16/05/2012 12:43 | By Emma Roberts, Entertainment Reporter, MSN Entertainment

BBC drops children’s television shows from BBC One and BBC Two

In a shake-up designed to save the BBC money, the corporation has announced that they will be stopping children’s TV on its main two channels, broadcasting them on their digital channels instead.


Blue Peter is just one of the children's television shows which will be moving to a digital channel. (© BBC)

Blue Peter is just one of the children's television shows which will be moving to a digital channel.



The BBC have announced controversial new plans to their broadcasting schedule, which include moving all children's television shows to their digital channels, CBBC and CBeebies.

The shows transfering from the main two channels, BBC1 and BBC2, include the corporation's flagship children's show Blue Peter, which is set to move to the digital CBBC channel.

The changes come as part of the BBC's plan to cut hundreds of millions of pounds from its budget by 2017 and the broadcast giants are also planning to revamp its output for the post-analogue broadcasting era.

Blue Peter, which has been shown by the BBC since 1958, is currently presented by Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood, and airs on BBC1 on Friday afternoons, as well as on the digital channel CBBC.

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Is the BBC wrong to move all their children's TV shows to their digital channels?

Thanks for being one of the first people to vote. Results will be available soon. Check for results

  1.  
    51 %
    Yes - they are turning their backs on children's TV
    1,623 votes
  2.  
    7 %
    No - not many people watch their children's shows any more
    235 votes
  3.  
    42 %
    It doesn't matter - everyone can still watch the children's shows on the digital channels
    1,363 votes

Total Responses: 3,221
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Yet, the show's popularity has been slowly declining and last Friday the show only attracted 300,000 viewers and a 3% audience share.

The BBC Trust has given the green light to director general Mark Thompson's Delivering Quality First proposals, including the children's programming change over. The DQF cuts will also see fewer entertainment shows, more repeats and reduced programming budgets for BBC3 and BBC4.

The BBC Trust said that viewing of children's programming on BBC1 and BBC2 "is low and has fallen significantly over recent years".

The BBC trust also said that the move of children's TV shows to the digital will affect a "very low" number of children viewers, as following the switchover, CBBC and CBeebies will be available to all UK households.

The BBC Trust revealed that the level of investment in children's programming would be maintained, meaning that the proportion of the licence fee spent on children's output will actually increase - they said:

"Children's output remains a cornerstone of the BBC's public service offering and one of the BBC's foremost editorial priorities".

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