Spongebob Squarepants – Picture: Nickelodeon / ViacomCBS
Spongebob is one of Nickelodeon’s biggest hits. It’s been on the air for over two decades across 12 seasons, multiple movies and new upcoming Netflix Original spin-offs. Here’s a look at Spongebob on Netflix in 2020.
Spongebob Squarepants is now a huge franchise so there’s a lot to cover and as with most Nickelodeon properties, it’s often a fragmented streaming mess.
Of course, Nickelodeon does still have a good operating relationship with Netflix, releasing exclusive content onto the service including the likes of Glitch Techs and Pinky Malinky and big upcoming schedule too.
Are seasons 1-12 of Spongebob on Netflix?
Let’s begin with the main core TV series first.
In the United States, the Spongebob TV series is not available on Netflix. Instead, the show is found (partially) streaming on Amazon Prime with five seasons available and likewise, five seasons on the add-on channel Nick Hits.
It’s not impossible to say Netflix US won’t ever carry Spongebob though, Netflix does hold a growing library of Nick titles but with ViacomCBS revamping its CBS All Access in the near future, that could rule out Netflix getting Spongebob series.
Internationally, Netflix in multiple regions carries Spongebob Squarepants but only a selection of episodes as opposed to the full library.
According to Unogs, the series resides on 20 Netflix regions however the major caveat is that most regions only have up to three seasons available.
Most regions including Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, most of mainland Europe and Latin America have access to season five, six, and seven of Spongebob Squarepants. That equates to around 70 episodes in total which is far short of the 262 produced episodes since 1999.
Are the Spongebob movies on Netflix?
Yes, but with regional availability exclusions.
The 2004 movie, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, is only available on Netflix in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, and Spain.
The 2015 live-action cross-over, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is available on Netflix in 18 countries with those mostly being European, Asian, and Latin American territories.
The brand new 2020 movie, Sponge on the Run skipped its theatrical release for VOD, and Netflix is involved. Again, with caveats.
As Variety reported on July 15th, 2020 Netflix had picked up the international rights to Sponge on the Run internationally which excludes Netflix in the United States and Canada. Netflix will likely release the movie over the next couple of years.
What about the Netflix Original Spongebob Spinoffs?
As part of the Nickelodeon deal, Netflix is currently set to get at least three Spongebob Squarepants spinoffs.
Unfortunately, we do not have a whole lot of information on these with one pegged to be a musical series that focuses on Squidward.
The other two titles are set to be movies.
That’s the status of Spongebob Squarepants on Netflix in 2020. It’s not a particularly pretty picture and frankly, no region has a particularly strong Spongebob lineup.
