Paramount makes Nickelodeon content free to Ukrainian refugees

Paramount Global is making Nickelodeon content free to Ukrainian refugees.

The American film and TV company is launching the initiative to provide “comfort” to families who have been forced to leave Ukraine because of the Russian invasion, “enabling [families] to continue feeling at home by watching their favourite cartoons, even if abroad”.

Nickelodeon will introduce Ukrainian-language versions on YouTube for select shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Blaze and the Monster Machines and Paw Patrol, perThe Hollywood Reporter.

Paramount are also launching Nickelodeon Ukraine Pluto TV, a commercial-free Ukrainian language channel airing Nickelodeon shows. The channel will be available across Europe, “including in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Hungary, the Nordics, Spain, France, Italy and Middle East/North Africa”, the company said.

The news comes in addition to a recent $1m (£768,000) donation from Paramount to support humanitarian organisations helping families flee Ukraine.

Paramount also plan to provide humanitarian organisations more than $2.5m (£1.9m) in free advertising across channels in the US to “[educate] global audiences about the heroic work they are doing during these challenging times”, Paramount said.

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Paramount halted its operations in Russia in March, affecting the theatrical releases of The Lost City and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Publishing subsidiary Simon & Schuster have also paused new book licensing and translation deals.

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish told staff: “Since the beginning of this crisis, our teams across the world have been working around the clock to determine the best, and most importantly – safest – ways we as a business can show our support for all those impacted.

Bakish added: “The safety and security of employees and all those who work with us is, and will always be, our top priority. We continue to offer specialized support services to hundreds of staff, freelance and fixed term employees in Ukraine, Russia, and Poland whose lives are being impacted by this crisis.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.