist alongside it, in much the same way broadcast made room for cable decades ago. "A lot of people talk about them as two different worlds, but these worlds are blending," says Allen DeBevoise, CEO of Machinima. "The people running channels you'd consider user-generated content are potentially the next generation of stars both in front and behind of the camera."

For now, Machinima is satisfied to coexist with TV by making that business one of its fastest-growing categories for ad revenue. The company has attracted tune-in campaign money from shows like AMC's "The Walking Dead" to Showtime's "Homeland," with the cablers looking to make inroads among the elusive young-male demo that over-indexes in this corner of YouTube.

TV has become a revenue generator in a different way for Collective Digital Studio, the digital arm of management firm the Collective, where YouTube is an incubator for intellectual property across the company's 70 channels -- programs that can be moved upstream to TV and film for more profitable exploitation. Collective had success with two kid-centric properties, the "Fred" franchise that moved from YouTube to a series of films at Nickelodeon, and then "The Annoying Orange," which followed the same arc to its own Cartoon Network series.

"These two exercises were sort of the premiere case studies in taking something that was born on the Internet and leveraging it into the offline world, whether it was television or merchandising," says Dan Weinstein, head of digital content at the Collective.

But the flow of IP can go both ways. Though the majority of the 3,000 channels in the Maker system are fronted by creators with little visibility beyond YouTube, brands with old media bona fides are knocking on its door in pursuit of access to a young, global audience. In May, Maker struck a deal with film producer Tribeca Enterprises for a channel intended to show off shortform content from up-and-coming filmmakers. At the other end of the cultural spectrum, rapper Snoop Dogg partnered with Maker in July to develop a slate for his own YouTube channel, WestFest TV.

"Five years ago, (Snoop Dogg) would have been going to cable TV," says Courtney Holt, chief operating officer of Maker. "As opposed to us taking these franchises to other platforms, we're having people who have been successful on other platforms come to us."

Of course, the most direct way MCNs will intersect with the congloms is via acquisition. That precedent was set in March when Discovery snapped up Revision3. The two companies provide a model for what a commingling of the two worlds can bring, from Revision3 creating a range of programming online that are extensions of Discovery's TV series to using the TV side as a promotional platform for online properties, as was done when digital star Philip DeFranco was tapped to serve as an on-air personality for "Shark Week."

Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback believes his company is just the first of the MCNs that congloms will acquire. He projects about half of the companies in the space could go that route, while a fifth could go public and grow independently -- and as many as one in 10 could actually get big enough to acquire a media brand that might have presumably been the buyer.

"Could a Maker or a Machinima buy a Turner or Comedy Central?" asked Louderback. "I think it's a possibility 10-15 years from now."

Rachel Abrams contributed to this story.

It's "A Fairly Odd Christmas" On Nickelodeon With New Original Live-Action TV Movie, Premiering Thursday, Nov. 29, At 7 PM (ET/PT)

Below is a Nickelodeon Press Release about Nickelodeon's brand-new live-action/CGI original television movie "A Fairly Odd Christmas", which is based on the popular animated original Nickelodeon show ("Nicktoon") "Fairly Odd Parents", and stars Nickelodeon Star Drake Bell ("The Amanda Show", "Drake & Josh", "A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!") as 'Timmy Turner' and Nickelodeon Star Daniella Monet ("Victorious", "Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred", "Fred 3: Camp Fred", "A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!") as 'Tootie', the sister of 'Vicky', which Nickelodeon USA will premiere and show on Thursday 29th November 2012 at 7.00pm (ET/PT). From PRNewswire:

It's A Fairly Odd Christmas On Nickelodeon With New Original Live-Action TV Movie, Premiering Thursday, Nov. 29, At 7 PM (ET/PT)

Nick Favorites Drake Bell and Daniella Monet Return to Star in Sequel to Hit Movie

BURBANK, Calif., Nov. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon brings holiday cheer to viewers with a brand-new live-action/CG TV movie, A Fairly Odd Christmas, premiering Thursday, November 29, at 7 p.m. (ET/PT). Starring Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) and Daniella Monet (Victorious), A Fairly Odd Christmas follows Timmy Turner as he travels around the world granting kids' wishes. When his good intentions get him in trouble with Santa Claus and land him on The Naughty List, Timmy must find a way to save Christmas before it's too late. The TV movie is executive produced by Nickelodeon hit-maker Butch Hartman and is based on his Emmy Award-winning animated series The Fairly OddParents.

(Download image - Nickelodeon Press Photo featuring the cast of Nickelodeon's brand new holiday special "A Fairly Odd Christmas": http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121121/NY17704; Photograph Caption: Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) and Daniella Monet (Victorious) star in a brand-new live-action/CG movie, A Fairly Odd Christmas, premiering Thursday, November 29, at 7 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon. (PRNewsFoto/Nickelodeon, Ed Araquel/Nickelodeon))
"Fairly Odd Parents fans loved the first live-action version of their favorite show so we decided to bring back these great characters in a Christmas adventure," said Marjorie Cohn, President, Content Development, Live Action, Animation, Digital Nickelodeon Group. "The stakes are high as Timmy and the gang embark on a hilarious mission to save Christmas that the whole family can enjoy."

In A Fairly Odd Christmas, Timmy Turner (Bell) travels around the world with his childhood friend, Tootie (Monet), his beloved fairy godparents, Cosmo (voiced by Daran Norris, The Fairly OddParents) and Wanda (voiced by Susanne Blakeslee, The Fairly OddParents), and his fairy god brother Poof (voiced by Tara Strong, The Fairly OddParents), granting kids' wishes. Unfortunately, Timmy doesn't consider that there may be consequences for his actions. When children start to doubt that Santa Claus exists, a panic begins in the North Pole. As a result, kids' wishes begin disappearing from Santa's "good" list. Timmy's well-intended actions eventually land him on The Naughty List. Timmy must find a way to restore the children's faith in Santa Claus before ruining Christmas forever. Meanwhile, Mr. Crocker (David Lewis, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!) is more determined than ever to harness the fairies magical powers for his own purposes.

A Fairly Odd Christmas is based on the animated series and characters created by Butch Hartman. It is executive produced by Hartman, Lauren Levine, Marjorie Cohen and Fred Seibert. The movie is directed by Savage Steve Holland. Teleplay by Hartman and Holland and story by Hartman, Ray DeLaurentis and Will Schifrin. Scott McAboy serves as co-executive producer. A Fairly Odd Christmas is produced by Pacific Bay Entertainment.

Beginning Nov. 26, Nick.com will serve as a location for fans to view exclusive content, photos, games and more. Fans can play The Fairly OddParents: Jingle Out of My Way!, where they have to help Timmy get off The Naughty List and save Christmas. In this tower defense styled game, players must strategically place snowball throwing elves on the field to defend against oncoming Gingerbread men. They must also protect the wishful thinking van from waves of these enemies and make their way across the Christmas themed map from Candy Cane Chasm to the River of Egg Nog. Players can also call on Cosmo, Wanda and even Poof for some last minute holiday reinforcements. Additionally, the movie will be available on iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, Sony, Vudu.

Songbird Rachel Crow performs her rendition of the holiday favorite "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" in the movie, which is featured on the album Merry NickMas, released by Columbia Records/Nickelodeon. Available for purchase now, the album also showcases recordings by Big Time Rush, the casts of Victorious and How to Rock, Drake Bell and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Since its debut in March 2001, The Fairly OddParents has consistently ranked among Nickelodeon's top programs. In 2Q12, The Fairly OddParents reached 16.5 million kids 2-11 and 43 million total viewers.

Drake Bell began his career at Nickelodeon with an appearance on the network's popular sketch comedy series, The Amanda Show, a part which led him to star in the break-out hit series Drake & Josh as Drake Parker. Bell has also appeared in several feature films such as Jerry Maguire, High Fidelity, Yours, Mine and Ours, Superhero Movie, for which Bell won a Teen Choice Award as Breakout Male, and HBO's The Jack Bull, a role which garnered him a 2000 Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Young Actor in a TV Movie or Pilot. Over the last several years, Bell has been enjoying success as a popular singer/songwriter having released two albums – Telegraph and It's Only Time – and an EP – A Reminder. Bell has toured throughout the world, including Mexico, where he sold out two headlining shows in one day at Auditorio Nacional and where his music has topped the charts.

Daniella Monet is best known for her portrayal as Trina Vega in Nickelodeon's hit live-action series Victorious. Monet has been acting since the age of seven and has had recurring roles on the television series American Dreams and 8 Simple Rules. She was cast as Megan Kleinman on Listen Up!, where she starred alongside Jason Alexander. Monet made her Nickelodeon debut as Chase's ex-girlfriend, Rebecca, on Zoey 101. In 2006, she appeared in the film Nancy Drew and the family comedy Taking 5. She also starred alongside internet sensation Lucas Cruikshank in the hit TV movies Night of the Living Fred and Fred 3: Camp Fred.

Butch Hartman began his animation career as an assistant animator on An American Tail. He directed cartoons and created his own shorts for What a Cartoon!, and also wrote and directed episodes of Dexter's Laboratory, Cow & Chicken and Johnny Bravo. Hartman joined Nickelodeon in 1998 where he created and produced several cartoon shorts for the Oh Yeah! Cartoons series, including The Fairly OddParents. Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the animated series, Hartman brought the series to life in the 2010 live-action/CG animated hit TV movie, A Fairly OddMovie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! Hartman is also the creator of Nickelodeon's animated series Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy.

Nickelodeon, now in its 33rd year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 17 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIA.B).

SOURCE Nickelodeon

RELATED LINKS
http://www.nick.com.

Also, from Kidscreen:

Nickelodeon to debut new live-action CG TV movie

Nickelodeon is set to debut A Fairly Odd Christmas, a new original live-action CG TV movie on November 29, at 7 p.m. (ET/PT).

The movie, based on the popular animated TV series The Fairly Odd Parents and a sequel to the hit Nick TV movie A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner, stars Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) and Daniella Monet (Victorious) and is executive produced by Nickelodeon’s Butch Hartman.

The movie, produced by Pacific Bay Entertainment, follows the holiday adventures of Timmy Turner as he journeys around the world granting kids' wishes, but ends up getting into trouble with Santa Claus.

The movie also features teen singing sensation Rachel Crow's version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town", which is also included on the Columbia Records/Nickelodeon album Merry NickMas.

Since debuting in March 2001, The Fairly Odd Parents has seen consistently high ratings and in the scond quarter of 2012, reached 16.5 million kids ages two to 11 and 43 million total viewers.

Tags: A Fairly Odd Christmas, Butch Hartman, Daniella Monet, Drake Bell, Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon Announces The Release Of The Brand New Book "SpongeBob SquarePants Don't Be a Jerk It's Christmas!" Book; Available As A Limited-Edition Hard Cover Book And As A Digital E-Book

Nickelodeon has announced in the following Nickelodeon Press Release that Nickelodeon USA has today (Wednesday 21st November 2012) released the brand new "SpongeBob SquarePants" "Don't Be a Jerk It's Christmas!" book, which is based on Nickelodeon's first full-length stop-motion animated special "It's A SpongeBob Christmas!", and is now available to buy as a Limited-Edition Hard Cover book on Nickelodeon USA's official Nickelodeon store website, NickShop.com, and as a Digital Download as a E-Book on Apple's iTunes, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Amazon Kindle! From PRNewswire:

Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants Don't Be a Jerk It's Christmas! E-Book Available for Digital Download Today!

Tis' the Season to Be Jolly...Not a Jerk!

Limited-Edition Hard Cover Copies Available on NickShop.com

NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2012 /Nickelodeon Press Release via PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon brings in the holiday cheer with the release of SpongeBob SquarePants Don't Be a Jerk It's Christmas!, a digital e-book, available now, and limited-edition hard cover print edition available exclusively on NickShop.com. This brand-new holiday book takes readers on a festive romp through Bikini Bottom, set to the lyrics of the hit song, "Don't Be A Jerk – It's Christmas," co-written by Tom Kenny (voice of SpongeBob) and Andy Paley (Blondie, Brian Wilson, The Ramones). Inspired by the half-hour stop-motion It's A SpongeBob Christmas! special airing on Nickelodeon, Dec. 6 at 8p.m., with illustrations by Heather Martinez, the e-book is now available on iTunes, Nook and Kindle.

(Download image - Photo of the cover art for Nickelodeon's brand new "SpongeBob SquarePants Don't Be a Jerk It's Christmas!" book: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121120/NY17152 )

"We are thrilled to release this classic e-book for SpongeBob SquarePants," said Paula K. Allen, Senior Vice President, Nickelodeon Global Publishing. "SpongeBob is such a positive and cheery character and the Don't Be a Jerk It's Christmas! e-book will bring joy and the holiday spirit to fans year after year."

In the stop-motion special, inspired by the Rankin/Bass specials (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town), Plankton turns everyone in Bikini Bottom from nice to naughty by feeding them his special jerktonium-laced fruitcake – all in an effort to get his Christmas wish, the Krabby Patty formula.

SpongeBob SquarePants is executive produced by creator Stephen Hillenburg, who previously worked as a writer, director and creative director on Nickelodeon's animated series Rocko's Modern Life. Hillenburg graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a master's degree in experimental animation and studied marine biology and art as an undergraduate.

Paul Tibbitt served as a director and writer on SpongeBob SquarePants for its first three seasons and is currently executive producer. He wrote some of the show's most memorable episodes such as "Ripped Pants" and "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy." Tibbitt was one of the co-writers and storyboard artists on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. SpongeBob SquarePants is a Nicktoons Production and is produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, Calif.

Nickelodeon, now in its 33rd year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 17 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIA.B).

SOURCE Nickelodeon

RELATED LINKS
http://www.NickShop.com.