nick.tv
The 90s kids rejoice! Nickelodeon has a designated streaming channel that is available through VRV. Shows like All That, Catdog, and more are now available on NickSplat.
The service has multiple platforms, including a website, an app, and a Roku channel.
VRV provides streaming subscriptions that allow users to access various channels. Some of the channels VRV provides are NickSplat, Boomerang, Crunchyroll, Cartoon Hangover, Hidive, Mondo, Rooster Teeth, and VRV Select. To subscribe to VRV services, users can choose which channels they would like individually for around $4.99 per month or bundle all of them for $9.99 per month. The service has multiple platforms including a website an app as well as a Roku channel.
VRV, the streaming parent company of NickSplat? featuring anime, animation, science fiction, comic books and tech fans was created in 2016. It has continued to expand since its launch and now boasts many well known channels such as horror streaming app Shudder. Nerdist, Geek and Sundry, and Funimation have all left the platform in recent years.
Website Design
It is difficult to find what you are looking for. The layout is confusing and unorganized.
The website design of the parent streaming service is fundamentally flawed. It is greyscaled with a few pops of color, each channel has its own corresponding color, NickSplat, of course, is assigned orange, and the main menu is a mess. It is difficult to find what you are looking for due to its confusing and unorganized layout.
The NickSplat logo sits on a dropdown menu that allows the viewer to select the channel. In the middle of the menu, VRV's logo is front and center. On the right are symbols that correspond to watchlist, search, and profile. Unfortunately, you don't really know what these symbols mean unless you click on them. At first glance, I thought the watchlist was a symbol to view the full library.
Below the main menu is a featured program with the descriptive text being the focal point. I wish the image was the focal point and the description popped up when you hovered over the image or leaving the text off until clicking on show. Underneath that is the limited number of NickSplat television shows.
There is no apparent flow to the feed on the main page. The groupings on the main page are not alphabetical. The only real category seems to consist of Popular and Updated. Sifting through the shows on the home page may look chaotic, but when you click on view all it does sort alphabetically.
Content
Most of the content on NickSplat's channel is meant for subscribers only, but there are a few shows and episodes viewers can watch for free on VRV, NickSplat's hosting stream service. It is currently only available in the USA.
Nickelodeon's official website and VRV themselves claim that there is a massive library of shows available to watch on the website. However, I found that this was not the case. Scrolling through the home page might look promising, but when looking at the full library, the numbers just weren't there.
The claim that NickSplat boasts a massive library of shows puts me in mind of hundreds of unique titles, while NickSplat's 8 shows hardly even scratch the surface. Supposedly, they rotate out shows from Nickelodeon on a schedule, but I could only find what was currently playing and the titles that they had previously pulled. All in all, the library is a disappointment.
Desktop & Mobile Accessibility
The desktop website is not an enjoyable experience. The website design is funky and bland, and the videos lag and the audio quality is decent but in the grand scheme of things this website falls somewhere in the middle. The navigation on the desktop is confusing.
I created an account and had difficulty logging in.
The mobile browser of the parenting company, VRV, takes you to a webpage asking you to download the app and create an account. When I clicked on the NickSplat channel it prompted me to try a 30-day free trial, instead, I downloaded the app. I created an account and had difficulty logging in because the login page didn't accept my password.
The VRV mobile app is called NickSplat and it has a bright yellow, black, and white logo and colors. My initial reaction to the app is positive. I created an account and there was a neat feature that allowed you to shake your phone to get a random username. Some of the suggestions were very clever and the art for the icons was awesome.
The homepage for the app is well-made, but the NickSplat channel on it is still messy. The organization of the bottom menu is much cleaner and helpful, but unfortunately the NickSplat feed is still very unorganized and scattered all over.
Positives
I was not very impressed with the positive aspects of NickSplat. The parent streaming service VRV is something I am not used to seeing. The design is not very user-friendly. The NickSplay channel itself is not a good experience.
However, it is clear that the focus of this streaming service is NickSplat content.
One of the few good things about the price is that it is just $4.99 per month for NickSplat content. However, there's a catch - the library is very small. There's an option to bundle all of the channels for $9.99 which isn't a bad deal if you like the content from the other channels, but it's clear that the focus of this streaming service is NickSplat content.
Finally, the best part of this is that there are nostalgic titles available. Shows like Rocket Power, Catdog, All That, Rocko?s Modern Life, and a few more are available right now. Even though there aren't many shows, there are quite a few episodes available for each series. Some of the episodes are even free to people without subscriptions so that's definitely a plus.
Negatives
There are many issues with NickSplat. It has been more of a frustrating experience than a positive one. One major problem is that the root of most of the issues is difficult to pinpoint.
VRV is the home to the NickSplat channel. Overall, I do not like their website or streaming service. It is difficult to navigate, and the grey-scale theme is not very pleasing to look at.
The website's navigation is confusing. If you don't know exactly what you're looking for, it will take a few minutes to figure out. The website's flow isn't good. There's no pattern for the categories or the featured blocked out shows.
However, the view all shows tab is much better.
The biggest flaw of the NickSplat? website is its lack of organization. It feels like little effort was put into developing it, and the results are disastrous. Unless you visit the view all shows tab, you will find no rhyme or reason to the main feed. Once you click on all shows, it is organized alphabetically, but this tab is much better.
Another issue is that the amount you pay for the number of titles you receive. There are only 8 titles on NickSplat, currently. Nickelodeon and VRV both claim that there is a massive library of nostalgic goodness. However, that is a grievous understatement. In my mine, a large library contains upwards of 100 unique titles, preferably more.
Finally, for Nickelodeon, I was expecting bright orange and green on their page. What I found was a grey-scale with a single orange stripe near the top menu. It just wasn't enough. It felt like all of the life had been sucked out of the channel. I was hoping to see some Splat artwork but was met with disappointment.
Improvements Needed
There are many changes that could be made to improve the NickSplat stream. Some of the most important changes would be to add more titles to the stream, rotate shows regularly, and add more graphics that make the channel feel more like Nickelodeon.
This would be beneficial for not only Nickelodeon but also their viewers.
If Nickelodeon would utilize all of the titles available to them from Nick, Nick Jr., Noggin, TeenNick, and the other versions of their brand they could pull off an awesome streaming service. This would be beneficial both for Nickelodeon and their viewers.
Summary
Unfortunately, NickSplat is not a good streaming experience. Although the pricing for the subscription may be small, it is not worth it.
The number of titles available for subscribing members is paltry. The claim Nickelodeon and VRV make saying their library is massive is misinformation. There are multiple episodes of the shows, but there are only 8 shows available at a time. Unless improvements are made, I would not recommend this streaming channel unless you were using the entire VRV bundle for all of the channels.
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