BBC slowly giving up on CBBC

You'd think so, but as the following confirms, CBBC's priority is getting people to watch the CBBC Channel rather than give long-running series the prestige they deserve. Why else are BBC1 viewers having to endure Raven stripped in the same slot every day? ITV tried that, it didn't work!

A few weeks ago I received the following response from Richard Deverell:

Dear Simon

You are right - Grange Hill is being shown on CBBC rather than BBC1. This is part of our general approach to buiilding CBBC - it's important that the channel has some exclusive content. We also felt that MI High should be the priority for BBC1 this season.

I'm afraid we do not yet have plans for showing Grange Hill on BBC1 though we are looking at options. I do not wish to deprive those in terrestrial only homes of the chance to enjoy Grange Hill. However, about 85% of CBBC aged children now have access to the CBBC channel.

Thank you for your interest in this programme.

Yours Sincerely,

Richard Deverell.

I can't believe that Grange Hill is relegated to the CBBC channel and yet they seem to be constantly showing repeats and / or more and more imported animation on CBBC One.

I wonder if they'll still be celebrating the programme's 30th birthday as they had planned to do next year. Mind you, they've just celebrated Saturday morning television and look what's happened to that.

Did anyone watch Shaun the Sheep earlier? I shouldn't have, but it was just class.

What a brilliant idea for a spinoff.

I missed it, but I noticed a sort of dancing sheep animation telling me what programme was next when I was flicking channels.

Shaun the Sheep is being advertised well online....

Even on the citv website top banner if you have a look !

This really is the silliest title for a thread i've possibly ever seen. The BBC given up on CBBC? Rubbish.

It's evolving and changing - as it need to do. And that of course means that things you might like and have grown up with are getting less prominance, eg Grange Hill. But CBBC is now targeting 6-12 year olds exclusively, so you've got to ask whether a drama set in a secondary school is really relevant?

CBBC is now going for the 'fewer, bigger,better' approach. In other words quality, more expensive shows like MI High, The Sorceror's Apprentice, The Sarah Jane Adventures The Roman Mysteries etc. And CBBC will have a brand new look in the autumn including a 'second life' type thing, provisionally called 'Adventure Rock'.

CBeebies also has a brand new look on the 19th March, which will aim to serve 4-6 year olds better and will include three brand new shows - In the Night Garden, Tommy Zoom and Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies.

Thank you Mr CBBC Head of Marketing.

Because of course he has a differing opinion to your own.

And one that sounds convincingly as though it could have been trotted right out of TVC.

As for the argument that something like Grange Hill is less relevant these days, that's only because of the short-sighted decision to more narrowly target CBBC's age range BEFORE a strand for older CBBC viewers was put in place.

Until that happens, CBBC has a duty to the 12-16s.

In the way that your opinions usually sound convincingly harvested from the 1970s. Do you mean to say that any opinion that does come out of TVC is automatically wrong?



I would also play Devil's advocate and suggest that children (i.e. those under the age of 18, and within the demographics you mention) would be the best selection of people to ask, most of whom have an increasingly wide choice to make between children's channels, rather than relying on the strand of three hours or so that you and I were made to put up with all those years back. I hate the term "focus groups" as much as the next main, but I am pretty damn sure the decisions by the powers that be are fairly educated ones, especially when compared to your fairly basic overview that appears to be laced with nostalgia and perhaps even obsession, rather than informed and supported opinion.

I find that extremely unfair.

Yes, 85% is the larger majority, but still, it is not an extortionate enough percentage to strip down terrestrial output.

This is happening more and more often now, with CBBC Channel showing "first chance" views of new series. MI High ran on CBBC Channel before its grand debut on analogue - along with a majority of other programmes. The past few series of Grange Hill have run first on digital first, if I'm correct.

It's justified for Channel 4 to air Hollyoaks in advance on E4 after the analogue episode, and the same for Five to do so with Home and Away on Five Life... but the Beeb is a state broadcaster and some less-financially secure are striving to pay TV License fees... those who break an arm and a leg just to pay their License will find this a massive letdown.

If the percentage of those with digital was around 95% and this was towards the end of next year instead of now, I'd understand. But frankly, this is unjustified.

Connor

Only this one and the last.