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ITV announces the launch of its childrens "channel" (October 2005)

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MA
Matrix
My apologises if this has perviously been mention, but I can't seem to find this news anywhere.

ITV's new free-to-air children's channel will launch next February, the broadcaster confirmed today.

The station, which is still to be named, will be available across all platforms from February 11, 2006 during the downtime of new male offering ITV4.

Programming will be drawn mostly from the ITV library, which includes originally-produced drama, entertainment, animation, factual and pre-school shows.

The channel is headed by Estelle Hughes, Editor of CiTV.

Source: Digital Spy

Again, I must aplogise for merly bringing it over from DS but I'd be interested in the forum's opinions on this new ITV Channel.

Joel.
JC
JCB
Quote:
My apologises if this has perviously been mention, but I can't seem to find this news anywhere.


So it never crossed your mind that news regarding a CITV channel could possibly be in the clearly labeled CITV thread just a few threads down? Rolling Eyes
BO
BOL I0X
Matrix posted:
The station, which is still to be named


It wouldn't take ME that long to think of the name "CITV Channel"
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
JCB posted:
Quote:
My apologises if this has perviously been mention, but I can't seem to find this news anywhere.


So it never crossed your mind that news regarding a CITV channel could possibly be in the clearly labeled CITV thread just a few threads down? Rolling Eyes

It probably is, however I for one would rather have the new ITV Kids channel discussed in a seperate thread than in one oversized generic thread.

The article on Media Guardian regarding the channel is...
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1584721,00.html

Quote:
ITV names children's channel launch date

Chris Tryhorn, City correspondent
Tuesday October 4, 2005

ITV will launch its new digital children's channel on February 11 next year, the broadcaster said today.

The free-to-air commercial channel, which has yet to be given a name, will be available on all digital platforms including Freeview.

The channel will become ITV's sixth, following the launch next month of young men's offering ITV4, and is designed to take on the BBC's two children's stations, CBeebies and CBBC.

Building a "family of channels" is a key part of ITV's multichannel strategy as it tries to limit the damage of falling ratings at the flagship ITV1 channel.

The new channel will feature ITV's existing programmes for children, which are broadcast on ITV1 in the weekday afternoon CiTV strand, and will look to expand commissioning opportunities and acquisitions in the coming months.

Estelle Hughes, the editor of CiTV, will expand her existing role to take editorial responsibility for the new digital channel.

Although there is a plethora of children's channels on cable and satellite, children watching Freeview have just two free-to-air channels to choose from: CBeebies, which is targeted at pre-school children, and CBBC, for older children.

Children whose parents subscribe to Top-Up TV can also watch Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

CBeebies and CBBC had a combined budget of £49.7m in the year ending in March, compared with ITV's annual children's budget of £35m.
MI
Michael
"The new channel will feature ITV's existing programmes for children, which are broadcast on ITV1 in the weekday afternoon CiTV strand, and will look to expand commissioning opportunities and acquisitions in the coming months"

Rolling Eyes So nothing new then? A "new" channel which just repeats stuff on ITV1? Over and over? Until they get a bit of money and buy some American / Japanese / French dubbed v badly crap?
RW
Robert Williams Founding member
Matrix posted:
The station, which is still to be named, will be available across all platforms from February 11, 2006 during the downtime of new male offering ITV4.

Four years to the day after CBeebies and the CBBC Channel launched...
KH
KevHal
And got help it. How popular is Cbbc and Cbeebies anyway?
Everyone seems to rave on about Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney. The BBC channels seems to be lost in this Niche. Wonder if this ITV kids channel will bethe same.
LU
Luke
isn't CBeebies the most popular childrens channel (for it's age group anyway)? I remember CBBC really struggling to gain viewers on launch, not sure if that's change though.
AN
Andrew Founding member
Alexia posted:
"The new channel will feature ITV's existing programmes for children, which are broadcast on ITV1 in the weekday afternoon CiTV strand, and will look to expand commissioning opportunities and acquisitions in the coming months"

One thing that is interesting is that at the moment almost all CITV programmes are repeated on Nickelodeon.
It will be interesting to see if this changes before the CITV Channel launches and Nickelodeon stop showing My Parents are Aliens etc
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
KevHal posted:
And got help it. How popular is Cbbc and Cbeebies anyway?
Everyone seems to rave on about Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney. The BBC channels seems to be lost in this Niche. Wonder if this ITV kids channel will bethe same.


Cbeebies is regarded as being quite successful, so far as its target audience goes anyway. CBBC is often seen as a waste of money.

As for Cartoon Network, this channel has never been any good since most of its programming was palmed off onto Boomerang, and is now left with no more than about half a dozen shows.

Nickelodeon likes to buy up most of the CiTV libary and, like CiTV, enjoys propping its schedule up with Aliens in the absence of anything else half decent. Its become a lot better now it isn't relying as much as it used to on its American counterpart, though it doesn't always pick the best offerings.

Disney has some good stuff on it. It's starting though to become a tad too dependent on Recess and Lizzie McGuire though and looks like overdosing on Suite Life as well. Although we are getting to see episodes of Suite Life that haven't aired in the US yet (since Disney Channel US, looking at the air dates of this show, don't seem to know whether they want to keep it or not).
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
It would be nice if the ITV Kids channel showed some of the older programmes, as there is some fairly good material in their archives.
PA
pad
Well there's plenty of brilliant programmes they could dig up from the past, so let's hope they do, instead of mind-numbingly tedious repeats.

Children's Ward springs to mind as one.

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