Pokémon in the United Kingdom

Pokémon in United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom
Language	English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Ulster Scots, Irish, Cornish
Continent	Europe
Original anime airdates
EP001	1999
AG001	2004
DP001	February 4, 2008
BW001	February 27, 2011* June 4, 2011*
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1999 with the release of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions and the airing of the anime.

Pokémon video games

All Pokémon games that have been released in the United States have also been released in the United Kingdom except Hey You, Pikachu!, with the addition of the Europe and Japan-exclusive Pokémon Tetris. The UK release dates tend to be some time after the American release dates, with the exception of Pokémon Dash, PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure and Pokémon Black and White, which were released in the UK before the US.

Games that are released in the United Kingdom are inconsistent with British English spelling. For example, spelling variations such as color and center are not changed to colour and centre for the UK releases.

Event Pokémon have been released in the UK sporadically. An event in 2005 known as "The Hunt for Deoxys" was held at Vue cinemas for two days each across the country, where players of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen and Pokémon Emerald were able to download the AuroraTicket. The recent introduction of Wi-Fi events has allowed UK players access to many previously unavailable event Pokémon. Prior to this, very few event Pokémon were made available to UK players, and when events at malls and other stores were held, many parts of the country were overlooked.

Pokémon Black and White are currently being represented in the United Kingdom by the X Factor finalists One Direction, a boy band. The group is promoting the latest Pokémon games through television commercials and concerts, and have been life-long Pokémon fans. They are one of a number of acts representing Nintendo as ambassadors in the United Kingdom, which has also included Jedward, JLS and The Saturdays.

Pokémon anime

Sky1's current logo, introduced in 2008

Sky1

The original series and Advanced Generation series aired on Sky1, a British channel which is owned by BSkyB.

File:ITV1.png

ITV1's logo

ITV1

Pokémon also previously aired on ITV1 from 1999 to 2004. ITV1 is a public service network station that broadcasts in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is currently owned by ITV, formerly Carlton Communications and Granada plc, and some of its branding is also used by Channel Television. ITV is the only company that has broadcast the anime on UK terrestrial television. Although it no longer airs episodes, its sister channel CITV continues to do so, originally simulcast upon ITV4 until June 2010, when the GMTV2 block on ITV4 was removed.

Before CITV had its own channel, it had a block on ITV1 from 15:30 to 17:15 on weekdays. Pokémon aired regularly in this block starting in 1999, showing episodes from The Indigo League and Adventures in the Orange Islands.

GMTV is an early-morning programming block on ITV1. Episodes of Pokémon used to air every Saturday beginning at 8:50 and ending by 9:25. It was originally shown in this time slot from September 1999 until April 2003, airing episodes from The Indigo League, Adventures in the Orange Islands and The Johto Journeys. In summer/autumn 2004, a few episodes from Advanced were shown.

SM:TV Live was a live Saturday morning entertainment show with a 9:25 to 11:30 block which ended in 2003. It would replace the Who's That Pokémon? segment with small sketches that featured the hosts, Ant & Dec, having their own "PokéFight". Some later episodes featured the duo performing their own Kanto Pokérap.

ITV1 has, on more than one occasion, skipped episodes or canceled airings mid-series. These are planned as the TV guides published over a week before date of transmission reflect this. This is not uncommon practice as it has also happened to ReBoot, Cardcaptors, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh!. This is not limited to children's animation, with the initial run of Season 1 of Pushing Daisies being the most prominent example of a non-children's program.

Pokémon has been cancelled prematurely twice; once during the Orange Islands saga on CITV and once just after Pokémon: Advanced started on GMTV. Neither series has been seen on ITV1 since.

Cartoon Network TOO

Cartoon Network TOO's logo

Cartoon Network TOO (CN Too for short) is a spin-off television channel of Cartoon Network UK. As its name suggests, it contains programming that aired on both Cartoon Network and Toonami.

Formally known as Toonami, the channel was the location of the world premiere of Pokémon Chronicles. CN TOO and Cartoon Network went on to show the UK premiere of seasons 8, 9 and 10 as well as gradually going through the older seasons starting from season 3. Pokémon no longer airs on any Cartoon Network channel since migrating to Disney XD.

CITV

CITV's current logo

Currently, the anime airs on CITV, a United Kingdom TV digital network station currently owned by ITV. It shares its name with the former programming block on ITV1, CITV's parent channel. This channel is free to view on almost all UK Digital TV systems. It is also available over the internet as streaming television on their website.

As its own channel it has shown every dubbed episode of the Pokémon anime from Pokémon: Battle Frontier to the first fourteen episodes of the Pokémon: Black & White series, as well as simulcasting episodes shown on ITV1. They have also shown all four Diamond & Pearl series movies, as well as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness.

In October 2012, it began transmitting episodes of Pokémon Black & White: Rival Destinies in late weekend morning programming slots. Beginning May 19, 2013, the channel began airing two back-to-back episodes of Pokémon Black & White: Adventures in Unova on Sunday mornings. Episodes that are shown on CITV are usually repeated several months later on Disney XD.

Additionally, ITV use a service on their website known as ITV Player, which allows viewers to watch its programming online, including CITV programmes such as Pokémon. A list of their available Pokémon episodes can be found here.

Disney XD

Disney XD currently shows Pokémon: Black and White and Black & White: Rival Destinies. Disney XD has also shown Giratina and the Sky Warrior and Arceus and the Jewel of Life on May 28 2010. Previously Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension and Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles were shown but were replaced their successors Sinnoh League Victors and Black and White in the Autumn and Winter of 2011 respectively. Pokémon in the UK was previously shown on Disney XD's predecessor, Jetix.

Pokémon movies

The first three Pokémon movies where released theatrically, accompanied by the same Pokémon Trading Card Game promotions as the US releases. The first movie was released on April 14, 2000 to coincide with the two week Easter school holidays, the second movie on December 22, 2000, and the third movie on April 6, 2001. They where all later released on VHS and DVD, respectively.

Every movie thereafter would be released on an irregular basis. Both the fourth and fifth films were released directly to DVD in 2003 and 2005 respectively, while the sixth movies DVD release came in 2006, where it was distributed by Paramount Pictures. In 2006, the eighth and ninth movies aired on Cartoon Network. In 2008, the tenth movie would be released on DVD under the distribution of Network. All movies from the eleventh onward would be aired on television a reflectively short time after the US, on both CITV and Disney XD. In the 2012, seven years after the US release, the seventh movie finally saw the light of day in the country when it was released on DVD.

Additionally, the special episode Mewtwo Returns (marketed as a direct-to-video movie outside of Japan) also saw a UK release on VHS. The DVD version was never released for unknown reasons.

Netflix

It was announced that the Pokémon anime would be coming to Netflix, a subscription-based on demand service available in a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom. Beginning from March 1, 2014, episodes of Pokémon: Indigo League and Pokémon: Black & White will be available, as well as the movies Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram and Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom.

Pokémon manga

Pokémon manga licensed and translated into English is distributed in the United Kingdom by VIZ Media, including Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! and the popular Pokémon Adventures series.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

The Pokémon Trading Card Game, although declining in popularity, is still being sold throughout the UK.

When first released, the game was very popular among UK children. Like in many other countries, the TCG was eventually banned in most schools, because of "classroom distraction". Conflict between students regarding Trading Cards also resulted in the cards being banned from some schools. Its popularity faded out as it was replaced by other popular crazes such as Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

Pokémon merchandise

Cover artwork of the new Pokémon Official Magazine available in the UK

The United Kingdom receives some of the same Pokémon merchandise that is available in the United States, such as plush toys which have been released in major department chains, though merchandise given away in fast food restaurants has become non-existent, as the Pokémon movies are no longer shown at cinemas. Some collectibles, such as the Pokémon Advanced Action Cards, were sold in the UK and Europe but not in North America. Despite Pokémon's decline in popularity, merchandise can be found in UK stores, such as GAME and W H Smith.

A Pokémon Official Magazine was started up in 2004 in the United Kingdom. It was intended to have a quarterly release schedule, but it was cancelled due to low sales. In February 2013, it was announced by Future Publishing that the Pokémon Official Magazine would be returning to the UK, with a publishing schedule of 13 issues per year. There is also the Pocket World magazine published in the United Kingdom as well.

References

This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.