Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries predominantly comedy programming, both original andsyndicated. Since late 2006, local versions of Comedy Central have launched in the European market including in Poland (Comedy Central Polska), Germany (Comedy Central Deutschland), the Netherlands, Italy (Comedy Central Italia), Hungary, Sweden (Comedy Central Sweden) and in the UK and Republic of Ireland(Comedy Central UK & Ireland). On April 1, 2009, New Zealand received the first localized Comedy Central channel outside of North America and Europe (Comedy Central New Zealand). Comedy Central is one of 4 Viacom channels to not be part of a brand and is owned by MTV Networks.