NFGaming (TV channel)



NFGaming (shortened from "Nickelodeon Family Gaming") is an American television channel aimed mainly at the gaming community. The channel launched on July 16th, 2017. The channel is aimed at teens and young adults ages 13 and up and features programming based around gaming, as well as programming based off of videogames and gaming culture, in addition to a 3-hour Saturday morning block of children's programming acquired from various sources and a 2-hour block of programming acquired from toymaker Hasbro.

On the day of its launch, NFGaming premiered its first original series, NFGaming Morning Playthroughs. It was also announced that a Saturday-morning block of action programming, branded as "Action Zone", would air on the channel as well.

Most NFGaming original series were produced by NFGaming Productions, with the exception of The Next Level, which is a co-production between YTV Family and NickFamily Studios' main production unit.

A Canadian block of the same name formerly aired on Cartoon Network XD; the block has since been cancelled and its shows scattered across other networks, including YTV Spark.

Until TeleUK was launched, all NFGaming original series have only aired in the United States, with the exceptions of Fighting Underground (broadcast internationally on Vision, except in Canada (YTV Spark) and Wales (Disney XD)), Ready to Game Up! (picked up in Wales by Disney Channel and later announced to move to the main Nickelodeon Family) and The Next Level (a co-production with YTV Family).

In August 2018, NFGaming announced that it would begin pulling all animated programming from its schedule, excluding Code Monkeys (which was itself later pulled due to reruns beginning to air on Beta Cartoon's Bxx), eSports: The Animation, and its "Night of Anime" block starting in September 2018. As of September 2019, animated programming still plays in the slots during the mornings and afternoons, alongside primetime for original animation airing on the channel.

On February 5th, 2020, it was announced that NFGaming Productions' operations, with the exception of their involvement in Impulse Fighting Underground, would cease by the end of March 2020, with production of its NFGaming original series moving to NickFamily Studios proper. It was also announced that NFGaming had cancelled both the "Night of Anime" and the "NFGaming Saturday Mornings" blocks, effective February 10th, 2020. It was later announced on March 1st, 2020, that effective March 4th, premieres of Playing Games from Japan, Two Bros and a Nintendo DS, and Cheat the System would be moved to the main Nickelodeon Family channel's AuraNightfall block.

On March 15th, 2020, NFGaming announced that, due to the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, the channel would go on autopilot, excluding new episodes of Impulse Fighting Underground, from March 16th-30th, 2020. During this time, NFGaming Morning Playthroughs went on hiatus (which was extended through April) and other shows temporarily aired new episodes on AuraNightfall. This was later extended through April on March 30th, concurrent with NickFamily Studios shutting down facilities in order for its staff to work from home. During this time, all NFGaming programming except Robot Wars Cyber (which already had episodes recorded ahead of time) would go on hiatus. On April 18th, 2020, it was announced that, barring an extension of the statewide stay-at-home order, NFGaming would resume normal operations on April 30th, with NFGaming Morning Playthroughs resuming new episodes on May 1st.

In late April, the stay-at-home order was extended, and NFGaming had to continue disruption of normal operations; NFGaming Morning Playthroughs began running new episodes again on May 1st, with episodes being run through May 30th being broadcast from the hosts' homes.

In September 2020, NFGaming announced that the Action Blast! and NFGaming Movies blocks were cancelled, removing the network's final blocks from the schedule. The time vacated by the blocks were given to reruns of Fighting Underground. Reruns of all animated programming, save for original animation, as well as all remaining syndicated programming not from Aura, were also removed from the schedule around this time. On September 23rd, 2020, the hosts of NFGaming Morning Playthroughs announced they would end their show at the end of December 2020. Because of this, rumors have spread that Aura were planning to merge the channel into Nickelodeon Family proper, including moving repeats of much of the channel's remaining programming to AuraNightfall, and sell off the channel space.

On December 2nd, 2020, the main Nickelodeon Family channel began abbreviating itself as "NF", ending the 3-year exclusive use of the abbreviation by NFGaming.

On January 21st, 2021, it was announced that, in the wake of the G4 relaunch (which itself would be folded by the end of 2022), NFGaming would either be shut down or sold off by the end of 2021. On the same day, Aura announced that all remaining NFGaming original series except for Impulse Fighting Underground were cancelled. Firebasket announced it would buy the NFGaming channel, while Impulse Fighting Underground would move to another network with Aura still being involved in production. The sale was finalized on May 9th, 2021.

The channel would rebrand as Firebasket ESport Network on August 1, 2021, focusing on live esports and esports programming from content partners such as ESL, The Score, FACEIT, Esports Talk, as well as original programming done by Firebasket T&G Studios.

In 2022, all NFGaming original programming with the exception of Fighting Underground and its spin-offs (due to licensing) were added to Flare+ in North America, although Aura hinted that the Fighting Underground franchise may join Flare+ as well once the current streaming rights (currently licensed to Netflix) expire.

Programming
Main article: List of programs broadcast by NFGaming