CBBC and CBeebies content moving from BBC ONE and TWO
The BBC Trust yesterday announced its approval for the proposal to close the children's "blocks" on BBC ONE and TWO at digital switchover, saving around £2.6m in "repeat costs" of the programming on the mainstream channels, and freeing up the airtime for repeats of daytime and primetime programming.
The CMC has publicly declared its understanding for the logic of the BBC's position - that the great majority of children watch CBBC and CBeebies output on the channels rather than on the time-limited blocks. We also welcome the Trust's assurances on budget:
"Children‟s output remains a cornerstone of the BBC‟s public service offering and one of the BBC‟s foremost editorial priorities. In line with this, we support the Executive‟s plans to maintain the underlying levels of investment in original content production for CBeebies and CBBC. By safeguarding the additional investment into such content over recent years, this means that the proportion of the licence fee spent on children‟s output (excluding productivity savings) will be higher than currently."
However we have some concerns about the message this sends out, despite assurances that the children's channels "are seen as core to the BBC‟s public service remit." Relegating the children's services to niche channels not only tells children they are not important enough to warrant inclusion on the BBC's flagship channels, it also potentially tells adults that their programmes are less important to the BBC.
Next steps for public service broadcasting and children’s media policy
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