Kids TV

CITV makes way for ITVX Kids

ITVX Kids will launch over the 2023 summer school holidays and promises more kids content than ever before, with a range of titles wide enough to appeal to both school age and pre-school age children.

The closure of CITV, which currently broadcasts daily from 6am-9pm, appears to be part of a growing industry trend of cutting linear kids' programming. In May 2022, the BBC announced its plans to cut CBBC’s linear channel.

How children's TV came out of the pandemic stronger

The resilience and ingenuity of broadcasters and producers as they adapted their children’s content to lockdown was emphasised at a joint RTS London and Children’s Media Foundation (CMF) event, “Kids, Covid and content”, in October.

Louise Bucknole, VP of programming for kids at ViacomCBS Networks International UK & Ireland, recalled how Covid-19 had forced producers to make Channel 5’s pre-school service Milkshake! virtually.

Are The Kids Alright?

Children are the canar­ies in the mine, picking things up first,” obser­ved Greg Childs, direc­tor of the Children’s Media Foundation, as he introduced an RTS debate on how children’s TV and content movers and shakers are adapting to the fact that young people have migrated online.

An optimistic tone was established from the start by Alice Webb, the out­ going head of BBC Children’s and Education, who asserted: “Yes, the kids are absolutely fine. They have more choice than they ever had. They are exercising choice and are after things that interest them.