BBC Bitesize Gets £6 Million Investment

BBC Children’s and Education is making a £6 million ($7.4 million) investment into its online education platform, BBC Bitesize.

This year, the BBC marks 100 years since its first education broadcast. It also marks 25 years of the learning brand BBC Bitesize, used by nearly half of all secondary school students in the U.K. to help them navigate the school curriculum, including homework, revision and careers advice.

To celebrate 100 years of BBC Education, BBC Teach will broadcast a special Live Lesson on CBBC and BBC iPlayer on April 22. The interactive commemorative lesson will be broadcast to children in schools nationwide, and students will be challenged to produce their own radio report for CBBC’s Hacker T Dog’s radio show, developing skills such as interviewing techniques, scriptwriting and presentation.

The investment will enhance content discovery, recommendation systems and self-curation features, making BBC Bitesize content more personalized, relevant and easier to find.

Patricia Hidalgo, BBC’s director of Children’s and Education, said: “Our Reithian values to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ are the driving force behind the content we provide young people and their families. To ‘educate’ is at the heart of the BBC’s purpose for the last 100 years and we are so proud of the innovation we have pioneered as we have helped the nation to learn.

“We’re continuing this rich heritage as we evolve BBC Bitesize for the next generation of young learners investing in technology to deliver personalized content supported by the educational rigor and trust we have earned over this centenary.”