BBC daytime revamp

Though T4 really is a shadow of it's former self now and just a mixture of E4 and 4Music repeats with very little original content. Thanks to Sunday Brunch the Sunday edition has been shunted to E4, and even in doing that they haven't given famous hangover cure the Hollyoaks omnibus a decent slot - it's not on at 8.15am (even earlier than when on C4) - plus they've ditched the Saturday afternoon omnibus too.

Switch took too long to find it's identity really but it was getting there just before it was axed and probably would have been better in a 7-9pm slot one night on BBC3 to get the audience it was aimed at. Since the axing of Switch though do we know if CBBC have revised their policy of childhood ending at 12 years old?

All I remember about Switch was

* Last series of Malcolm in the middle
* Kyle XY
* BBC Made programme

and all this on a Saturday Midday - 2pm, I agree it should have been on bbc3 or better still at 5-7pm on BBC two. even back in the good old day there had much better mix, Buffy, fresh prince, Simpson, robot wars, sliders ( England only) Thuderbirds. my wife and three kids

Its like the BBC has just given up on 12 - 22 age range. If there didn't there might actually kill two birds with one stone

* fill a gap in market and scheduleds

There was also a shift on CBBC. It used to cater also for kids up to the age of around 14/15 I think. They used to have some very good dramas for that age bracket, The Ghost Hunter being one that sticks in my mind. CBBC now I think only caters for up to 12 year olds

The Ghost Hunter about 12 years old

What was wrong with Switch?....



I think I'm right in saying CBBC has re-inherited the 12+ bracket. There was a bizarre, jarringly scheduled drama I flicked onto around Christmas last year ( Postcode ?) plonked at 4.30ish on CBBC One, which was clearly skewed towards a young BBC3-type audience.

I still think an unbranded BBC2/3 slot is the way to go for this demographic, focus on the content, not on the pandering.

BBC trust would never do that, there to stupid,

Hang on, let me see what the Social Media Guidelines say I'm supposed to say...
"views expressed by me are my own personal opinion, and do not necessarily represent Atos' vision".
From what I've heard, the plan is to use the fifth Freeview slot for an HD interactive slot during the Olympics, and then afterwards, there's certainly a desire to use it for BBC Two HD, alongside BBC HD. Nobody (technical) mentioned anything to me about a bidding process, but perhaps there are some regulatory hoops which need jumped through first.

That was the point, it was aimed at an older demographic than the stuff they air now. Grange Hill and Byker Grove are obvious examples - in fact, it's the reason both were axed.

Lets be honest Grange hilll and Byker grove were a pale shadow of there former-self, it was like BBC just given up.

It was confirmed in the DQF report this week that BBC HD will close and be replaced by BBC 2 HD.

Grange Hill was never the same after the Chicken Man theme was dropped, but I think it's main problem was it generated bucket-loads of complaints for the issues that it went after, and came too close to home for some people. Didn't Mary Whitehouse have a pop at Grange Hill at some point, I seem to remember?

As for Byker, wasn't it more the case that the production company behind it (Zenith) went under?

When I was young that theme on the classic Sunday episodes just seemed ridiculous, compared to the theme I'd been used to.

On the subject of BBC Switch, it sounded like a stupid name, if they'd just called it Switch and placed the BBC logo underneath it would have been a stronger brand.