ITV restructuring CITV - Boss faces the axe

Here is the problem, how much is ITV PSB worth? ITV at last count believed it was £40million which covers local news, some Current affairs, and a few other shows which for better words really do seem to tick some boxes like some guy going around the UK on a tag boat.

Next part, Can ITV see any point in spending more money? Not for ages 2-6 that covered by BBC and Ch5, ( milkshakes does very well for its self) What about the next level? 6-12? There is a whole market, but there is a lack of UK cartoons, which doesn't help but surly there could make a few? Real problem is Drama, and 12 -16 which seems to be lagging.

Is there any spare money? Does ITV get a cut of any new shows? Look at Thurderbirds or Horrid Henry or a new series of MR bean?

If I was ITV would do something different, I would bring back Dramarama, and do a lot of 20 flims at 25min long, There could get repeats on ITV main channel on Sunday evening.

There should be some obligation amongst the regulators though to ensure that the BBC isn't alone in having to fund this programming and that commercial operators are actually funding content too. It should be about quality over quantity but it's not unreasonable to have a minimal quota of even just an hour a week of original UK content for any childrens channel, or a threshold for a percentage of revenue to be spent on original British content.


Childens TV used to be very lucrative with the marketing possiblities associated plus international sales, but I guess as the problem here is far from unique to the UK the international market isn't there in the way it once was to make childrens TV production that attractive financially.


Also as discussed previously recent OFCOM rule changes regarding advertising in 30 minute shows have done the genre no favours too. Most have just got around them by making half hour shows 31 minutes long, but what OFCOM seem to neglect is that the chlidrens TV market is very different now to what it was when such rules were previously in place 10-15 years ago.

Things have changed dramatically, in the old days you had the various networks (in the case of the UK this was CBBC, CITV (collectively), TCC, Nickelodeon and probably at least one more) each producing their own unique content.

Now it seems to be cheaper for the likes of the UK versions of Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network to build their schedules using almost exclusive content from their sister American channels. Nick UK did dabble for a short while with their own creations, one of which continues to air today albeit at some unGodly hour in the morning, and Cartoon Network did too.

There was an article in the news I read that because of the proliferation of American programming on children's TV in this country a lot of children believe our emergency number is 911. Wiki says that dialling that from a mobile will redirect it to 999 but that is not the case on a landline.



It's not the shows that are 31 minutes long, it's the EPG slots. The shows are still 22/23/24/25 minutes long, their surroundings are just padded out to the nth degree. What Ofcom should have done with that rule is base that requirement on the length of the actual material/programme (as it was many years ago), not the EPG slot it is scheduled in, which seems to be the actual criteria.

Drama does lack on all children's channels, except for CBBC. They air 4 O'Clock Club, The Dumping Ground, Eve, Hetty Feather, Wolfblood and in 2017: The Worst Witch.

Drama is one of those things that the BBC does well, especially in the children's department. It's one of the genres the commercial side tends to have issues with, see almost any Nickelodeon movie, Disney Channel Original Movie or similar. CITV did have some success with Woof! and Bernard's Watch, though the latter was a very loose definition of "drama" (especially in its revived version) and their version of Worst Witch but that may be about it.

Not drama but is worth noting ITV seem to have stuck with Thunderbirds are Go on Saturday afternoons this series, though it is somewhat lost in the schedules on it's own.

The CITV Channel has always been an anomaly, it took about five years to get off the ground. In that period the BBC had two kids channel up and running but ITV kids output had just the main terrestrial channel to contend with. By the time the CITV Channel launched, ITV stopped the significant spending in kids shows.

The BBC still serves original kids programming well with CBBC and CBeebies, but in case with the former, kids prefer to watch pay kids channel which all Sky rely on on American imports.

If I was to revive original kids programming in Britain, when I am rich I'll launch two kids channels, one for toddlers and a other for older children (including teenagers), I wouldn't fill the channel with the repeats and imports. An idea channel for older children would have in vision continuity links that could turn a channel into a Live & Kicking type show but with significant shows.

How much drama is there on CBBC these days? How long is that list in terms of number of episodes or slots per week?

Typically 13 episodes a series for most of them, Dumping Ground is two series of 13, three of ten episodes, Eve is 3x13, Hetty Fether 2 series of ten episodes each, Wolfblood is 52 episodes across four series. 4 o'Clock is five series of 13 episodes each.

Worst Witch will be 12 episodes in length when it debuts next year.

Dumping Ground can be technically extended by its spin-off sources, Tracy Beaker Returns (36 episodes in three series) and the entire Tracy Beaker original series (120 episodes, five series).

There was also World's End last year, which was quite odd as it had 36 episodes, but a running time of 15 mins.

The Sparticle Mystery which ended last year had 3 series of 13 episodes.


I have said this before, but that is definitely not the case. CBBC and CBeebies get higher ratings every week than Nick, CN and Disney.

I think the problem certainly for us older folk looking in is with the channels airing throughout the day it isn't quite so obvious where the flagship slots are - and content has to be spread a lot thinner.

CITV did for a period (around the time it launched Fort Boyard) push the 5pm slot, and it does seem to be the only slot on weekdays which isn't stripped (while for CBBC it seems to be the 4.30-5.30pm hour). The problem of course with a stripped schedule is if it's the same every day and you're not a fan of that show you're likely to go elsewhere and chances are you might not be back for the stuff you do like.

Both services really do miss the Saturday morning outlet too in order to promote their best shows and their own stars, whether it's on the channel or on their terrestrial parent.

Indeed the trouble with childrens channels, as with many digital genre based channels, is they rarely break from the norm in what they're offering - and actually it's when they do something different to the rest of the day or the rest of the week that the audience would likely sit up and notice. I guess children's TV has just become rather safe and predictable when it one time it was actually a place where producers could be innovative and occassionally risky.

A look on BARB for the last 12 months reveals that Disney Jr (inc +1) gets a bigger audience share than CBBC every month, despite not being on Freeview.