CITV to Close, ITVX Gets Supercharged

ITV is launching a new dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, while the CITV linear channel is set to close in early fall.

Launching in July 2023 and rolling out across the summer holiday period, ITVX Kids sees ITV taking its approach to 6-to-12s content, streaming-only, from early fall 2023.

The Kids ITVX homepage, accessed within a child-safe ITVX Kids profile, will bring together over 100 titles, with over 1,000 hours of programming, nearly double the current offer, with curated rails and collections.

Brand-new programs will be released monthly on the service from July 2023. The range of new shows will complement existing hits, including Lloyd of the Flies, Lily’s Driftwood Bay, Claude, Mumfie, Mystery Lane and The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, which will also be available on ITVX Kids. ITVX Kids will also have some much-loved British brands, including the animated series of Mr Bean and for younger preschool children, Teletubbies Let’s Go, Sooty and Bob the Builder. Commissions that ITV was able to greenlight thanks to funding from the BFI Young Audiences Content Fund, which ran until 2022, will also appear on ITVX Kids.

The ambition is for 100 percent of content to be subtitled on ITVX Kids, with around 20 percent of the content on ITVX Kids audio described. The offering will also include British Sign Language original programming such as Mission Employable and Daremaster.

With this new streaming approach, the CITV broadcast channel will close in early fall once the new streaming destination for kids has been rolled out across platforms and devices. ITV will maintain the LittleBe preschool segment on ITVBe and will offer some children’s content in the early mornings on ITV2 from September with cross-promotion to ITVX.

Craig Morris, managing editor of ITVX, said: “We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognizable brands and existing favorites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing. The wealth of content will be available to stream for free, with the option for parents to choose ad-free viewing through a subscription to ITVX Premium.”