CBBC

World Screen Weekly, May 29, 2008

COUNTRY: U.K.

LAUNCH DATE: February 2002; relaunched in September 2007

DISTRIBUTION: 83 percent of all homes in the U.K.

DESCRIPTION: The BBC’s digital children’s channel is dedicated to providing mixed-genre programming for 6- to 12-year-olds, ranging from drama to animation, comedy, news and factual programming.

CONTROLLER, BBC CHILDREN’S: Richard Deverell

CONTROLLER, CBBC: Anne Gilchrist

HEAD OF SCHEDULING: Phillip Stagg

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: According to Anne Gilchrist, the controller of CBBC, the channel aims to offer content that is “different” and reflects the lives of kids. CBBC is focused on “showcasing new talent,” and strives to be “exciting, engaging, empowering and inspiring.”

Following extensive research and deliberation about “what CBBC genuinely has to offer and what sort of things we should be shouting about,” Gilchrist says that a rebranding of the channel was undertaken last year. CBBC unveiled its refreshed look, which included a distinctive new logo, in September 2007.

CBBC’s new look was designed to draw a wider audience of its core demographic: boys and girls aged 6 to 12 years old. “Feedback from kids told us they loved individual shows but were missing a lot of our ‘jewels’ because they didn’t know about them,” explains Gilchrist. She notes that the channel also wanted to make the channel’s content “more ‘infectious’—programs and websites [that] children would want to recommend to their friends. We wanted to make higher-quality content that children would love and appreciate us for.”

Gilchrist notes that the viewer response to the rebranding “has been overwhelmingly positive.”

CBBC airs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and features a mixture of genres, spanning drama, animation, comedy, news, factual programming and events coverage. Gilchrist notes that the network must meet certain quotas, ensuring that at least 70 percent of its schedule is comprised of original programming. Last year, the channel achieved 75 percent, with 25 percent of its programming acquired.

Peak viewing times on the schedule include the morning period before school and after 3:30 p.m. in the afternoons. CBBC also has a block on both BBC One and Two.

Some of the channel’s most successful shows include The Sarah Jane Adventures, a spin-off of the BBC sci-fi drama Doctor Who that launched as part of the CBBC’s refreshed look in September 2007. Other shows performing well on CBBC include the real-life adventure competition series Escape From Scorpion Island; the factual entertainment series Beat the Boss, which pits three children against three adults in a challenge to design a new product for the kids’ market; and The Slammer, a series set in a jail that is part sitcom and part variety show. Other strong performers include the long-running kids’ magazine-style program Blue Peter and game shows like Trapped and Raven. On the animation front, popular shows in CBBC’s grid include Pedro and Frankensheep and Shaun the Sheep.

WHAT’S NEW: Upcoming original new shows on CBBC’s lineup include the fall premieres of Dani’s House, a sitcom starring Dani Harmer from the BBC kids’ show Tracy Beaker, and the new game show Hot Rods. Rolling out in winter 2009 is the drama Half Moon Investigations, which is based on Eoin Colfer’s books of the same name, and is centered on crime, corruption and general wrongdoing in the school playground.CBBC has also commissioned the BBC’s Natural History Unit to produce Steve’s Deadly 60, a new wildlife series that sees presenter Steve Backshall travel to six continents to uncover some of the world’s most dangerous creatures. The series is slated for a premiere in spring 2009.

WEBSITE: www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/

—By Irene Lew